Further info on election mess

Troy has been needing to go to PAP for three days. He has been unable to go because each morning when he calls in to ask what things are like there; he is hearing that people are ticked off and blocking roads. It really is not violent at this point. They are mad; but as of today it has not gone much further than road blocks and threats of violence. Either way, Troy won't go to PAP until he gets the "all clear" from our friend Eddie (keep touching me man.)

As of this morning at about 11am Eastern time, rumors were swirling that Preval was in the Palace and an announcement would be coming. We have not heard that the announcement happened yet, but we wait anxiously along with 8 million Haitians. The newest (still unreported by the media????) rumor is that boxes of Preval ballots from poorer areas were taken and burned. Supposedly the UN did it. That sounds like ridiculous bunk to me. What parts are truth, what is fiction? Who knows?

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1617992

More Information - Cooking

They do not have a book called "Cooking in Haiti, for dummies who hate cooking." But they should.

So, a few of you asked for more information. The store in Port au Prince seems to have a lot of canned goods. Noodles and rice are easy to come by. Potatoes and Tomatoes and avacadoes & onions are also all easy to find in the open market. (Plantains too, but I have no idea what to do with them or what food group they are in.)

The meat is all pretty sad looking. I did not see any chicken that I would be willing to touch. I did see a decent selection of ground beef. The fish all had their heads attached still. Sorry, I know my limits, I cannot do that. The chicken thing ... maybe we need to research where to get it. At home I bought boneless skinless breasts, white meat only. I hesitate to admit, I have never cooked a whole chicken...go ahead, shake your head in disgust...the truth is not very pretty but is the truth none the less. We take vitamins. That is our way to justify crappy eating habits.

Here, the chicken all looks so yucky and unclean and bony and lacking bulk. I know, I know...I need to get over it.In our pantry there are lots and lots of cans of the following: sweet peas, green beans, golden corn, sliced peas and carrots mixed, dark red kidney beans, mixed veggies, whole potatoes, baby butter beans ... I have never heard of the baby butter bean but apparently they are the offspring of the grown up butter bean????????

I know how to make really decent meat loaf. There is one night. I can make spaghetti. That is two nights. I can have a Haitian lady come coook Haitian one night, that is three nights. One night Troy says we can grill burgers and hotdogs and chicken if we ever find any. That leaves me with nights five, six and possibly (but not usually) a seventh night. How do I know how much to cook for 20 people? If I mess up then some people will be sitting there staring at me with empty plates. Oh, the pressure!

I am working with a budget but I think it is a fair budget. I won't know until I try. The first team comes at the end of this month. Of the $300 mission trip fee I *think* I get to have $150 of it for groceries and water. The rest of the fee is used to cover the diesel that is required to generate the extra electricity and the trips into PAP to get and drop off the team.

I am not that concerned about breakfast or lunch because those meals will not vary too much. Cereal and eggs and toast, and sometimes pancakes, for breakfast. Sandwiches (lunch meat that we can buy in Port) and Haiti fruits and chips and such.

Keep the emails coming. Dumb it down for me. Pretend like you are instructing Isaac and that should put it about where I need it to be in order to follow the directions. ~Tara

Cooking Help needed

I have spent a considerable amount of time thinking over and debating the pros and cons of some of my new job duties here with Lifeline.

Loving and caring for sick, hungry and needy people is rewarding. That is the easy part of this "job." (Job ... is that what you call it? Opportunity seems more appropriate.)

Whatever it is, a job, an opportunitity ... either way, it is mainly a really cool thing to be able to do. Your job is just to be nice to people who need you to be nice to them. How can you screw that up? I guess you still could screw it up, but at least it is something that comes naturally for me.

Then, there is the part of our job that scares me. This is the part that does not come naturally.

Lifeline promotes mission teams from all over the U.S. to come on short term trips. The reasons to encourage folks to come down here are many. It might change their life. They might decide to sponsor a child in the feeding program, they might decide to keep coming back and pitching in on special projects, they might come to care deeply about this country and her people. They could go home and spread the word about Haiti and the needs here. Short term mission teams are a big part of getting work done and growing the base of supporters for the ministry. I get that, I believe it is important. I am anxious to meet new friends when visitors/teams come.

The odd thing is, the Lord did not give me the gift of cooking. He did not give me the gift of liking it either. Not even a little bit. Does He sit in Heaven laughing that I am ultimately responsible (once a month) to feed teams of 3 to 15+ people in addition to my family? Is it some sort of joke?

It seems cruel and unusual punishment to those sweet visitors who just came to help out.
"Oh, you thought you would get to eat something other than Cereal and Mac and Cheese during the 7 days you were here?" ----- "Sorry, someone must have misinformed you!"

The oven/stove are gas. That's cool, I have that at home...but the oven does not have a temperature setter thingee. (official terminology) You can set it anywhere along the spectrum of low to high but you cannot set it to 425 degrees. You just guess. The stove top has one side that blasts so much gas out at you it sounds like some sort of Tsunami coming through.

I can peel a mean banana, cut up an apple with the best of them. I bake an excellent frozen pizza, but that's where it ends. I am the chick who worked at BlackWoods restaurant simply so I could escape my home and have a decent meal once in a while. ;)
So, what does a horrible & unmotivated cook, who knows how to make three things, do when presented with this new "job" of cooking a different thing every night for seven nights?

Cry. Lay on the floor, kick and scream and cry. What else can I do? ;)

I need ideas. I need ideas with no more than four steps. Like Mac and Cheese - boil noodles, drain, add milk, butter & fake cheese packet. (That is technically five steps.) Things along those lines. I need things that are easy to do for large groups of people. I cannot do anything requiring fancy spices like cumin or basil or oregeno. I can realistically only handle two burners at one time, and even that is a stretch. HEEEEELP.

**Disclaimer: Most people who read our blog know us and know we are sarcastic, teasing, exaggerating people ----- so, if you don't know us this blog could be entirely offensive to you. Please know that we like to poke fun at ourselves, (and each other) it is our way of staying sane. Even if I am the world's worst cook I know that God put me here to teach me things ... who knows, maybe one of those is how to cook. I guess we will wait and see.

Bring on the guinea pigs.

We are almost done talking about this

Photo, of one of our victims. Troy is taking his task of removing all the rodents very seriously. This one might have been preggers, it is by far the largest one we have seen or killed. Cruel and heartless? Don't tell PETA.

Below, not very funny comments, by our friend Amie Sexton:

"That's not a rat -that's a bear cub! =) yikes. Found this for you...

West African Stewed Cane Rat-
Skin and eviscerate the rat and split it lengthwise. Fry until brown in a mixture of butter and peanut oil. Cover with water, add tomatoes or tomato purée, hot red peppers, and salt. Simmer the rat until tender and serve with rice." " mmmm...comfort food."

(We have some very demented friends.)

Let's stop talking about rats now. It really is time to move on.

The Hard Parts

How do you decide what to do with limited resources and unlimited need? That is the biggest struggle I've faced here so far. We have only so much time, money, and availablility to offer. I truly realize how small we are in God's magnificent plan, and how small my fears and worries are when faced with true famine and desolation. I have seen hundreds of people already who literally have nothing. Some of them, who have a hope and a future because of their saving knowledge of Christ, have more joy than most people I know at home.

One day, I was faced with the following decision:
a. Help a man who's wife and baby were in the hospital and needing life-saving medicine
b. Give money to a woman who walked from the mountains about two hours away to ask for
any help we could give (she is the one we mentioned before with two surviving children out of
eleven - her clothes were threadbare, sandals were almost nonexistent, and when I put my
arm around her shoulders to pray with her I could feel every bone)
c. Buy baby formula for a woman taking care of her cousin's baby. Her cousin died during birth.

I'm sure there were more requests and needs that day, but those were the most pressing. There isn't enough money to do it all. What would you do?

One problem we face here is overcoming the years of attempting to solve the country's pains with handouts. As a culture, Haitians have become accustomed to having money thrown at problems. It even shows up here in this remote village when children see a white face and hold out their hands...not for a hug or handshake, but for the one thing many of them can say in English: "give me one dollar". It makes me very sad to have our goals here so misunderstood on a daily basis. Too many government organizations and missionary groups have put this country on welfare.

Then again, there are so many people in such need it is tempting to throw money at the huge problem to make it go away. But that has not worked in the 200 years of this nation's self-governance. It has only made things worse. It has taken away the independence and hope that comes from being self-sufficient. There is also a great deal of greed and dishonesty among the people here.

Please pray for us: For divine wisdom and clear discernment when it comes to who and how we help. For the love of Jesus to be prevalent in every contact we have with our new neighbors. For an understanding and peace about our role in God's work here in Haiti.

Jesus said: "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." John 16:33

-Troy

Sending Love from Haiti on Valentine's Day

The Bible says: "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

God showed us this love by sending His son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins. (And St. Valentine demonstrated this love when he died for his friends.)

This is the kind of love that we (as a family and individually) are interested in learning to better understand, and to mirror to others as well. That is our hope this year, to come to comprehend the way God loves us and to pass His amazing love along.

Smell the flowers and eat the chocolate hearts, we are all for that too! In addition to that though, we want to remember what it means to really love & be loved.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO YOU! We feel loved today and we are thankful for the love you have shown us. ~T&T, B,P,I,H,&N~

Language Barrier

Today I had planned on going to Port-Au-Prince to take care of paperwork, house supplies, propane cookstove replacement parts, and learn my way around a bit more. After some phone calls this morning to check out the current conditions, we heard about the unrest stirring up because of the election results. Everything is quiet as can be out here, but I guess the "natives are restless". I wonder what life in the US would be like if we closed schools and most businesses whenever there were people in disagreement with each other. That is what happens in Haiti. It's ridiculous, if you ask me. No one asked me though.

There is this guy, Eddie. He does some contract work for Lifeline and handles legal paperwork for the mission. He is very helpful, although he has been best described as a "racketeer". (If there's money involved, he's involved.) At any rate, his English is best described as kinda-sorta-ok. There are many words that he struggles to say and I struggle to understand. After discussing the roads and troubles in Port today, he wanted to say "Keep in touch with me, man."

but instead he said...

"Keep touching me, man."

I'd better speed up my Creole lessons, because that's not cool.

-Troy

Election Stuff

Proverbs 29:18 - Where there is no vision the people perish, But happy is he who keeps the law.

(Photo of the little guy in the feeding program from Friday.)
We were feeling totally optimistic about the election. It seemed that there would be a winner from the first round but as is the case here too often, things are changing and not looking as good as we once thought. Even being here it is hard to know what is true and what is inflated but we do know that they have not declared a winner yet. This article gives a little more information. In order to avoid a run-off the leading candidate needs 50% of the votes. Please pray for peace and resolution.

Haiti Support Group 13 February - In results that critics slammed as fraudulent, René Préval, a former president and champion of the poor who is the front-runner in key presidential elections here, appeared last night to have lost the majority he needs to avoid a runoff with his closest rival. Thousands of enraged, slum-dwelling Préval supporters took to the streets of this capital city to blow horns and bang drums in protest as they shouted, "Préval on the first round!" Two members of the provisional electoral council overseeing the count from Tuesday's vote said they believed the results were being manipulated."From the beginning, Jacques Bernard was not interested in a first-round victory," renegade council member Patrick Fequière told Haitian television, referring to the council's director general. Earlier yesterday, Fequière said he believed Préval had received more than 50 percent of the vote. Pierre Richard Duchemin, another electoral council member, told reporters he thought some other council members had "manipulated" the tally and called for an independent investigation.A few days ago Préval, 63, was leading with nearly two-thirds of ballots in early returns, raising expectations of a first-round victory. The voting had been hailed as a landmark step toward planting democracy in the hemisphere's poorest and most troubled nation. The electoral council abruptly postponed a news conference at a posh hotel to announce a final tally last night after protesters amassed outside. Rumors swirled that Bernard would say Préval had 49 percent of the vote, the same lead he'd shown with three-fourths of ballots counted yesterday morning.Speaking to reporters yesterday outside his remote mountain hometown Marmelade, Préval said of that result, "It's magouy," using a Haitian-Creole word for "dirty tricks." A scientific sampling of ballots by a Haitian observation group overseen by the National Endowment for Democracy, a U.S.-funded agency, had shown Préval winning outright in the first round with 54 percent, according to international election sources. With United Nations peacekeepers standing by, some protesters threatened violence unless there was an immediate recount. (Newsday)

Sunday

Not much to report today. We had a family day; had church together then drove 30 minutes (10 miles) up the coast to a private beach "resort", called Wahoo Bay. My friend found a review for Wahoo on the internet, the most amusing review was from someone who gave it 3 out of 5 stars but then mentioned that they did see a rat. All things being relative, I guess that person did not find rats to be reason enough to give a bad review. Twisted.

We swam and played and then came home. Lifeline's 4th grade teacher joined us and we enjoyed getting to know him better. It was cloudy on and off here today and looked like it would rain, but it never did. Britt is now painting her room and the rest of the tribe has gone to bed.

Jokes from last week that are overused & no longer amusing:
1.Who used all the hot water?
2.Can we order pizza tonight?

CONGRATULATIONS to our friends, Erik & Nicole Vik on the birth of Gabriel Andrew Vik! We wish we were there to squeeze all 3 of you!

(Photo of a little girl in uniform, from Lifeline school.)

Saturday

(Tonight's Sunset from our patio.) (Ocean 3 miles out.)

We had such a great day today. We all agree that we belong here. If I can say that less than 24 hours after a rat was in my bedroom, God is at work. It is so cool to be available to help here and we are all thrilled with the new excitement each day brings.

The trip to PAP was so fun but the afternoon was great too. Britt fixed up the bandage on the little guy with the cut up eye from the other day. Band-aids and tylenol are nothing to us; but if you don't have anything like that you quickly learn how important those luxuries can be. The mom of the little boy is so clearly concerned for him. Britt did a great job again. Can you imagine having your kid get seriously cut and having no way to get him two hours to a hospital and having no way to even clean up and dress the cut?

The girls played football (catch really) with a few kids and worked on their Creole. They are trying so hard to learn and it is cute to watch them communicate with the Haitian kids their age.

The little kids all have a ride-on toy now so things are good for them too. Bon Dieu Bon!

(The newest highly overpriced bike, on the right.)

Trip to PAP

We ran (using the word loosely ... it takes two hours to go 30 miles) into Port au Prince today. We had a few things we hoped to accomlish. Britt wanted paint for her room. Isaac wanted a bike because the little one we sent down is being fought over constantly. We needed groceries, especially butter and meat. (rat traps too) You cannot get good meat many places, PAP is one of the few spots to find something that comes close to what you find at home. We found everything we were looking for! The bike was a total rip-off but we are not exactly in a place where competition drives fair prices. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

At the "Eko Depot" we got paint. The UN troops were in there shopping and wanted photos of Noah. We are not sure why but since they asked us we asked them. These are Jordanian soldiers.

The Eko Depot is right near the orphanage (no longer an orphanage) that Ike and Hope are from. So we drove by and took this photo of them outside of the building. What an odd feeling to be there.

On the way home Paige and Isaac sat in the back of the truck (their request, don't worry we have a lock on the cage) --- Ike fell asleep. Noah loves the truck. He can see everything out of the windows. He loves to wave at people and shout Bon Swa and Bon Jou ---- Haitian people in general seem to think he is pretty interesting. He gets the most smiles out of people.

These last photos are of the little guy from yesterday that comes to eat in the program each day.
We are unloading our goods and putting some tired kids down for nap. We will also put out the 400 varieties of rat traps that we bought today.

Can someone please book a flight and bring us a cat?

It happened. We made it through it and I am now calm enough to share.

Last night we were sitting in our family room about 9pm. We were listening to a James Mc Donald (Walk in the Word) sermon that we downloaded. I was laying on the couch and I sat up straight and said "I just saw a mouse."

Of course I got no support from my beloved family. As much as I described what I had seen and that I thought I saw it run into my bedroom, they mocked me and laughed. They all said I was nuts.

WRONG!

I did my best to go along with them and pretend that I had not seen one. The denial method is my method of choice when it comes to coping with rodents. I was using the bathroom before bed and Troy said "Taaaara?" I said "what?" He said "You are right, I see it under your treadmill."

Pandamonium set in.

No, not really. I just ran out of the room. By the time Troy found a broom it had moved. We set traps all over the bedroom and shoved towels under the door crack to trap it in the room and went to bed on the couches in the living room.

4:30 am I hear slap, blap, slap, slap, whap. "Trrrrroooooyyyyyy, it is in a trap" Troy is lying when he says that he is not afraid of mice. He was not excited to go in there. He paced around for five minutes first.

When he did go in he discovered that it was either a mouse with a serious steroid habit or a rat, the thing was huge. He beat it with a piece of wood until it died and put it in a garbage bag. We were back to sleep by 5am.

If anyone from TDS telecom is reading this, I have one questions: Is Troy's job still available? Let me know.

~Tara

PS- For the record, I never cried.
PPS-We need a cat but they don't exist here. Please ship one to us asap.

Feeding Program Photos

The Lifeline Ministry began as a feeding program only.

The ministry began when our founder visited Haiti and knew he had to do something to help. The program began when he hired a Haitian lady to meet 12 kids each day and feed them lunch under a tree.

It has since grown into a program that feeds an average of 1,000 children five days a week. All of the food is prepared here on site. Some of it is eaten here and some of it is taken (after it is cooked) to satellite locations and schools. (It is transported in five gallon buckets by a man named "No-no" who is our delivery guy.)

The program is set up to feed the children in our school and surrounding schools first. These children have sponsors that provide their school and meal for $20 per month. After all of the school children have been fed then other local children who are not in school can come eat too. (The ones who are not in school are either not enrolled because their parent does not want them to be OR they do not have a sponsor yet.)

These photos are all of kids that come to eat after the school kids are done. In Haiti school kids must wear uniforms so you can easily tell which kids are school kids and which kids are not enrolled. For most children in this village the meal they eat here is their only meal of the day.

Today after lunch when the village kids came in I had the chance to hug and love on a little guy who looks so sad & withdrawn. It is the third time I have seen him and today he had a shirt (only a shirt) on for the first time. His belly is big and distended. We'll post those photos later. We are off to the prayer rock for some family time. Have a wonderful weekend! We love you all and appreciate your prayers, thoughts and support. God gave us awesome friends.

Corrections

It is our intention to always be accurate and truthful in our reporting. Journalistic integrity is of high importance to all writers on staff here in LaDigue. Having said that, I am embarassed to say that we have come across two mistakes in previous posts.
Corrections are as follows:
1-There were 32 candidates that ran for president of this wacky country, not 52.
2-The lady who came for help yesterday actually had 11 kids, not 9.
These mistakes occured because Tara did not know Troy was kidding when he said 52 and because Tara did not listen very well to Troy when he told her about the lady with 11 kids.

The Man Post (by Troy)

Ok, here is some manly info for you manly-type men with man-related questions regarding life here on the mission. (Specifically Mr. Scott Meadows and Sir Declan Slater):

One oft-asked question is about the generator and inverter system that gives us electricity. The generator is manufactured by Lister Petter out of England. We run it about three and a half hours first-thing in the morning each day, and sometimes for an hour or two in the evening depending on our usage that day. While it is running, it provides AC power through a charging inverter to a bank of 24 batteries (not maintenance free) that are wired together to form a 48 volt total system. The inverter takes the AC in from the generator and converts (inverts) it to DC to charge the batteries. Depending on the load we put on it while charging, it seems to take about 3 hours to completely charge the string, and then the inverter switches from a "bulk" charge state to a "maintenance" charge. Once the generator is turned off, the inverter automatically switches to providing power from the batteries rather than from the generator. That is the only part that is "automatic". The generator is started with a hand crank and the power to the house and water pumps are turned on by throwing breakers. The generator must be manually stopped as well.

Our diesel is usually purchased at a gas station about 30 minutes away. We take the big truck loaded with 3 55-gallon drums and a couple smaller containers to fill up. The bill was around 350 dollars US on my last trip. This will hopefully be enough to last the month. The price per gallon was about $2.60 US, which didn't seem too bad, I assume that's still cheaper than in the States.
Our trucks are filled here with a manual hand pump from the diesel containers. Most vehicles here are diesel, and in certain places the fumes and smog are unreal. The smaller truck we use is a Mitsubishi L200, like a light-duty 4WD pickup with a crew-cab and a cargo cage on the back. The larger truck is a Mitsubishi "Canter", which is like a flat-bed married to a stake truck. The L200 is the slowest vehicle I've ever driven, but it climbs hills like a goat. The Canter drives like a forklift, but it's about ten times quicker than the little truck. Variety is the spice of life, even here.

The water comes from a DEEP well far away near a river bed. There is a pump that pulls water from the well to a large underground cistern here on the grounds. Then a separate pump pushes from the cistern to a tank on top of a hill behind the house. I believe that tank holds 300 gallons. Once it is filled, the house water is gravity-fed through pipes from that tank. The pressure is quite good, until the tank is empty, and then the pumps must be manually turned on (while the generator is running). Two people have been stranded mid-shower during my tenure.

One of my favorite tools: The power tin-snips. Million Dollar idea right there.

My neighborhood hardware store, complete with lumber yard. Rough cut by hand, of course.

Who needs cement mixers? Just mix it on the ground.

The tool shed, AKA Male Crisis Center, in need of some organization.

Haitian Home Security System.Yes,those are broken bottles on the top of the wall.(Not our wall)

Local auto parts store. Low on inventory, high on price. Just like a dealership.

Britt: First Aid-er

Think back to July of 2005. Britt was in a classroom in Brooklyn Center, MN for 30 hours over the course of one week. She was taking a class to get certified as a lifegaurd for her new job. In addition to lifeguard training, part of the class was devoted soley to first aid care. Britt did not like the class-she found it long and boring- but made it through the 30 long hours and got certified.

Now skip ahead to February 9th, 2006 at approximately 4:30 eastern time. Britt puts her "skills" to work.

A mom and her little boy, probably about seven years old, came to us with the a pretty deep cut to the right of his eye. And when I say deep, I mean deep. Not horrific, but enough to make you cry. Yet cry he did not. This little boy (and basically all the little boys and girls here) was tough. Actually, tough is an understatement. For starters, I held a hydrogen-peroxide soaked piece of gauze on the cut. Not a tear dropped. And we all know how bad that stuff stings! I was amazed and somewhat baffled. Anyway, I got him cleaned up, taped the cut (not quite serious enough for stitches --- which when and if that ever comes, we'll see how calm I am.) and sent him on his way with a bandaid to top it off.
When I found out that we were moving to Haiti I was excited, but I am not gonna lie; I was annoyed that I had taken that Lifeguard training when I would only be able to work at the water park for six months before we moved.

Tonight at the prayer rock, it hit me. God does everything for a reason. I mean, wait, I knew that before tonight .... but it became clearer. I realize God had me take the first aid class at that certain time and it will help me here, a lot. Especially since I am the only one in the family with such significant certifications. :)

Working at the hotel portion of the water park also prepared me to live and serve at the mission. I am fully equipped to wash sheets, and fold fitted ones the "correct" way. I can also make a pretty mean hospital corner.

Thank you, Lord, for all the long hours of first aid class and work at the HolidayInn Hotel and Water Park. I am glad you know what you are doing. ~Britt~

P.S.-In case you were wondering, he got the cut from falling off of his horse. We advised him to find a nicer one. ;)

Quick Post

I only have a few minutes. I NEED to get on the treadmill for a bit during nap-time. Just wanted to show you our kitchen since I had not done that yet. This kitchen was made for someone who knows what they are doing ... not a dummie like me but oh well, I guess God has a marvelous sense of humor. (Photo taken today.)

This day has been crazy. A big difference between school days and non school days. A quick run down on some of the morning excitement. A lady came down the mountain to ask for money. She had (had is the key word) 11 kids, 2 living children remain. She has no money and wanted help to feed herself & the 2 children. Lifeline has some ability to help, in some situations, but unfortunately in order to be successful as a minisry, you have to stay focused on your main mission. Lifeline feeds and educates children first, children from this area and the near-by villages.

We rarely hand out money, (almost never) it is not a good idea for many, many reasons. When people like this show up we can offern them a few things. A "love bundle" usually contains peanut butter, a towel and a few other non-perishable goods. We can give those out anytime, all year because at Christmas time we got a new shipment in of 5,000 love bundles. In addition to that we can pray with them and for them. Troy thinks we will get used to the requests and get used to knowing how to answer and help in some small way. Right now it just feels strange.

The propane stove tops down in the "canteen" where the food is prepared are having issues. Four are not working. Troy spent some time trying not to get burned while figuring out what is wrong with them so he can order new parts. It is 1:30 here so most of the excitement for the day is over. The kids finish school by 2 and leave the property, the cooks clean up and go home.

I always have lots of thoughts swimming in my head that I want to share --- but nap time is two hours and I gotta get running before I lose my chance. Enjoy your Thursday afternoon. Also, I told Troy to get on here and share his thoughts, he keeps saying he will ... stay tuned.
~Tara

Back to School - Thursday A.M.

Each morning the kids start their day with flag raising and then chapel time in the church. By 8am we are hearing hundreds of little voices singing and reciting. It is such a neat thing to hear first thing in the morning. Britt's room is on the front (left as facing) corner of the house, that is closest to the church, so she cannot oversleep even if she wants to. It is beautiful here today.

Speculating

(Photo taken Tuesday. We heard donkey's and mule's were used to carry ballots to remote mountain area polling places. This is the major way of transporting things in this part of Haiti, if you don't have a donkey you put it on your head.)
Some missionaries from the St.Marc area just stopped by to welcome us to Haiti and invite us to a Bible Study on February 19th. Paige got pretty excited to hear that there are other families with kids her age. We were asking them about their thoughts on the elections ... all of us are clueless but we wanted to see what other clueless people thought about this country and its election process.

They say if there is a chance of getting out of it without the "run-off" that it would mean Preval had won. Preval is the candidate of the poorest of the poor and all of the trouble that has been caused is mainly people who believe that because they are poor and come from the slums the rich will make it hard for them to vote, so that the rich man's candidate can win. (Baker is the rich man's guy.) What is truth and what is inflated whining, is impossible to tell. We have no idea if the results will be legit. How do you know what is truth? Democracy is a concept that has been nearly found, and then lost here, over and over with coup after coup.

The other missionaries we met say, they just hope we have a winner so it can be done and people will go back to work and back to school and move on with life.

(Can you tell Noah is taking a marathon nap today?)

Our FAVORITE thing

This is the solar oven that was donated to Lifeline a while back, we're not sure when, but it was here in September of '05 when we first visited. Each day that the sun is out; they make many, many loaves of bread with this solar oven. It is the yummiest bread. Our kids are loving having warm peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. The bread supplements whatever the canteen is serving for lunch to the kids each day. Inexpensive and tasty, the carb-load continues.