We arrived Tuesday afternoon with no problems and no delays (and ALL our luggage). We had a wonderful welcome, a great visit with the kids at Hope House Orphanage and a wonderful dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread (a family favorite). We managed to find our mattresses in the warehouse and fell into bed.
The initial reaction from the kids was awe and wonder. "It's just so different" was a common phrase. Riley felt it necessary to point out that it was really dangerous for people to ride on the roof of the buses and why was that goat sitting in the middle of the road eating garbage.
It's really hot but the showers are cold, very refreshing at the end of the day. We are all picking up Haitian Creole very quickly (well...most of us anyways). We have been busy setting up beds, putting together dressers and bookshelves and mounting ceiling fans. Our kitchen is still under construction so we are keeping the furniture wrapped up and most of the family room is still in boxes.
I (Sandy) had my first grocery shopping experience on Thursday. Having little experience working with Goudes (one of 3 currencies used here) made for an exciting time. I did alright coming within about 40 Goudes of the money I had with me (US$1). Many things are alot more expensive here as they are shipped in from the US.
Grant is in Port au Prince right now buying 2 mattresses to replace the ones that got wet on the container and were full of mildew. They were taken home by the man doing the concrete work on our kitchen. I guess a moldy mattress is better than no mattress.
Our power inverter is not working well so our power fluctuates during the day. Makes for hot working conditions when you can't run the fans. The mission runs a generator during the night and the invertor is supposed to store power during that time to use during the day. Something is not working right with ours so sometimes we have power, sometimes we don't.
The kids have all enjoyed the various geckos that run along the ceiling at night. Riley has even starting naming them. They are our friends as they keep the spider population down. Speaking of spiders, Michelle saved Madison from a rather large tarantula last night. While Maddy was asleep, Michelle noticed the creature walking towards her on the mattress (which was still on the floor because not all the beds are built). Michelle proceeded to use her laptop to "sweep" the spider off the mattress which only succeeded in startling him and causing him to "charge" back toward her. Daddy to the rescue! He trapped the creature in a trash basket and removed it from our house. Our hero!
We'll write more soon and post some photos of our house when it is set up. Thank you all for your kind words and prayers. God has truly been with us through this journey and we continue to feel blessed to be here.
We arrived Tuesday afternoon with no problems and no delays (and ALL our luggage). We had a wonderful welcome, a great visit with the kids at Hope House Orphanage and a wonderful dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread (a family favorite). We managed to find our mattresses in the warehouse and fell into bed.
The initial reaction from the kids was awe and wonder. "It's just so different" was a common phrase. Riley felt it necessary to point out that it was really dangerous for people to ride on the roof of the buses and why was that goat sitting in the middle of the road eating garbage.
It's really hot but the showers are cold, very refreshing at the end of the day. We are all picking up Haitian Creole very quickly (well...most of us anyways). We have been busy setting up beds, putting together dressers and bookshelves and mounting ceiling fans. Our kitchen is still under construction so we are keeping the furniture wrapped up and most of the family room is still in boxes.
I (Sandy) had my first grocery shopping experience on Thursday. Having little experience working with Goudes (one of 3 currencies used here) made for an exciting time. I did alright coming within about 40 Goudes of the money I had with me (US$1). Many things are alot more expensive here as they are shipped in from the US.
Grant is in Port au Prince right now buying 2 mattresses to replace the ones that got wet on the container and were full of mildew. They were taken home by the man doing the concrete work on our kitchen. I guess a moldy mattress is better than no mattress.
Our power inverter is not working well so our power fluctuates during the day. Makes for hot working conditions when you can't run the fans. The mission runs a generator during the night and the invertor is supposed to store power during that time to use during the day. Something is not working right with ours so sometimes we have power, sometimes we don't.
The kids have all enjoyed the various geckos that run along the ceiling at night. Riley has even starting naming them. They are our friends as they keep the spider population down. Speaking of spiders, Michelle saved Madison from a rather large tarantula last night. While Maddy was asleep, Michelle noticed the creature walking towards her on the mattress (which was still on the floor because not all the beds are built). Michelle proceeded to use her laptop to "sweep" the spider off the mattress which only succeeded in startling him and causing him to "charge" back toward her. Daddy to the rescue! He trapped the creature in a trash basket and removed it from our house. Our hero!
We'll write more soon and post some photos of our house when it is set up. Thank you all for your kind words and prayers. God has truly been with us through this journey and we continue to feel blessed to be here.
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Thanks for always sharing! It is great to follow and know how to pray! The kitchen is coming along as they had not even begun when I was there a couple weeks ago. Enjoy the beauty of Haiti... it is truly there!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to meet you all in January! I was there for 10 weeks this summer, even stayed in your apartment for 6 weeks of that!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing more about your transition!