Our very first OTB team is here! There are ten of them who have come all the way from our church, North Coast Church in Vista, CA. They arrived Sunday and have just come to our campus here in Port de Paix today.  At the same time, we a team from NWHCM arrived, bringing 35 more people too!! They all have gotten a crash course in being flexible and adaptive by being here! We don’t have the huge water tanks hooked up the roof yet, which means all those people are sharing 300 gallons of water! The girls are being so great, and chose not to shower today, in hopes that the tanks will be up tomorrow. I am so impressed at how tough these gals are! Also, the girls dorms just got finished and didn’t have screens on them yet, and they were so grimy and nasty needing paint desperately.  But, in spite of all that, they are surviving-and actually seem to be having a great time!

The pots are in their home!!!! Whoohoo! Since floor is clean and pretty, the pots we moved into the kitchen. It took  fifteen men to lift the pot and carry it to the kitchen. They weigh about 700 pounds are awkward to carry too.  Oh, they look so beautiful!

The electrical is coming right along! Todd is working hard to get the piping and wiring run from where the generator will be (Cause it’s not here yet!) to where the kitchen is.

Meet our cute neighbor boys! These two boys live right next door to us, and are the kids of Wisly and Madame Wisly.  Wisley is Haitian and has been working for NWHCM for many years-he is called ‘big boss’ by everyone. . He is a Godly, honest, and genuine man and has such a sweet family. We know his family is a direct answer to prayer. We are so thankful to live next to this family. They have already invited us over for a few meals, right when we had moved in and didn’t have a working stove yet. (Wisly speaks decent Creole, and so does the oldest boy Dave. But, for the most part, these meals are a great way to practice our Creole).  So, I returned the favor the other night. I am still trying to figure out what is available to me to cook and how to do it (the power usually comes on at 7pm and we only have one working burner right now!)  I am a decent cook, but in the states I follow a recipe and all ingredients are right at my fingertips. So, I was excited when I found all the ingredients to make chili. I invited the whole family over for dinner. But, I don’t think they liked it! I tried not to laugh as I noticed them all eating more bread and not very much chili. Every time I looked at Madame Wisly she would look down and take a quick bite. At the end, Wisly downed his portion and said, “Look, I ate it all, I like it!” We all got a good laugh from it. Not sure what I’ll try next time…

Dave and Marvins helped me unpack our kitchen and put away food. They are such sweet boys. And the best part is Dave teaches me new words in Creole as we do activities. I have broadened my kitchen vocab cause as we put away food I wrote the English word down on a paper-and he wrote the word in Creole. This is way more fun than quizzing myself using my flash cards!