After working side by side for four days--our PFB team, Tim and Josh from Oregon, Haitian workers hired by Conscience International,Vaddy the homeowner, local friends and family and neighborhood children--we have become a "well oiled machine" able to accomplish much!
We celebrated together this morning as we put the last bucket in place to fill all four walls. We used approximately 1000 buckets of rubble to fill the walls.The two doors and two windows were cut out and the walls were now ready to apply the concrete!
As we finished putting the rubble in place, The celebration didn't last long as we took to transporting a mountain of sand for the cement by bucket and wheelbarrow from the street to the job site. As we wound through the maze of tents and makeshift houses I was struck by seeing a teenage girl sitting on a rock working diligently on her studies using a sheet of old metal as a chalkboard. She kept her concentration even as we paraded back and forth. Next to her two young men were doing the finish work on a pristine white coffin that if you saw it you would never imagine that it was it was crafted in such an environment as this. It's amazing that school and work and all the daily life activities are accomplished without any of the things we think are so necessary.
It was such a great feeling to stand with Vaddy as the cement was being applied to the walls and to realize how close we are to completing the home for His family!
After working five days straight since we arrived and getting the project to the place where the masons could continue an afternoon of cement work without us--we headed to the beach for an afternoon of refreshment. It was a ride through banana and mango fields on a dusty rough dirt road but well worth it. We arrived at "our beach" with palm trees and beautiful Caribean aquamarine colored, warm water. It was so refreshing for some to lie on the shore and nap while others took to the water. We snorkeled around a coral reef right off the shore seeing "Dory" from Nemo, a lionfish, and some kind of 2 ft. long sea catipillar crawling, numerous brightly colored tropical fish and beautiful coral. We all (except Carol and Emily) enjoyed Conk fresh from the shell. The whole afternoon was quite a treat and we all went to bed early and slept very well that night.
We are refreshed and ready to head back to our neighborhood tomorrow morning to work with our beloved Haitian friends. We feel so blessed to be here!!!!
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