haititrip

2010-09-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

September.
Wat een tijd geleden. De tijd vliegt voorbij.
De laatste maanden hier, hebben we genoeg meegemaakt en niet stil gezeten. Nou ja. Ö. Na het gezellige bezoek van Anton Germa, kwamen mijn zus en haar vriend. We hebben eerst hier samengewerkt en later zijn we met zín 5íen lekker een weekje op vakantie geweest bij Port au Prince. Een ding was opmerkelijk. Ik wist niet dat het koel/koud kon zijn in HaÔti. We zaten in een huisje hoger in de bergen. Heerlijk even bijkomen van al die hitte de afgelopen weken.
Net een dag voordat Anton en Germa kwamen, hadden we al een meisje in huis. Dustin noemde haar Tea-tea, maar haar echte naam is Chelmise. We hebben haar tot twee weken geleden in huis gehad. Dus ook mee op vakantie. Zij heeft genoten, maar wij ook!
Chelmise kwam hier ernstig ondervoed. Niet meer kunnen en willen eten en drinken. We hebben haar toen een neussonde gegeven. Daardoor konden we de speciale melk ( Unicef F5 melk) voor ondervoede kinderen geven. Maar later bleekt dat ze ook tuberculose had. Ze heeft heel slecht gelegen. Maar onze zorg van mijn vriendin Germa en zus Marloes en natuurlijk de mannen, heeft wel baat gehad. Ze knapt langzaam aan op, neemt de medicatie, eet en drinkt zelfstandig.
Ondertussen is ze opgenomen in een kinderhuis. Dat huis heeft een goede behandeling bij kinderen met Tuberculose. En net voordat ik haar oppakte om in de auto te stappen naar het kinderhuis, kreeg ik een hartelijk dankjewel lach!!! Het was fantastisch
Ja, toen we haar hadden weggebracht was het enorm stil in huis.

Het is altijd afwachtte wat ons dagelijks weer te wachten staat. Wat voor een patiÎnten, wat voor ziektes, opnamen in het ziekenhuis, tuberculose behandeling, hiv-aids behandeling, ondervoede kinderen, keizersnede??? Het is mooi om te zien, dat we steeds meer kunnen betekenen voor de mensen in de omgeving.
Morgen bijvoorbeeld hopen Dustin en ik weer naar een groot ziekenhuis te gaan met patiÎnten die hiv/aids hebben voor medicatie en consult van een arts.
Hiv/aids verschrikkelijke ziekte, maar voor veel mensen is er met medicatie wel leven. Voor hoe lang dat weten wij niet, maar gelukkig hoeven wij niet die beslissing te maken.
Wij hebben de opdracht op aarde gekregen om God te dienen en daarom helpen wij elkaar!

De tijd voor ons in HaÔti zit er bijna op. Wij komen namelijk voor 2,5 maand naar Nederland.
de laatste week van september komen wij naar Nederland en half december zullen wij bij leven en wel zijn naar California gaan om daar een jaar te gaan wonen en werken.

ENGLISH VERSION google translate version (sorry for the bad grammar)

September.
What a time ago. Time flies.
In recent months here, we've been through a lot and have not sat still. Oh well. Ö. After the nice visit by Anton Germa, my sister and her boyfriend came for two weeks. We first worked here for a week with them and later we took a nice week long vacation in Port au Prince. One thing was remarkable. I did not think it is possible for it to be so cold in Haiti. We were in a house in the higher mountains. Delicious rest from all the heat in recent weeks.
Just one day before Germa and Anton came, we had a girl in the house. Dustin called her tea-tea, but her real name is Chelmise. We have her in our home until two weeks ago, she also joined us for our vacation.
Chelmise came in severely malnourished. No desire to eat and drink. We have given her a nasogastric tube. This allowed us to give special milk (UNICEF F75 milk) for malnourished children. But later it appeared that she had tuberculosis. She was in very bad condition. But benefited from the care of our visitors. She recovers slowly, takes the medication, eats and drinks on her own.
She is now in the House of Hope. That house has a good treatment for children with tuberculosis. And just before I picked her up to take here there, I got a sincere thank you smile! It was fantastic
Yes, when we had her taken away, it was extremely quiet at home.

It is always waiting for what our daily weather ahead. What kind of patient education, what diseases, hospital admissions, tuberculosis treatment, HIV-AIDS treatment, malnourished children, Caesarean?? It's nice to see that we can do more for people in the area.
For example, Dustin and I hope tomorrow again to a large hospital with patient education to HIV / AIDS medication and to consult a doctor.
HIV / AIDS devastating disease, but for many people there are living with medication. For how long we do not know, but fortunately we do not make that decision.
We have been given the job on earth to serve God and therefore we help each other!

The time for us Haiti is almost over. We come to the Netherlands for 2.5 months.
The last week of September we come to the Netherlands and half in December we will have to live and have been going to California for a year to live and work.

A busy couple of weeks.

2010-07-20T14:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! It has been very busy here the last couple of weeks, thus the lack of updates. Annelies and I took in a couple of HIV patients into the hospital in La Point for the treatment program they have there, then had to admit one of the patients into the hospital because her son was not well enough to make the return trip. In short we have been away from home a lot lately. Annelies has been keeping busy in the clinic and hospital. She is also taking care of a little girl who's name is Teatea. Teatea is one year old but seems only a couple of months old because she did not get much food for a long time. She is looking much better now, when we first got her she looked dried out, her skin just hung on to her.

I have been working on the solar power system for some time now and as of today the operating room 2 is complete. Annelies and her friend Germa from the Netherlands are busy cleaning it right now. It will be used for C-sections. Right now if someone needs a C-section they have to take about an hour drive over very rough roads that are sometimes impassible. The operating room is powered and air conditioned entirely with solar energy. It is not cheep to do so but when you consider the cost of driving to fetch fuel and the problems attaining fuel during unstable times here it is worth it. The system generates between 20 and 30 kilowatt hours of power a day from 39 solar panels which in turn charge several banks of heavy duty batteries and provide power to 3 inverters. Two of the inverters supply 6 kilowatts of split phase 60hz (American) current while the third supplies 2.4 kilowatts of 50hz (European) current. Haiti uses the American electrical system in general but a lot of our medical equipment comes from Europe and thus the 50hz current. To many of you these numbers don't mean much but the system generates enough current to power the average home in America. There are many people who have put a lot of work and effort into making this happen: Jack, Dave, Tom, Larry, Al, and Richard. Most of you guys are from Washington I think... Thanks for your help! The system is not quite finished. There are some cables that need to be replaced and a few other things that need to be brought up to code :]

Anton, Annelies's Uncle has been working on the Land Cruiser and has made a lot of progress, many parts are on the way and it looks like he will have it in top shape soon.

We have been having good rains here and as long as it keeps up the people should have a good crop. We are seeing a lot of HIV patients recently... Many of the men go off to work in the Dominican Republic or elsewhere and end up bringing aids back with them to their families.

Annelies and I are tired but we are well and are enjoying the work immensely. Please pray that God will give us Love, Humility and Patience those are the things we need most at this point.

Life in the city

2010-07-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

Port de paix
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IMG00005.jpg

2010-07-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

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Nap time

2010-06-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

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IMG00224.jpg

2010-06-20T04:01:00.000-07:00

Washing the dishes after pizza. We had a long day today. Annelies is the only nurse on duty this weekend. We had our first patient a machete wound show up on our doorstep. He cut through most of his finger and fingernail. It was an ugly wound needed stitches. Next was a woman with a fever and a man having problems loosing water. Then finally cleaning the wound of a lady that got her foot in the spokes of a motorcycle. Be glad I soared you the photos on that one. After that it was rounds at the hospital and a woman with a problem we could not help.
That was yesterday this morning we woke up to a knock on our door for a man that could not pee. These cases are kind of nice because it is an easy fix and relieves so much pain. Annelies is now taking care of a small child that had a large abcess on his face, it is very painfull for the child and he is crying loudly.

image/jpeg
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Vacation and Mountain home care

2010-06-13T13:34:00.001-07:00

Nederlands

Afgelopen donderdag ( 10 juni) waren we alweer 1 jaar getrouwd. We hebben dit heugelijke feit, samen gevierd, in een hotel aan de zee. Geweldig uitzicht, zwemmen, zonnen, lekker eten, puur genieten!!
Toen we terug kwamen, kon ik nog 1 dag samen werken met Ryna en Sara ( Amerikaanse vrienden) want helaas hebben hun gisteren Haiti verlaten, en zijn weer terug naar huis. Ik mis ze erg.
Gelukkig ben ik niet alleen, Esther en Michael ( verpleegkundige en arts) zijn er. Het is altijd weer wennen al mensen komen en gaan.
Ja eigenlijk gaat het dagelijkse leven ook hier zn gangetje.
Dustin is nog bezig met het installeren van de zonnepanelen. Dat begint al aardig op te schieten.
En in het ziekenhuis hebben we op dit moment, best veel patienten met tuberculose.
In de kliniek is het dagelijks komen en gaan van mensen.
Wat we als team merken is het zo belangrijk om voorlichting te geven aan patienten.
In alle dingen, van het wassen van de kleren tot het innemen van tabletten. En van minder urgente ziektes tot noodgeval.
Dustin en ik waren laats in de bergen op bezoek bij een familie, en we praten wat en er kwamen meer mensen bij ons zitten, en toen kwamen de verhalen, van die mevrouw is ziek en dat kind heeft al zoveel dagen diarree etc. We gingen al deze mensen af , het waren buren van de familie waar we op bezoek waren,
en gaven wat ze nodig hadden.
Toen Dustin en ik naar huis reden, hadden we het er over, dat het zo goed is om dicht bij de mensen te zijn, dichtbij waar ze wonen en leven. Om zo beter inzicht te krijgen in hun dagelijkse leven, de gewoontes.
Thuiszorg? In Haiti? I like it!! :)

English
As of last Thursday (June 10) we have been married for one year. We celebrated this memorable event, together at a resort on the sea. Great views, swimming, sunbathing, fine dining, pure enjoyment!
When we came back, I had one last day of collaboration with Ryna and Sara (American friends) because they unfortunately had to leave Haiti yesterday, and are now back home. I really miss them.
Luckily I'm not alone, Esther and Michael (nurse and doctor) are here. It is always hard getting used to all people coming and going.
But life goes on.
Dustin is still working on installing solar panels and is starting to pick up speed.
In the hospital we have at the moment, quite a lot of patients with tuberculosis.
In the clinic, the daily comings and goings of people.
Our team is finding out that one of the most important things we do is to provide information to patients.
In all things, from washing clothes to taking tablets. And less urgent illnesses to emergency.
Dustin and I were in the mountains to visit a family, We talked with a group of people from the area, and then came the stories, that lady is sick and that child has diarrhea etc. We went to visit these people since they were neighbors of the family we were visiting, and took care of what they needed as we could. When Dustin and I drove home, we talked about it, and how it is good to go to the people where they live. To better understand their daily lives, habits.
Home care? In Haiti? I like it! :)

Infection

2010-06-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

This lady was wearing sandles on a motorcycle and got her heel in the spokes while driving through the mud. The wound is infected. Here it is being cleaned. This happens a lot here in Haiti.
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A Post from Annelies!

2010-06-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

Dutch Version
English further down

Hoog tijd voor een update, hier vanuit noord west Haïti.
Om ook even over het weer te hebben. We hebben nu 1 week bijna elke dag een flinke regenbui. Wat is dat heerlijk. En je ziet de natuur veranderen van geel naar groen. Het voelt lekker om de regen op je neer te vallen. Ik sta er vaak niet bij stil, hoe belangrijk regen is. Maar sinds deze week zit her weer fris in mij geheugen. Regen… wat een Zegen!
Tussen de regendruppels door, zijn Dustin en ik, druk bezig met het werken in en rond het ziekenhuis en de kliniek. Dustin maakt vorderingen met het monteren van de zonnepanelen. Maar regelmatig helpt hij ook mee rondom de zorg van patiënten.
Afgelopen week, kwam er een jongen van 14 in de kliniek, zijn familie gaf ons wat medische gegevens, diarree, overgeven en koorts sinds 1.5 dag. Maar er moest meer aan de hand zijn, want van 1,5 dag kan je niet zo slecht zijn. Hij overleed al snel, na een uur. Wat we later hoorde was, dat iemand hem had vergiftigd.  en.. ja hoe nu verder, het lichaam van de jongen, moet naar huis worden gebracht, maar er is geen vervoer en geen geld.  Dustin heeft hem later met zijn familie naar huis gebracht.
En ja, dan is de auto weg en moeten wij ( dokter en verpleegkundige) verder met de dag. Want er staan meer patiënten te wachten. Omschakelen, weer terug naar de orde van de dag.  Pff niet leuk om zo de dag te beginnen.  Gelukkig zijn er ook geweldige momenten. Afgelopen week bijvoorbeeld, midden in de nacht, heb ik bij mijzelf , een bevalling gedaan. Een 19 jarige vrouw/meisje was voor de tweede keer zwanger. Tijdens haar eerste bevalling, is het kindje overleden. God zij dank, heeft zij en haar man, nu een gezonde zoon! Prachtig, een mooi geniet moment.
En zo, zijn we allemaal druk bezig rondom de zorg van patiënten. De mensen die mijn weblog hebben gevolgd van 2008, weten misschien nog wel, dat little John in het ziekenhuis was voor een tijd met ondervoeding.  Dustin en ik hebben nog steeds contact met hem en zijn familie. En hebben hem sinds april dit jaar al een paar keer gezien. John komt namelijk elke maand nog naar de kliniek voor controle. Maar we hadden zijn familie nog niet bezocht. Dat hebben we van de week gedaan, twee keer zelfs.  Het was erg leuk en fijn om zo samen met hem en zijn familie te zijn. John is echt flinke kerel geworden. Hij is nu ongeveer 3,5 jaar. Zijn oma die het meest voor hem zorgt., is druk bezig om een nieuw huis te bouwen. Het huizenproject van Rob helpt hun daarmee. En zo is ook deze familie druk bezig.
We hebben ons plekje hier in Haïti ondertussen wel weer gevonden. Met leuke momenten mindere leuke momenten. We kunnen zeggen: God is goed, Hij zorgt voor ons! 

English Version

Just a warning, this email has been translated from Dutch to English using google translate!

High time for an update here from north west Haiti.
Also a weather update. We now have 1 week almost every day a big rain.   What is that delicious. And see the natural change from yellow to green. It feels nice to the rain fall down on you.   I am often not realize how important rain. But since this week is fresh in my memory again re. Rain ... what a blessing!
Between the rain drops by, Dustin and I are, busy working in and around the hospital and clinic. Dustin is making progress in assembling the panels. But he also regularly helps with the care of patients.
Last week, there was a boy of 14 in the clinic, his family gave us some medical information, diarrhea, vomiting and fever since 1.5 days. But there was more to it, because of 1.5 days can not be so bad. He died soon after one hour. What we later heard was that someone had poisoned him.  and .. so what now, the body of the boy should be brought home, but there is no transportation and no money. Dustin brought him later with his family home.
And yes, the car away and we (doctor and nurse) go by the day. Because there are more patients waiting. Switch, back to the order of the day. Phew   not so nice to start the day.  Fortunately there are great moments. Last week for example, in the middle of the night, I did my first completely solo delivery. A 19 year old woman / girl was pregnant for the second time. During her first birth, the child is deceased. Thank God, she and her husband, now a healthy boy! Wonderful, enjoy a nice moment.
And so, we are all busy about the care of patients.   Those who have followed my blog in 2008, knowing perhaps that little John was in the hospital for a period of malnutrition. Dustin and I still have contact with him and his family. And have him since April this year a few times. John is because each month to the clinic for a checkup. But we had not visited his family. We have done of the week, even twice. It was fun and so good to be with him and his family. John has become really big guy. He is now about 3.5 years. His grandmother who most care of him., Is working hard to build a new house. The housing project of Rob helps them with that. And so is this family busy.
We have our place here in Haiti now be found again. With less fun moments funny moments. We can say God is good, He gives us!  

Levius

2010-05-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

This guys name is Levius, he is a candidate for on of the houses of the housing project that Rob is running. Right now he lives in his Mother in laws house with his wife and their two kids. When her brothers and sisters come back from the Dominican Republic Levius and his wife and two kids have to live in this hut that is used as the kitchen.
The kitchens dimensions are about 10 feet wide by 15 feet long.

Deze jongens naam is Levius, hij is een kandidaat voor op een van de huizen van de woningbouw project dat wordt uitgevoerd Rob. Op dit moment woont hij bij zijn moeder in de wet-huis met zijn vrouw en hun twee kinderen. Toen haar broers en zusters komen terug uit de Dominicaanse Republiek Levius en zijn vrouw en twee kinderen hebben om te leven in dit huisje, dat wordt gebruikt als de keuken.
De keukens afmetingen zijn ongeveer 3 meter breed en 5 meter lang.

Malaria and Diarrhea

2010-05-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

So it has been a rough week. Monday started of with stomach cramps and a slight headache... By nightfall I had the chills so bad that I couldn't stop shaking. So I woke up Dr. Micheal and he found some chloroquine for me which took care of the headache and chills. But the diarrhea it seems is here to stay. So Josh, I can sympathize with you now ;] But I am feeling much better. A few days ago I made it out to the hospital and took some footage. Here it is below. Sorry the editing is pretty bad... I just did it in a couple seconds. Annelies is well and is taking good care of me while I am sick. We have a small baby who's mom has HIV. The baby is having a hard time of it so we are taking care of it some of the time. We lost a little girl last week to a strange set of symptoms that we have seen before but we have no lab to test for certain things.
We are going to try to stay longer, we are working it out with our insurance company.

Het is een zwarre week. Maandag begon Dustin met krampen in de maag en een lichte hoofdpijn ... Tegen de avond had hij koude rillingen, zo erg dat hij niet kon stoppen met schudden. dr. Michael en hij vonden chloroquine- medicijnen voor hem, die zorg heeft genomen van de hoofdpijn en koude rillingen. Maar de diarree heeft hij nog steeds.
Dus Josh, hij kan meevoelen met jou nu;]
Een paar dagen geleden maakte Dustin wat filmpjes vanuit het ziekenhuis. zie hieronder.

We hebben een kleine baby, de moeder heeft hiv en heeft op het ogenblik genoeg aan zichzelf. Wij verloren een klein meisje vorige week in een vreemde verzameling van symptomen die we eerder gezien, maar we hebben geen lab om te testen op bepaalde dingen.
We gaan proberen om langer te blijven, we werken het uit met onze verzekeringsmaatschappij.

We are here!

2010-04-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, we are here in Haiti and getting adjusted. People have some corn to eat and we just got a rain last night. Annelies is busy in the clinic and hospital. I am working on a solar power system for the operating rooms. Sorry this is short but no time :]

Mensen hebben wat maïs te eten en we kregen eenIk ben bezig met een zonne-energie systeem voor de operatie kamers. Sorry, dit is kort, maar geen tijd:]

Going Back to Haiti

2010-04-13T23:06:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow we will be headed back to Haiti. We may not have internet set up for a while so do not worry if you don't hear from us.

In the mean time here is a video of the area we live in.

Dustin and Annelies

Beste Allemaal,

Morgen is de dag van vertek naar Haiti, waar we donderdag hopen te arriveren. We hebben een goede tijd gehad in Californie.
Het was bijzonder om bij de bruiloft van Leitha (Dustin's zus) te zijn en de rest van de twee weken, met de familie op te trekken.
Zoals gezegd hopen we donderdag de 15e van april aan te komen.
Wij zullen daar tot eind juni zijn wat eventueel verlengd kan worden.
Spannend is het wat we daar weer mee gaan maken.
De eerste twee weken, zullen jullie niet veel van ons te horen krijgen, dit in veband met het installeren van de computers en internet.
We hebben er zin in om de bekenden weer te gaan ontmoeten.

Vriendelijke groetjes van Dustin en Annelies

Dental and Medical teams

2009-03-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the doctors and some of the crowd waiting this morning to see the doctors and dentists.

Foizon Visit

2009-03-16T08:57:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I went and visited Foizon, the area Annelies and I would eventually like to go and work. We visited John who many of you know just to see how he was doing. Foizon is really dry right now, drier than I have ever seen it. Please keep them in your prayers many are hungry. Johns family seems to be doing well. They where playing dominoes when we got there. There field is ready to plant as soon as the rain falls. You can see how dry it is in the first picture. I am down in PC today and we have two large teams of dentists and Doctors. We are waiting on delivery of the dental tools today so that the dentists can begin seeing patients. I would estimate we have about 200 patients waiting at this point down at the hospital. We probably have a team of 24 doctors and dentists at this point.

Back in Haiti

2009-03-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

So I am back in Haiti, it has been a while since I have updated this blog. I came back to Haiti to finish installing a sattelite antenna that I did not have the part for earlier. I will try to do short daily updates since time is limited. Yester day I went with Rob to the house of Pastor Mike to deliver supplies for the housing project, boards and 2oo sheets of roofing tin. On the way we were going up a steep hill and all the roofing tin fell out along with selifor, (the guy on the trailer) so he was bruised up and we had to reload the tin as well. We also brought a trailer load of water to Pastor Mike becuase they have no water yet after the hurricane. Hope to go to the church in Foizon today if I can find a motorcycle to rent. Please pray for the people here, especially Foizon, they have not had much rain since November and many people have lost crops. The hills look really dry. There is hunger in Foizon.

2009-03-15T05:56:00.000-07:00

Here is some of the corn I was talking about, this lady will get a harvest out of it but not much. I looked around and could spot the occasional ear of corn.

F-100

2008-12-15T16:38:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone, It has been a while, and for that I apologize. Things have been very busy here. We have received a large shipment of F-100 and F-75 from UNICEF and that has been a big help here. F-75 and F-100 are therapeutic milks for children with malnutrition. The F-75 has 75 calories per 100ml. When a child gets to a certain point with malnutrition that child no longer wants to eat which is where F-75 comes in. F-75 gets a child from the point of not wanting to eat to having an appetite again. Once the child has regained the desire to eat they get switched over to F-100 which will help them to rebuild the weight they have lost. I go with Annelies on her rounds in the Hospital occasionally and have seen this stuff work. It is amazing, kids that almost had to be force fed are now happily drinking down their portion of F-100. They change drastically from being sad and having no energy to running up and down the hall of the hospital playing and laughing. One child in particular named Regiles has had a great turn around. Some of the other patients tease him by pretending they are going to take his milk away, well… he is only about two years old but I think you would have a big problem on your hands if you did manage to take his milk away from him :] A sincere thanks to UNICEF for their generous response and sincerity!

In my last blog I told about the discouraging 2 weeks we had with loosing so many children. I am happy to say that we have not lost any little children to malnutrition since then. But, we are still looking to ways we can help prevent some of those types of cases. Annelies and I have been talking about the possibility of starting a little extension clinic up in the mountains near where many of these patients come from that would be able to refer patients down to the clinic here where Dr. Anne-Marie works. Last Sunday we went up into those mountains to visit the church and some patients in the region. While we were on our way to see John Little, the kid two posts below, a man stopped us and asked if we would stop by his house and take a look at his wife who had an infection. There is a real need for some simple medical help up in those mountains and it pulls heavily on both mine and Annelies’ hearts. Annelies and I are getting married next year and have a lot of changes happening in our life at the moment so it is not even certain when we will be able to return to Haiti. But I see a clear need up in that region that Annelies and I could be of great help in.
In other news we made a request to FAO for seeds for the farmers here, we asked for seeds for about 9,000 farmers and received a commitment for about 500 farmers. We received the first shipment of seed from FAO about 2 and a half weeks after planting season. Of the committed 200 bags of seed we have received 40. It has been a bit difficult working with them and a large amount of our time and resources have been spent holding their hand coaxing them to do what they should be doing without our help. We are still waiting for the remaining 160 sacks of seed and where told that they would be here a week and a half ago. But the farmers here where happy to get what they could at the distribution, we are loaning the seed from them and expect them to return it with an increase if they get a good harvest. We would like to start some sort of seed bank here so the farmers have somewhere to go when they need seed. Storing seed is complicated and risky however. But all in all we are thankfull for the help FAO has been giving the farmers.
Annelies and I visited John little, you can see his house here. It has since been replastered. His family situation is complicated and while we would like to build him a new house with a tin roof and a water storage tank we are not sure that he would benefit in the end. His house is about a half hour uphill hike from the nearest water fountain. We may be able to help them out with a new house once we get back and get to know them better. Please be praying for John Little and his family. Also pray that we would have wisdom how to help and how not to help them.
Annelies and I have only two weeks left here in Haiti. December 31st we will be flying to the States for two weeks in California with family and friends. Then we head out to the Netherlands to be with our family and friends there. I may come back to do some work in March in California and Annelies has a job lined up in the Netherlands. We look forward to seeing all of you soon, but we already know that we will be missing the people here in Haiti a lot. Please pray that we would be open to where God leads us in the future.

The Children are dying.

2008-11-18T07:22:00.000-08:00

This morning we lost our seventh child in the last two weeks. Betty's son Wolbinski died this morning of hunger. Hunger you say, can't we just feed them? By the time they make it to the hospital it is often too late. Which leaves me with the question, how can we prevent these deaths? Relief food is obviously not making its way to those who need it most because those people are the weak ones the ones without friends in high places of local government that will put their name on the list for food distribution. Meanwhile I see those who have the connections selling a sack of the relief food from a local USAID food distribution. The way the people here see it free food has no rules, how can you steal free food? My question is how do we help kids like Wolbinski? How do we find Wolbinski before his mother brings him to the hospital beyond the point of recovery? How do we help Betty the mother of Wolbinski without making her permanently dependent upon charity? Mortality should never be accepted for the sake of sustainability though. So what can we do about this situation as a whole? The people here need to be able to make their own food. In order to do this they need to have education. In order to have education they need to have a stable economy. In order to have a stable economy they need to have a stable government. In order to have a stable government the people need to be honest and trustworthy. In order to be honest and trustworthy the people need to have a relationship with Jesus. I know this may sound like cheesy pop Christianity but we in the developed world too often take the values and principles that Jesus teaches and that our societies are built upon for granted.

Still here

2008-10-22T15:13:00.000-07:00

Hey we are still here. WFP has been delivering food to our village and that has been a blessing. We have a lot of TB and malnutrition patients in the hospital and are borrowing beds. This is John, we take him home once in a while to give him some extra care. He is not too happy with what is being done to his hair during bath time. His mom died and here in Haiti that is often fatal for her children. During the first month that we where here we lost 3 kids in one week to malnutrition. They just come to the hospital too late... The Doctor and Nurses are now scouting the villages in the surrounding area to try and locate some of these cases before they are so far gone but it is difficult to get away from the hospital. They are trying to take a look at all the kids in the area by having them come in to be weighed. We now have lights in the hospital hallway thanks to some dilligent work by several electricians (you know who you are) and some borrowed solar panels. This is very important because it reduces our use of oil lamps which are dangerous flame wise and breathing wise and are expensive. We still need to get some low wattage led bulbs for the individual rooms and hope to have them by December so that we can completely eliminate the oil lamps from the hospital.

Also of note, Annelies and I got engaged the 4th of September in the Netherlands. I had meant to make an announcement on the blog but things have been busy here. We plan to get married June 10th 2008!

Food!

2008-09-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

Food has arrived! We had five loads of food delivered by the World Food Program today. We have one more that is supposed to be delivered but there seems to be some weather or mechanical problems. We still need food in two other areas that are more desparat than us because their roads are still impassable. We hear the WFP for Haiti is running out of food. I think the word will spread monday for the distribution and it will start to go out to the people who need it tuesday. Thank you for your prayers.

Water

2008-09-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
We have water! The guys here were able to repair the water temporarily the day before I got here. It broke again 2 days later but we were able to fix it more permanently. We are now working on re routing the water through a more secure pipeline. There is much work to be done. Today I will head up to the source with my engineer friend sadrack that I have told many of you about. We will see what is needed immediately to fix the water system now and what is needed for a long term solution so that it can survive the next hurricane.

In the photo above you can see where the water line is in danger of being washed out. This is our more secure waterline that will need to be moved before the next huricane. Things are bad here, many people in the clinic from hunger and malnutrition related illnesses. I will try to get photos up soon.

Whole gardens have been washed away. The problem here is most of the gardens that people get reliable food to eat from are in the valley next to the river since they can be irrigated and do not depend on rain. During the huricane whole gardens several acres in size have been wiped out. (see photo with palm tree) We are asking for assistance from the world food program, hopefully they will be able to send some food via helicopter. I spent my first days here surveying potential landing sites. The roads are bad but we have one that is now passable into our village. When I ask people what they need up in the mountains it is usually: food, roads, gardens, houses in that order. The people here need food now to survive until they can get the next havest, 2 months from now for beans.

Some have told me they need seeds to plant beans, and sweet potatoe slips to plant as well. Please pray for us, and please pray that relief food gets here. Much of it is going to gonaives but it is more difficult to delivere it here in the mountains where the roads are gone.

(the water is about 5 or 6 feet deep and 8 feet wide through the main road to Foizon.)

Many people have lost homes as well. Most stay with family.

These kids where helping me find Sadrack and check the temporary water line.

This kid told me he is not using this water for drinking, but he probably is using it for washing. But it kind of shows you how precious water is here.

Going back

2008-09-15T00:02:00.001-07:00

We are on our way back to Haiti. Please pray for the people there. We still have no drinking water. Pray for those working on the water lines.

Please Pray!

2008-09-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

Here is an email from Rob and Anne-Marie:

Ike is here and he really is a hurricane.
Trees are pulled out of the ground, water every where, animals are dying, it
is a huge storm.
We try to stay in the house but have to see the patients at the hospital. It
is dangerous to go there but we have to.
I had to put your e-mail addressess (cc instead of bcc) like this so my
parents have them too.
If internet is not working anymore than I can try to call my mother and she
can keep you posted by e-mail.

Please pray for safety!

Blessings, Rob & Anne-Marie

A lot of Rain

2008-09-04T10:43:00.001-07:00

There was quite a bit of rain in Haiti from the storm Hannah. It has washed out the pipeline for drinking water in two places. This river is normally small enough to walk across without getting your knees wet. Please be praying for everyone there and that they will be able to get the pipes back in soon.

here is an email I received from Rob and Anne-Marie. It was in dutch originally so please excuse the google translation. Annelies and I are in Netherlands so please do not worry about us.

Dear all,

We are in a disaster area alone we notice the impact is not well.

Both waterleidingensystemenare at different places riped out.
We have no water, no electricity and 2 storms still to go.

The road to the Catholic church is gone. The gabions (nets with stones)
have been moved and there can be no more car door.
At the cemetery (direction lesson Fund) is also on the road and there can be no car
more. We are therefore in an isolated area.

The whole area has no water. People are advised to rainwater to
catch.

I hear now the church of the cath. church. I think they have a meeting
have.

The consequences are worse than with Hurricane Jeanne!

Attached photographs of the river, the men in a kokosnootboom (were
surprised by the water and fled into the tree) and the radio antenna in
our house has been moved by the wind.

We keep you up to date.

Rob & Anne-Marie

2008-08-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to take some photographs of the
patients in the hospital to give you an idea what we see here on a regular basis.
On the left is Loren with her little girl Wedgina. Rob and Dr.
Anne-Marie picked up Loren on the road in Bassin Blue and brought her back to the
clinic. Loren has a heart condition which is causing her to
retain water. Her heart got stressed during the delivery of Wedgina
and she has had failing health ever since. When wegina first came to
us she weighed 1.65 kilograms 2 weeks later she now ways 2.6 kilograms.
We started her off with a feeding tube because she did not have enough strength to eat on her own.

This is Flanez and her parents. Flanez came
to us at 2 kilograms. She is underweight has problems with
her lungs and also appears to be handicapt physically and possibly
mentally. Her parents are very nice and hopefully the problem
with her feet can be corrected surgically. Her husband is
pumping breast milk for Flanez since she is too week to drink.
Special thanks to those who purchased the breast pumps for
us. Flanez drinks through a feeding tube as well.
Right now her biggest problem is breathing. She is
often congested.

This is Castrol, he has TB and is being treated.
He seems to be getting better complains about pain in his
legs a lot. He is also trying to steal my girlfriends heart!
He is quite the smooth opperator so I've got my eye on him.
On a sadder note his family left him at the hospital with no
food and no one to care for him. Fortunately the mother of a
TB patient across the hall has taken him under her wing and keeps him
fed. Someone recently donated money to the Hospital to help
feed the patients who can not afford to bring food. Because
we do not have the resources and because we do not charge a lot the
patients must bring their own food and family to cook for them when
they come to the hospital. There are a few exceptions like
Castrol and some others who can not afford food. Castrol has
a great attitude and is always good for a late night conversation.

This is the mother of Mama Anne-Rose. She is
the one who took it upon herself to feed Castrol when his family
abandoned him. Her daughter (Mama Anne-Rose) is being treated
for TB in the room on the left.

Here is Mama Anne-Rose she has TB and is being treated.
Annelies is on the left and Ryna a nurse from America is on
the right. She lost her child who was born premature.
She is doing much better now.

This is a daughter and mother. The daughter
had TB first and then her mother caught it. The duaghter is
in the 4th month of TB treatments and is able to stay at home now but
came back to the hospital to help take care of her mother.

This is the daughter of Belizer. Belizer had
a motorcycle accident and so his whole family is staying here.
She and her sisters are very cute and allways chase me down
to say hi or wave at me as I drive by on the tractor.

This is Belizer. His leg was not cleaned
properly by a hospital that will remain unnamed. The cut was
not a serious one but he fell in a canal filled with sewage and the
wound was not properly cleaned before it was stiched up. A
few days later the skin started to buble and rot. Dr.
Anne-Marie cleaned the wound and cut away the infected skin and
Annelies and Ryna have been cleaning and bandaging the wound ever
since. It is starting to heal rapidly but he is still without
skin over a large part of his leg.

Hope this gives you a better idea of what we are up to
over here. We both realy enjoy being over here in Haiti.
Sometimes it is overwhelming with the climate and the poverty
but there is a lot of joy to be found here in the people.
Please pray that we would have patience and strength for the
work over here and that our endurance holds up. We are headed
to Netherlands for a month which will give us a nice break but since
both of us plan to be here long term, years... we will need a new level
of endurance and patience than when we knew we where going home in a
year or less. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Uncle Dustin

2008-07-28T05:18:00.000-07:00

Tasha gave birth yesterday to my niece Yaelle 7.5 lbs!!!!! that is 3,4 kilos!!! nice :]

Busy week

2008-07-27T15:44:00.000-07:00

Here is a letter I just sent to John our pastor at Bethany, I thought I would put it up here for the rest of you as well. I added an old picture from last post just so you have at least something to look at.

Hi John, Just wanted to update you. All is going well here. Rob and Anne Marie are on vacation so Annelies and I are taking over there responsibilities for two weeks. We have two babies we are taking care of, both very small. One is gaining weight very well and we expect her to be heathy very soon. The other has some handicaps and is strugling but we are not giving up on her. Today I drove a water tank out to a village called vion for a week long revival they are having there. It is only 5 miles away but takes a good 45 minutes to get there because the roads are so bad. I got a bit exhausted this week from the taking care of kids and the driving on ther rough roads but was able to get some rest this morning and am feeling much better. Annelies just delivered a baby in the clinic, the baby was very large and labor was dificult. The mother ended up giving birth outside while walking around to induce labor. This is the first delivery I have witnesse other than my own :] In the end it went very well although the baby was rather swolen because of its large head. It has been an interesting week. We had two patients die this week. One while we were there with him, the father of one of our neighbors. The other a TB patient that was just too far gone. A number of the patients come from a place called Anro Moustic. Annelies and I would like to go up there someday and see what conditions are like. I would like to go up there on a regular basis so we can catch some of the cases before they get to far along. Feel free to share this with those in the church, I will probably post this on my blog as well. Thank Bethany for their financial and spiritual support. Please pray for us that we have love, patience and strength, but most of all love. Dustin

Babies and TB

2008-07-21T11:53:00.001-07:00

Ok, it is my goal to keep my blog up to date and in order to do so I will be composing these posts very quickly. So please excuse the mess.

Since we have been back Rob and Anne-Marie have gone on a much deserved vacation leaving Annelies in charge of the Clinic and I in charge of the Construction. All has been going well so far. We have a new baby girl 1 month old 1.65 kilograms. Her mom is retaining water and her legs and torso are very swollen. She may also have TB. The babies name is Wedgina. She is very cute but very underweight. Annelies put a feeding tube in her and she is gaining weight stedily. Please keep her in your prayers. She also cries a lot so please pray that we have patience! Some of you may remember little Thomas. Well he is not so little any more! He is gaining weight rapidly and other than a skin infection is doing very well :]

Today I started of the day by getting materiels for the guys. I went to the market and bought food for the week. We had rain 3 days ago and everything is turning green now! Big answere to prayer :]

The picture of the yellow house on the left side and all the people is on the right. Those are the patients that Annelies saw this morning. The picture with the kids running in front of the hut is little Thomas's family, they are a lot of fun. The picture of Annelies feeding the child is of Wedgina the new girl who's mom has the problem with the swelling.

2008-07-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

(photo after three days in Airports I think it describes about how we where feeling :]) As most of you know Annelies and I left July 8th from Los Angelas on our way to Haiti. Getting to Haiti is always an adventure. No two trips are the same and our trip last Tuesday was no exception. The first sign of trouble was when we reached the check in counter for Spirit Airlines. The ticketing Agent looked rather frazzled and she informed us that due to weather our flight would be delayed 45 minutes and that we would miss our connecting flight to Port Au Prince. She recommended that we accept a refund for our tickets and try to get another flight. After much deliberation and a quick check of fares online we determined that doing so would cost us about $1,500 USD. So we decided that was not an option. So we took our delayed flight and as soon as we got off our plane the final boarding call came over the PA for our next flight. We ran to the gate which fortunately was very nearby. We talked to the Spirit people at the Gate who assured us that our bags would make it on the flight and not to worry about it. We ran down the gate and made it, they closed the door behind us and we were on our way. Our luggage did not make it… We decided to wait in Port Au Prince overnight since it would cost us a $170 to send our luggage without ourselves. It ended up that everyone waiting for the small plane to Port de Paix had to spend the night. There was strong winds in Port de Paix, the pilots tried to land the plane three times but couldn’t because of the cross wind. So we found a safe place to stay overnight in Port au Prince. Words can not describe the small air terminal for getting on the little plane. Just imagine 200 people and their luggage packed into a room with a max capacity of 150 all trying to get onto a plane that caries 19 passengers. There are no such things as lines. To make a long story short we left Tuesday night from LAX and arrived at our home Thursday night. We still have no bags but we know where they are and thanks to a very helpful guy in the Spirit Air Lost luggage department in Fort Lauderdale we are going to get our bags back.

I am now back in our village and it is nice to be home. I really feel that this is where I should be. The first day Annelies helped out a guy who lost 60 percent of his skin on his left leg in a motorcycle accident. By 60 percent of his skin I mean you can see muscle and bone tissue on 60 percent of his leg. The guy fell into a ditch in the city when he had his accident (think raw sewage ditch) and the hospital that treated him did not clean the wound well enough before stitching it so a massive infection took over. Anyway it is pretty gnarly. Annelies is changing the bandage right now.
I spent the first day working on Rob’s solar electric system, it powers the lights in his house and the satellite system that connects us to the internet.

Our village has not received much rain and all the crops are dying. When the crops die the people here go hungry. Please be praying for rain. Also be praying for Annelies. The doctor is gone on a family emergency and Annelies will be running the clinic with the other nurses.
Next week I will be finishing up the rafters for the hospital shop so we can put some of the sheet metal up. I also have some work to do on Rob’s power system. The picture to the left is Anne-Rose playing in the river near our village.

Thank you Aunt Joan, Rick and Judy, Jason and Krystal for getting and shipping the medical supplies and infant formula. Thank you to all of you who are supporting us financially as well. Thank you Bethany Baptist!

We Made it!

2008-07-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

We made it safely to our village. It took us two days because the plane could not land due to strong winds. We are safe, we lost our bags temporarily I hope.

Thanks for praying :]

more to follow

Please pray for Annelies and Anne-Marie and girl

2008-05-29T19:06:00.001-07:00

They are taking care of a very sick girl 14 years old. Pleas be praying for the girl and that Annelies and Annemarie would have wisdom and strength.

Oh and Also Little Thomas is doing well and is spending nights with his mother! Over 2.0 kilos now and feeding from a bottle!

Psalmen 107:1

Prijs de HERE! Hij is een goede God. Want Zijn goedheid en liefde blijven eeuwig bestaan.

Thanks!

Dustin

Not that I am counting :]

2008-05-28T15:40:00.001-07:00

Countdownr

Little Thomas

2008-05-11T19:48:00.000-07:00

Good news! Little Thomas has reached 2.0 kilos! Please be praying for him that he would grow strong and healthy and for Annelies that she would get enough rest. I am still working on the documentary film. I should be finished soon. I miss Annelies very much. I also miss the Haitian people a lot too. I know that what I do here is critical to what I do in Haiti but I am eager to be back in Haiti. Please be praying for the Haitian people right now. Food prices are high and they are having a hard time of it. Thank you all for you prayers!

Job

2008-04-27T16:32:00.001-07:00

I am not Job and I would not claim to have experienced anything near what is described in Job chapter 1. But I think it is a good example of a response to the loss of someone(s) dear. Job's response is one of morning and equally of worship acknowledging the sovereignty of God!

Job 1:18-22

18 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 and suddenly a great wind came from across^[d] the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said:

“ Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the LORD.”
22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

Falenska

2008-04-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

Falenska passed away this morning. Please pray for Madam Villna(the mother), Annelies and I. Please pray that we would use this occasion to show God's love to others.

Thanks,

Dustin

Please pray for Falenska

2008-04-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

Falenska has a life threatening lung infection, please pray for her healing but that we would be open to the will of God as she may also be hydrophilic. Also please be praying for the Hospital patients, there is some bad stuff going on that may be related to voodoo. Also please keep Annelies in your prayers as these events weigh upon her.

Thanks,

Dustin

Falenska = 3.1 kilos !!!

2008-04-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

Thank you for praying for Falenska!

Falenska = 2.7 kilos!!!

2008-03-30T19:19:00.000-07:00

Falenska = 2.6 kilos!!!

2008-03-28T20:28:00.001-07:00

I am back for 3 months

2008-03-25T17:52:00.000-07:00

I am back home for three months. It has been a busy month and a half in Haiti. I am back in the United States to finish up a documentary about the City of Turlock which will help to fund my stay in Haiti. So there is much to tell. Most of you know about Annelies already. Things continue to go well with her although it is difficult being in separate countries. If anyone has the inside scoop on phone cards please let me know. The Cheapest legitimate way to call Haiti that I have found is 26 cents per minute.
In other news Falenska has hit 2.5 kilos today! Here are some earlier pictures of her. Work in Haiti has consisted of pouring a roof on the guards house for the hospital guest house and preparing for the team from California. The team from California came to build and install trusses for the roof of the hospital shop and do some much needed maintenance on Rob's vehicles. The week the team was here was pretty busy. The crew that came was very talented though and the work was done on time. Lifting the trusses into place was quite an adventure as we had no crane. CD came up with the brilliant idea of parking the tractor inside the trailer as seen in the picture. We managed to get the trusses up and welded in place though. I just heard that they had a lot of rain last night and this morning. Which is good! I am not sure if it is soon enough to save the crops for the animals but I hope so. Switching from working in Haiti to working on the documentary has been hard, going from something mostly manual labor to something mostly mental. But it is all coming back and I think I will be

Has it been a month allready?

2008-03-08T06:48:00.000-08:00

Why yes it has. Today I have been back in Haiti for a month. Time is flying by. I hope to post pictures soon. I have been preparing the shop site for the team my parents are bringing next week. They will be putting a roof on a shop building made from two containers. I am looking forward to seeing my parents and having them meet Annelies. Annelies and I have been taking care of a little child named Falenska who is one month old and weighs about 2.2 kilos now. She dropped to 1.9 kilos at one point. Please be praying for Falenska that she would be able to gain weight. Right now we take turns with a French couple for the night shift with Falenska. She has to eat about every hour to hour and a half at night. So I split the night with Annelies I take 9pm till 2am and she takes 2am till 6am. It can be a little tiring but the French couple Jak and Issabell take every other night so that we can get a full nights sleep. She is hovering at 2.2 kilos right now but we hope that will change soon. Her mother loves her very much which is encouraging to see. Mike the guy I have been working with has been staying up high in the mountains with a Haitian family a 2:45 hike one way. My Kreole is getting a lot better and I feel as though I can speak freely with the Haitian people now. I enjoy talking with the Haitian people these days, they are fun to talk to and it is interesting to see their perspective. I have been learning a little dutch word by word, although I think my English grammar has been suffering as of late. Well I will be coming home soon to finish the documentary. I will miss Haiti and also Annelies a little too :] But she will come out to visit soon. This time in Haiti has been well spent and I am getting to the stage where I can start to evaluate how I want to minister here in Haiti long term. Well I will see most of you, minus josh and rebecca and caleb soon :] Please be praying that I make use of every oportunity to show Gods love to those around me. Also be praying for Annelies and I that we would glorify God in our relationship. Also please pray for Falenska and Rob and Anne Marie. Thank you, Dustin

What is going on in Haiti

2008-02-21T08:26:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. Sorry I have not written yet. I have been working on putting up pillars with a dude named Michael Dewalt. Things have been going very well, have has good relationships with the workers and kids since I have been back. Still playing soccer every other day but on a smaller scale and for shorter time. It is nicer that way. Time on the computer is short so please excuse my short sentences.

I also have met a nice Dutch nurse here named Annelies and my grandmother will be happy to know that things are going well between us. Prayer requests, RAIN, that everyone would be safe working. The price of food is really high right now. Please pray for the price of food and for rain. People are loosing their crops and next months food right now. Please pray that I would make good use of my time here and that I would show Gods love to those I meet. Also please be praying for Annelies and I as we do not speak the same native language :] The hospital is moving along well, but it is already at capacity and Rob does not have enough money to start the next phase of construction. We can squeeze some more beds in once we have them. We are thinking about bunk beds at this point.

Missing Haiti

2007-10-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

Its Culture day! (somewhere)

2007-10-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

who is this lord of the philipino dance? I'll give you a hint. His name starts with J and ends with osh

Rain and Seeds

2007-09-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

I had a good reminder not to get caught up in the trivialities that our culture has to offer this morning. I called up a buddy of mine who lives in Haiti and was talking with him about how things where going. They had had rain but they had no money for seeds so that they could plant beans. I asked him how much money he needed to do so and he said 25 Haitian Dollars. 25 Haitian Dollars is about $3.57. His families well being hinges on the amount of money I spent on a fruit drink yesterday. I came back determined to live frugally here in the United States so that I would make good use of my time here and have the most resources possible to be of help in Haiti. Instead I find myself having slipped rapidly into a consumer mindset. There is a world out there that needs our help both physically and spiritually. How can we in good conscience be so caught up in serving ourselves? Let us go to the world around us weather that be the local homeless shelter, our neighbors or a tribe deep within the South American jungle and live the love of Christ.

Mathew 25:34-46

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Learning how to sew

2007-08-25T17:02:00.000-07:00

Skin that is. A while back after watching Gerland (a Haitian girl that works in the clinic and is kind of an apprentice to Dr. Anne-Marie) stich up one of the soccer guys I had asked Anne-Marie if it was something I could learn. She said that was no problem but stitches are allways a last minute thing not something that you can schedule normaly so months went by... until last week this lady came in with a large growth under her arm. Anne-Marie removed the growth but left the incision to be sutured until the next day. I have to say I was a little woried... mostly about the local anesthesia. I dont really like injecting people with needles :\ But Anne-Marie had some practice materiel available for me and taught me how to on that before moving to the real patient. The stitching went fairly well although my right hand was shaking a little at first. I forced myself to focuse on what I was doing and relax and that helped a bit. Giving stitches is one of the things on a list of things I would like to learn. People are allways cutting themselves with their own machets or getting cut by sharp bamboo so you never know when it will come in handy. The lady was very tough and did not complain. Well I am back in the US of A and the culture shock is not as bad as I expected. It was rather nice to take a hot shower and feel actually clean. I arrived up at camp where my parents work and have been hanging out with the family which has been very enjoyable. I miss the people in tpwias already but I hope to see them soon in January. My sister Leitha met me in the airport with two half gallons of ice creame! One mint chip and one cookies and cream :] People stoped and stared at us a little sharing our half gallon of ice cream but it was amazingly good.

So catching up with family has been real good, it is neat because they have lived in Haiti and really understand where I am coming back from. Today we played kayak soccer on the lake. A new sport that I am sure will make the olympics some day. Unfortunatly my sister and my dad totally whooped me my brother in law and my mom :[ Well I am off to check out the cabin my mom is building for her and my dad to stay in while at camp. I will be seeing many of you very soon!

Solar Systems (small ones)

2007-08-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

Ok just a warning, as usual I have no time to write or be on the internet so things are going to be disorganized. So anyways, what have I been up to? Working on solar systems, the kind that go in your house and make power out of the sun so you can stay up to late at night when you really should be asleap. A missionary in the city has had the equipment for a solar system for a few years but it had never really been set up propper and several of the panels had been stolen. My job was to put the panels in a frame that would make them dificult to steal and rewire the house so it was safer/nicer looking. Well it was interesting moving from the country to the city.

First off, no running water, which equals bucket showers and an outhous, in fact this outhouse which is populated by a large number of cockroaches.... yumm... well the instalation went pretty well and took me about a week. Another four panels are needed to complete the system but there is enough power for lights and use of the computer for now. All week while working I had been eying the green hills with envy so I took off sunday afternoon for a hike up to a town called Gion. It was a really neet hike and it was nice to get back out in the country away from the noise and pollution and heat of the city.
I followed up many small paths made by people and animals... the trail was often surrounded by bannana plants and often shaded by large mango and avacado trees. I ran into a few kids who where very happy to see me. They where quite curious as to what I was doing out in the middle of nowhere. Little mountain houses are abundant with families raising their produce in teraces on the slopes of the mountains. I eventually reached an old road which is no longer passable by car. It is still used heavily by foot traffic though. As I gained elevation there where small villages strung along side the road. The road followed the ridge route and there was a strong cool breeze that blew in to the village which was just below the clouds giving it an almost misty cool feeling. I hope to return there someday and continue up the moutain which is the largest in our area.
A few more days in the city and I was finished. I stopped at a pasters house on the way out of the city and helped his son fix some problems with his solar system crossed the river and waited for a ride. Eventually I caught a ride on a tap tap back to TPWIAS and arrived just before nightfall. There is a large teem from the netherlands in the area working on a school so the guesthouse is pretty packed but it is fun having a lot of people around. All the locals wanted to know where I had been so I spent a while catching up with everyone. The teem brought a bit of giardia with them and I was unfortunate enouhg to catch it and experience the first symptoms Saturday night. It is the sickest I have been in a while which has been a real blessing.
There have been official soccer mathces here the last few days so our little soccer games have been put on hold. I hope to resume them friday, unless I go back to Port de Paix that day. I have very few days left in tpwias. Pray that I use them for His glory! Pray that I will adjust well moving back to the States. Also BIG praise for rain we had the other day! it was very refreshing.
A tropical storm that may turn into a huricane is headed our way so we may get some more rain from that storm as well. Please pray that for the safety of the Haitians, and also please pray for the people of where I live. This morning while running I came accrost a voodoo cerimony in progress, people here are trapped into a system of fear where satan makes slaves of them. Please pray for them, and pray for the believers here that they would be light to those arround them.
The church here is often shallow, and it cannont afford to be... I am often shallow here and I can not afford to be... Well I look forward to seeing you all very soon. I start work Sept 1st and plan to go to a pretty strict sleeping schedule. In bed at dawn minus 8 hours whatever that is :] Some of you may be wondering why all of a sudden I have two pictures of myself both clearly posed in one post. Umm because my sister asked for them :] I will be back in the valley on the 29th of August! see you then!

patty cake patty cake baker man

2007-07-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

Not to much time to write, all is going well here. I have been kind of low on energy lately... think it is the heat... Went to the bakery the other day and thought I would take some pictures for you all. The big thing in the back is the oven. The roller in the foreground flattens the dough. Had some rain today which was nice. It looks like I may be coming home for a visit in September! I will probably be coming home to work on a documentary, then come back to Haiti late December early January. Looking forward to seeing all of you.

There is also a chance that I am going to singapore to visit Josh and Rebecca! These kids are Rob and Anne-Marie's. The dog just had puppies and they are pretty happy about it. It is a lot of fun hanging out with these kids, its like having little sisters all over again (don't worry Leith and Tash you aren't getting out of being my little sisters that easily) This week I have been working on a concrete form for the hospital fence and helping out a team that is here. It has been going good but I feel like I have been really dragged down by fatigue.

From top to bottom: Lisa is very introspective and sensitive, miriam is very expressive and vocal, anna-rose is very active and is quite a dancer. They are all very sweet (most of the time:) and make staying here a lot easier. I do not work all the time. While Josh and I where here we went down to the beach and relaxed in the shade of the cave. Well over the next few weeks I will be trying to finish up all the projects that I am involved in before going back to the States. Pray that I make the most of my few remaining days here and that I am prepared for re-entry back into a first world culture.

I will probably be working pretty intensely on this project so when I get back I am going to try to set a strict routine as far as going to bed and getting up etc... that will be a change for me since I often like to work and hang out with friends late at night. Going back to the States from a 3rd world country can be pretty weird. I remember coming back from Haiti the fist time as a kid and just being amazed at the endless street lights over the Bay bridge on the way home and just wondering how anyone could afford to pay for it. Sometimes it seems like the economic success that we enjoy in the States should not be possible. It is like the law of gravity being broken. It may sound odd but that is the impression I got coming back after being away for some time.

Are there any pictures that you would like to see on my blog that you have not seen. Let me know and I will take one and put one up. Something odd, some days here after speaking kreole most of the day I have a hard time pronouncing in English... hmm... well I look forward to seeing you all soon.

rotten apple

2007-07-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

Um so I haven't updated my blog in a while. The electronics on the magsafe module in the apple I was using are messed up. I am trying to convince apple to send me the part to fix it but they are reluctant. It is not very easy to just send a laptop in from here for service. For all of you out there just waiting to blast apple, it was not an apple defect, I did some things with the power supply that no one should ever do, bypassing all reasonable safety measures. Well it caught up with me when I hooked up a firewire drive and poof the smoke got out. Things have been going well here. Just had josh for a visit which was good. Had a pretty sweet trip to the beach, even though I fell over on the motorcycle and we forgot towles... We worked on making a form for some concrete pillars for the fence around the hospital. Well I did some work in rob and anne maries house yesterday and got a new computer up and running which is nice since the old one was pretty slow. I may be able to do pictures for my blog from this one. I have been sick the last couple of days, think i have a minor ear infection, anyways got pretty dizzy. On another interesting note. I woke up the other night and it felt like there was something on my face, I brushed it off and turned on my petzle light and could find nothing. The second time I had my light ready and brushed off what I found to be a very large cockroach.... mmm... they can be pretty tasty when you haven't had much protein in a while :] Actually Josh left me with a ton of beef jerky and granola bars, Thanks Rebecca! I know the odds of Josh coming prepared like that on his own are pretty low :] So it has been pretty hot around here. Friday I laid down and just sweat all day. At first I thought it was because I was sick but I think it was just that hot. Next week I will be working on several solar systems... thieves make putting up solar systems here a lot of work. Have soccer today, but have moved it back to 4:50pm because of the heat. The sun is incredibly hot here. Pray that I would make the most of opportunities that I am given to share the gospel and show Christs love to people here. I will have a new roommate next week Lord willing. He is the son of a pastor here and is going to come live with me kind of as an apprentice. This will be interesting, I have not had a roommate since college. His name is Stanley, pray that we get along well :] I will try to put up some pictures later on. Well I miss you all. Write me and let me know what you are up to and what you are doing.... yes that means you....

new major

2007-06-30T13:51:00.000-07:00

So today I am going to start studying parallel treatments of photons, electrons, phonons, and molecules as enery carriers, aiming at fundamental understanding and descriptive tools for enery and heat transport processes from nanoscale continuously to macroscale. Including the energy levels, the statistical behavior and internal energy, energy transport in the forms of waves and particles, scattering and heat generation processes, Boltzmann equation and derivation of classical laws, deviation from classical laws at nanoscale and their appropriate descriptions, with application in nano- and microtechnology.

iTunes U now available on iTunes

I never should of wasted all that money going to a real coollege

The House of Hope

2007-06-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

The past week has been very refreshing. Since Leah's sister Caitlin was painting the mural we spent a lot of time hanging out with the kids at the hospital. They where a blast to hang out with... it was really neat because they are so content and happy with so little. Caitlin had the kids start the painting filling in outlines with various colors. Then she took over and finished in the details. I have some various pictures that I will scatter throughout this post of the kids. This has been a long week with the kids, we gave out some soccer balls on Leah's last day in town and it was a lot of commotion. It went as well as can be expected for giving stuff away. On Sunday we worshiped with a church being formed near Trois Rivier. We then took a boat across the river and headed up to the house of hope. Although I knew what to expect, I was not prepared for it. So many children, with so many illnesses. I do not know how the people at the House of Hope keep up with it all. Currently there are about 80 children that they are caring for. The House of Hope is a home for kids with illnesses such as TB. It was very overwhelming at first but the kids were great, we had a great time with crayons, colored pencils and glitter. I forgot how much fun it was to open a fresh box of crayons. Ok since I am running out of time I am going to just dump a bunch of photos here.

Leah flew out with her sister on Monday. So now I sit in the corner of the room talking to myself :] Just kidding, I will miss her though and so will the soccer boys and Mdm. Jerar.... Speaking of soccer it is almost time for soccer so I will finish up quickly. This morning I woke up at three in the morning to drive a team to the airport. I was worried we would not make it across the small river because I could hear it start roaring down from the mountains about 10 pm last night. The small river was fine but the big river was two big to cross. I picked up one of the guys that works for Bruce at the river and we commandeered one of his relatives aluminum boats and pushed the team across the river. Those river shoes and river pants have come in handy. They drain and dry pretty quick. I have the merrill river shoes but I would actually recommend the Keen river shoes they seem more durable. Well soccer may not happen today. It just started raining. Well maybe soccer in the rain :]

radiator

2007-06-19T09:34:00.000-07:00

So today I am sitting in the airport at Cap Haitian again. There is some strange French cartoon playing on the television. It amazes me how many cartoons are out there when you think of the work it takes to create them. I spent last night at a pastors house in Port de Paix. Living in the city is one thing that I don't think I could do here. It is very noisy, dirty, and smells like burning garbage. The place I stayed at was pretty nice though. It was not far from the ocean and the evening storm blew in rain and fresh air. This picture was taken from the balcony at the pastors house. The photo is lit only by lightning which is why it looks a little strange. The river was a bit higher than usual yesterday and I was unsure as to weather I should cross it or not. It was not really a question of weather we would make it across or not but just wanting to avoid wear and tear on the vehicle. I ended up crossing...
The past week I have been working on Bruce's team house doing some electrical and network stuff. Leah and I are in Cap Haitian to pick up here sister who is here to spend two weeks painting murals with the kids. After that they will be leaving together.
It is starting to get hot here. The sun shines so brightly that 5 minutes outside leaves your skin feeling sunburned. I took some visiting engineering students to the market the other day. Bought some sweet potatoes, bananas, tomato paste and sandals. Most grocery stores have a parking lot, here at the market we have a donkey/mule/horse if your lucky lot.

(the next day)

oops... Well let me begin at the begining... As you know the other day I was on my way to Cap Haitian with Leah to go pick up her sister from the airport. Rob let us borrow his Toyota Land cruiser to go pick her up. So Leah and I left around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. On the way we ran into another missionary who had been down at the river doing some other work. He told us that the river was high and that we would probably be better off leaving the vehicle on this side of the river. We went our separate ways and finally arrived at the river. The river was higher than usual (a little higher than the bottom of a donkeys belly. I parked where I had a good view of the river crossing and watched a few tap taps venture across. Everyone seemed to be making it across OK, so after a very sincere prayer we crossed the river. Fortunately we were crossing in such a manner that we were going downstream as we crossed. This not only helps propel you across it keeps water from building up in front of the vehicle. We made it across without incident. We spent the night at a pastors house in Port de Paix and flew out early the next morning to Cap Haitian. ok so we picked her sister up with about 350 lbs of luggage and made it successfully back to Port de Paix. (Many thanks to Karen :] ) and now the rest of the story.... yesterday I coming back from Port de Paix the river was still high. I sat and watched the river for about an hour trying to decide weather I should cross it or not. It was still a little higher than a donkeys belly... same as the day before, however this time we would be fording it going upstream. Meaning the water would be pushing against us. tap taps (bush taxis) were crossing it driving backwards to keep the water from pushing its way up into the ignitions system and air intake of their vehicles. One vehicle stalled in the river from taking on two much water. As they pushed the truck across the river someone inside began to bale out water through the passenger window. They eventually got the vehicle out of the river. After seeing about 8 vehicles cross successfully, all of which were less equipped for river crossings than the Toyota Land Cruiser I was driving, I decided to go ahead and cross. The toyota we where driving had been outfitted for river crossing complete with bash plates and a snorkel. I entered the water and all went pretty well, the water came to about the top of the tires but we had a good amount of weight in the back kept good traction all the way across. We were relieved to make it across the river without getting stuck. We had just about made it home when I happened to look at the engine temp and saw that it was really hot. I went ahead and stopped then shut off the engine. (For those of you who don't know if the engine gets too hot it can fuse together and become pretty much a nice solid boat anchor) Fortunately I saw the temp gauge before that happened. I got out and checked the radiator fluid reservoir. Empty of course. I eased the radiator cap (don't try this at home) halfway so that it could vent steam if there was any. There was not. I looked down at the radiator and saw that it had been scraped heavily next to the fan.
So I am not sure what happened but either the fan hit the water in the river and propelled itself into the radiator... or there was some foreign object floating in the river that got jammed between the radiator and the fan. We are going to try and fix it with stop leak but I would like to buy a new radiator for it, since it is the ambulance for this area and usually operates on bad roads in far out places. So I was not looking forward to telling Rob what I had done to his very nice vehicle... but he took it very well and had a great attitude about it. I felt bad because I thought that perhaps I should not have crossed the river while it was so high. Rob said that he had crossed it when it was high enough that it came over the hood... so that was comforting. We put some water in the radiator and got it home. We are going to try and use stop-leak to fix it on monday... I really would like to replace the radiator for him though... He is going to talk to the people that sponsored the vehicle and outfitted it to see how much one would cost and have it shipped in a container. Well that is my sad story for yesterday.... Today Leah's sister Caitlan began painting with the kids here at PCB. The kids are having a blast.

Survey Says...

2007-05-28T09:53:00.001-07:00

This is the son of a guy I work with here in Haiti. Most kids his age carry water at least once a day from the public fountain to the house. Most don't have a wheelbarrow to do it with. Many use donkeys. We have been getting rain on a regular basis. It is amazing the regularity of it. We are not getting huge rains but lots of small rains which is good. It keeps the crops alive and does not cause too much run off and erosion. This past week I have been busy. Part of the time I have been helping mark out posts for a fence line for the hospital guest house where I am staying. It has been very hot and humid. I got a bit of a tan this week. I try to stay covered up but sometimes when it real humid its hard to put on a long sleeve shirt. This week Sadrak and I had to do an emergency survey as well. They had bugun work on a canal here and realized they where going to have a problem with slope about 40 meters in. So we went and surveyed this canal in a river valley with steep slopes on either side.
There was a lot of mangos, bannanas coconuts and bread fruit treas that where in the way so we had to set the instrument up about 150 feet up on the side of one of the hills. Not knowing any of the paths nor how steep the hill became I decided to just climb straight up the side of the hill. I realized this was a mistake about halfway up when I was grasping for anything that looked stable trying not to roll down the side of the hill. Well I eventually made it to a stable place with a good view of the valley. Shooting the points was difficult and we had to redo a large portion of our work because of some mistakes we made but eventually with the help of some others got enough data for the engineers to figure out how much slope we had to work with. The other day I went to the beach with a bunch of TB patients from the hospital. Anne-Marie rented a tap tap and about thirty of them went down to the ocean. It was really neat to see them get out and away from the hospital. We crammed about thirty of us into the back of a toyota pickup and they sang all the way down to the ocean and all the way back.
Recently we had some hydro-geologists visit us. They gave us some very much needed information about where we should be drilling for water. It is amazing the knowledge that comes through this area. We spent the day driving, hiking, and looking at the plunge angle of various sedimentary rock layers and some maps compiled by the UN many years ago. I may be learning how to drill wells very soon. Soccer has been going well. I am starting to make fewer points for the other team :] Will write more later.... Oh hey by the way I saw some of you left comments on my blog. This thing does not notify me when I get new comments so I will go through and reply to your comments soon, thanks for your patience :]

Rain :]

2007-05-11T07:32:00.000-07:00

This donkey may not be to happy about the rain we have been getting but everyone else is. Rain is precious here. Many times it means the difference between having something to eat or not. I was walking on the main road the other day when a few large drops started to fall. Soon it was raining so hard that it was hard to hear anything but the rain. I cant describe what it feels like to get rain when you need it so bad. The kids have a blast running around in the mud. We are coming to the end of the rainy season here so rain will likely be scarce for the next few months till about September. I have been doing well here, although about a week ago I was having a bit of an attitude problem towards the people here. As I mentioned in my last post it can be very tiring when everyone sees you as a potential benefactor to meet their needs. Over the period of a week or two I had lost patience and had begun to feel bitter towards certain groups of people here. Fortunately bitterness hurts the one who holds onto it the most:] The Lord showed me that my bad attitude was shading my whole view of everything, and that people where not really as bad as I had begun to see them. I think this will be an ongoing struggle for me here and so I ask for your prayers in that area. Praise the Lord for changing my attitude though... it has allowed me to have some good conversations and build relationships with some new people.

(I am just going to throw in some random pictures of people throughout this post.) Came across this verse the other day...

1 Cor 2:9
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Sitting down and talking with Haitian people is a great blessing. A lot of times I feel like avoiding talking to people because the conversation inevitable turns towards what can you give me. But once you get past that there is a lot you can learn about and from these people, they are quite friendly and are very easy to talk to. This week I have been working on putting in conduit for network cables and power. There is an engineering office that we are trying to put together here. It has been taking me longer than I would like but I am trying to take my time and do the job right. Mediocrity begets Mediocrity and it just builds up till you have a big mess. I am going to try and have this engineering office done right, but doing things right takes time and money but in the end it saves both. These are the sons of the guy who owns a restaurant in the intersection of our little village. I use the term restaurant loosely. It has a corrugated shack next to it that serves as the kitchen. The restaurant proper is concrete block and probably would not get a grade A from the health department. But the food always smells good. Someday I will go over there for dinner. I buy all my bread from this place. This kid runs his dads place when he is not around. You can actually get a cold Coca Cola in the bottle from this place at times. We have an abundance of pumpkins right now. The kids keep bringing them to us sometimes three at a time. Leah has been making pumpkin bread which is very good. She is leaving me with a bunch of recipe's so that when she leaves I will have a better chance of fending for myself in the kitchen. I have been blessed to have here as a friend here and will miss her when she goes. Luvner a kid from the neighborhood that plays soccer fell in some wuzoe (a plant much like bamboo, it leaves skewers behind when the top is chopped off with a machete) the other day and got some pretty nasty cuts on his leg. I took him down to the clinic to get stitched up. It is the first time I have seen someone giving stitches up close. I helped to the extent of my abilities.... holding the tray of instruments... but I really want to learn how to do some basic medical tasks. So I asked Dr. Anne-Marie and she is going to teach me how to give stitches. I am trying to think of what other medical things that would be useful to learn. It is unique to be able to go in and just learn something like that right off the bat. I have a cell phone now. Feel free to try and call me if you would like. Be forewarned though, it may cost you a lot of money, so maybe check with you phone company and see what kind of rates they have to a mobile in Haiti. Incoming calls do not cost me anything. xxxxxxxxxxxxx The 011 gets you out of the United States, the 509 is Haiti's country code and then the rest is my number. I am thinking about making my blog not password protected again and if so I will probably remove my number and some other information from here as well. Well drop me an email if you have the time I would love to hear from all of you. One thing to be praying for is a Doctor to help out Rob and Anne-Marie. Anne-Marie sees a very heavy patient load and they rarely get time off. Pray that I would have a good attitude and love the Haitian people.

1Cor 13
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

A day at the airport

2007-04-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

Got up at 3:30 this morning to drop someone off for a 5 am flight. We were at the airport plenty early however, unbeknown to us a small airplane had a little brush with a UN helicopter the previous afternoon on the runway. While no one was hurt an extensive survey of the situation had to be done before removing the aircraft from the runway. Well without getting to cynical the survey was not that extensive it was more of a bureaucratic delay... So Thursday I spent most of the day at the airport watching the drama. Basically the UN helicopter was parked as you see it with blades hanging into the path of the runway. It was parked in that manner because there was another helicopter taking up the other pad. The nations air flight was able to stop in time to avoid colliding with the helicopter blade. After coming to a short but safe stop, the ground crew proceeded to guide the plane around the helicopter. The ground crew said that the pilot would clear the blade but obviously they misjudged the situation. So the planes prob took a little bite out of the helicopter blade.

To make a long story short they flew in another helicopter blade and moved the chopper and plane of the runway and the 5 am flight rolled out around 1:30 pm. So what else have I been doing? The other day Sadrak (a haitian engineer and a buddy of min) and I went out and did some surveying work. We had two known GPS points that we had to tie the rest of some survey work into. Basically we had two concrete markers on hilltops that we knew the longitude latitude and elevation of; then we had about five or six others that we did not. So we used a topcon total station to find the position of the rest. You do that by measuring the heading elevation difference and distance from known points. Here is Sadrak setting up the total station.

The surveying work is pretty fun. Lots of hiking, fresh air, and enough of a challenge to keep boredom at bay. These Points (little mounds of concrete with steel posts in the middle) that we established will be used to design and build future structures for irrigation projects. Good news, bible study has been going well on Sunday afternoon, some interesting questions are being asked by the kids. It is hard to get out of the memorize and bounce it back to the teacher mode that the educational system here ingrains into students. It is difficult to get the kids to seriously consider something instead of coming up with what he or she thinks you want to hear. There is one kid in particular who has been asking excellent questions. Please be in prayer for these kids. Also please pray for Leah and I. We often get asked for a lot of things here and it can be difficult to know what to do. Is there a limit to how much you give? What if the person is asking just to see what they can get? Do you give unconditionally when you are asked? We are surrounded by a lot of people with real needs, and they often see us as a source for meeting those needs. Please pray for our attitudes, it is easy to get frustrated and have a bad attitude. If we give food on a regular basis, are we making them dependent on us, is that something we should avoid doing or does it not matter, are we just called to give? I would love to hear some of your guys thoughts on this, drop me an email, or post. We are seen as being wealthy and so we are when compared to those around us. I find the scriptures very convincingly pointing towards giving no matter what, but that seems like it could get crazy? what if they ask for my shoes? Do I go barefoot? Do I give till I have nothing left? Maybe I do... maybe following Christ requires a little foolishness (by the worlds standard)... Just something on my mind, again I would love to hear your thoughts.

Things I get asked for:

Money (sometimes large amounts for school, sometimes anything no matter how small)
Food (every night)
Shoes (mine or new ones)
Soccer balls
Whatever I have in my hand (even when the person asking does not know what it is)
clothes

Matthew 5:42
Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.

Life in Haiti is hard

2007-04-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

Life in Haiti is hard for a lot of people. It is amazing that the people here are able to survive. Some friends and I visited this mans sons house the other day. Now in this case it is not a matter of simply being bad off. The son has a problem with gambling and spends a lot of money on fighting roosters. But talking to this man it seems like he was a hard worker in his day. His son says he is 110 years old. While this guys son may not be the best steward of what he has, there are others of whom I do not have photos who have a life just as hard or harder. There is an old lady in particular who has a husband that gets intoxicated every evening. It makes me sad because the lady works very hard to take care of the house and cook and her husband wastes so much money on alchohol. Sometimes it is hard to deal with being asked for money and things on a day to day basis. The scriptures state pretty clearly that we should give to those who ask of us. But sometimes it is hard when you know they are asking just because they know you will give it to them or they are just trying to test you. I hope I am not being to critical of the people here. They are people who are happier than most Americans even with what little they have. And they are generous as well. The man in the picture's son gave us four eggs even when it was probably about all he had and we were not in need, I felt bad taking them as I often do feel taking gifts but to refuse would be to take something more, their dignity. Today a pastor out at a church in the middle of nowhere fed me lunch today. I did not want to take his food because I wasn't sure how much he had... All in all though people are doing ok here. Pray that I would have a good attitude towards people here and that I would know who and how to help. I am also in the middle of making decisions as to whether and which mission organization I should go to. Pray that I would make a wise decision. I was planning on going with crossword but am in the process of rethinking that. Well I miss all of you. Email me or post on my blog I would be great to hear from you :]

Tired...but happy :]

2007-04-09T12:08:00.000-07:00

Well I have a bit of news to catch everyone up on. The picture from the previous post is of me on the back of a motortaxi in Cap Haitian. I went in to pick up norm the electrician. That morning I woke up early and went for a run with Leah. I then went down to the carfou (intersection) to wait for a taptap (taxi). I ended up catching a ride with bruce down to PM. From there I was able to pick up a taxi into town. The ride was uneventful minus running out of gas, not far from where they sold it. I had some of my fellow passengers take a picture of me. We were able to make it across the river without any problams even though it was high since we were traveling downstream as we crossed. I was able to catch a small plane out of Port de Paix to Cap Haitian. And reserve tickets for Norm and I at the same time. My flight took me over with no problems, in Cap Haitian, no one was at the airport so I was able to walk right up to the counter and make arrangements with the supervisor for the transport of some medical supplies that will arrive tomorrow. The soldier in front of the arrivals let me go in and pick up Norm at immigration so that made things significantly easier. We passed through customs with no problems, walked over to departures and checked in all norms luggage all with no problems. I then had about an hour and a half before our flight took off so I caught a motortaxi over to the only grocery store I knew of that had cheese. Amazingly we found the place and I was able to get all I needed in twenty minutes. We made it back to the airport with 45 minutes to spare. The flight back was uneventful all Norms luggage made it, we stopped and had a great dinner at the restaurant at the port de paix airport. We walked out the front gate of the airport and walked ten steps before we ran into a taptap (taxi) driver that is from my hometown here. He asked if we needed a ride and drove us all the way to our front door.

Now you may ask why did I tell you that boring story. Well the thing is that story should be about three pages long and filled with problems and one or two days of delay. It should have taken a minimum on two days to pick him up and get back. But for it to be done in less than 12 hours is a miracle.

Norm is an artist when it comes to doing electrical work. It has been fun to work with him and learn how to do things. At this point the electrical is nearly complete. Norm is putting in the last few electrical connections right now. That building now has the most professional wiring job I have ever seen in Haiti.

The other day Leah and I went for a hike to the ocean from tpwias. It was about a 15 mile hike, but it was a lot of fun. We left early and hiked down to the bay then went west along the coast looking for caves. We didn't find to many accessible caves. Most that we found were underwater and with the large surf were to dangerous to try and explore. I did go ahead and walk around into the last cave which was a little low. I got a little bit soaked while crawling inside. The cave was not very deep but it was pretty interesting. Getting in and out of the cave was a bit hairy so Leah waited this one out. I was hoping to find a good one to explore. My dad and I found one further to the west that I would like to explore but it will take a climbing rope and a harness to get inside. On our way there and back we hiked through the area we had been surveying earlier this year. It is neat to see all the gardens producing good crops.

Well, I feel like I have spent most of my time running back and forth between the depot and various job sites. Norm will be leaving tomorrow and the electrical work will be done. I don't know what I will be doing next although I need to file my tax return shortly. I have done most all the work already but am trying to figure out deductions.

Please be praying for Rob and Anne-Marie and Gloria. Gloria is a premature baby that they are taking care of and she is not doing well. Someone has to stay up with her all night to feed and take care of her. Rob and Anne-Marie have been taking care of it but they are reaching exhaustion with all of that in addition to their normal duties. The clinic was packed this morning as well. Also please be praying for soccer. We had a rough day the other day. Also pray that we would prepare well for Bible study on sunday with the kids.

Yes I am still alive

2007-04-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have not been doing any updates or sending emails. I have been busy, went in to town picked up norm and we are working on electrical. This picture is of me in Cap Haitian doing some grocery shopping! Cheese and chocolate, nigh impossible to get, but got them this day! This is what a Haitian city typically looks like, minus the nerdy white guy in the foreground :] Will write more later :]

life in Haiti

2007-03-23T11:53:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I have not updated this thing in two weeks. I apologize :] Things have been very busy here. Due to the limited amount of time I have this blog may be rather jumbled because it has been written at different times then pasted together. Let me start with yesterday to give you an idea of what I do over here. Yesterday I woke up at 4am to the not so lovely sound of Li Fet's rooster crowing just outside my window. He starts at 4 am then gives a good crow about every 45 seconds to make sure you don't drift off back to sleep. At about 5:30 I fell back asleep for a good thirty minutes, till I was awakened for the morning run, by Leah. We went for our normal run, it is only 3 miles but the hills get me every time. After that it was off to the morning shower then down to the teem house to meet with the engineers and see what their plans where for the day. Yesterday they where giving a presentation to summarize their findings on an irrigation/drainage project to the stakeholders. The presentation went fairly well, though I must be honest waking up at 4am made staying awake difficult. What engineers you ask?

We have had a teem of engineers here on and off evaluating a plain to see what needs to be done to restore the land to productive use.
After the presentation I drove the team down to the ocean to look at some water channels, the road was quite muddy from the previous days rain and we almost got stuck. We were in and range rover and despite the fact that it is falling apart like a piece of junk after only 7000km it did very well in the mud. I managed to lock the differential and get it into low range and back out of the ditch I got stuck in and made it on the second run. The engineers are all very knowledgeable and I try to keep my mouth shut and learn as much as possible. Driving on Haitian roads after a rain is more like boating than driving. The day before yesterday we had a meeting but the rain was fairly heavy and kept us from having to may in attendance.

We arrived home from the field at about 4pm and from there I headed to the soccer field. Soccer went well at first but quickly degenerated into rock throwing and name calling. So we had to put some discipline into action. Picking up a rock on the field in tpwias now automatically gets you suspended from the game for two weeks.As soon as you set rules the kids feel the need to test them so on of our regular players did... so sad am going to miss him... well overall the soccer games usually go pretty well. We have scrimmage jerseys which the kids don't care for to much but it really helps us Americans to who are not that good at telling haitians apart yet. tout blan samble, tout noua samble.... I am still in a quandry as to what to do for devotions after soccer. Getting the kids to calm down is becoming harder. I did have a chance to have a good talk with one of the little kids though and that was encouraging. Pray that I would see problems as opportunities to show Christ's love. The rain is always welcome here as it means more food on peoples tables. Today I spent half of the day tranlsating for a dental team that is doing work in the area.
It was pretty gnarly as most of the work done was extractions. The dentists were very good at what they do though. Many of the patients had less than half of their teeth left to begin with... The second half of today I spent learning how to put survey data into autocad. At the end of the day Leah and I had dinner with Rob and Anne-Marie and family. And now I sit writing on the porch to all of you. It is cool and the sky is mostly clear although with an occasional rain cloud blowing through. Two of the soccer boys stopped me in the road today to settle a dispute, I didn't resolve the dispute but they where soon distracted asking for me to take a picture of them that they forgot about their argument. Pray that we would show Christ's Love to these kids... (I am resuming writing after a few days break. Today we have soccer with the boys again.Please be praying that it would go better today and we would find a better way to organize the bible study with it. There are quite a few pictures at higher resolutions on my friend Leah's flickr page if you would like to check them out. I may sign up for a flickr account but since she is using a lot of my pics I will just send you to hers for now. The link is http://flickr.com/photos/7252990@N05/ That link may change to something nicer soon, so I will try to come back and edit the link when it does. If you cant get to it just let me know. At the end of this blog entry I will place a section that Leah wrote for you all describing the kind of things we do for fun around here. IE. what to do when you are the only american "kids" for miles :] Let me know anything you would like me to write about im my blog and I will do my best to put it in... Well I'm off to file my taxes then play some soccer... again please be praying for the soccer kids, thanks Dustin

Well I have tons of photos and I can't upload them all but I am going to stick a few right here rather ungracefully so please bear with the lack of aesthetic.

leahs neat blog for dustin

2007-03-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

On the horizon the moon hung low, the symphony of crickets chirped, in the distance one could hear the donkeys waking for their nightly drink. Not a creature was stirring in the little town of tvwias, except a 6'1'' lad named Dustin. With the help of his new sidekick Leah they went off for adventure in the Haiti night. With an idea that would make all the little boys and girls dance with glee the two white blanchs set off with a bag of thirty tennis balls. With headlamps, quiet feet the two ventured into the woods and streets of Haiti finding nooks and crannies to hide tennis balls. From trees, to cows, to rocks, to water fountains, thirty balls found there new homes for the evening. Who says you need HBO, Starbucks, Blockbuster for entertainment? Tennis balls...10.00...petzel headlamps..34.00....Dustin traipsing through the woods debating weather or not to hide a tennis ball under a a 1,000 lb. bull....PRICELESS!

first week

2007-03-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a busy first week, upon ariving I took two days to rest and catch up on some much needed sleep. Then it was off to set up a new satellite internet connection, should have taken me one day.... took me four but it is working extremely well. Had help from Leah, a friend of mine here, she wrote a section for my blog ill put it on later. Have been playing soccer with the boys from the village about every day. Please pray for our after game "bible study" it has been dificult to get the kids to settle down lately. We have some new ideas but please keep it in your prayers. Sometimes I feel like the relationships with those boys are the most important thing we are building here. Two days ago and engineering team showed up and I have been busy trying to help them out in any way I can. I enjoy spending time in the field with them. The work that there are doing is very important for this area and Lord willing will help a lot of people have food on a regular basis. It is neat to see farmers that have good gardens that are working them and providing for themselves and their families. I thought some of you may be interested in a typical day here for me. I will try to photograph and write down what I do in an average day here to kind of give you guys an idea of what it is like over here. I may also try to do the same thing for a Haitian kid over here. Today some college age guys and I had English bible study (they think its English class, I think its a Bible study) this morning. We are going through the beatitudes along the same lines as we did with Monday night bible study. I then went to a meeting, then off to the field to map out a certain canal and features along a ravine using a field book, my camera, and a gps unit. The weather was amazing and I was fortunate enough to walk through some very lush gardens not to mention some sort of jasmine or something was in full bloom. I had a few interesting conversations with some guys in the field today. One guy thought I was looking for a place to build a house and was telling me the spot I was standing was a very bad place to build :] That makes sense since I was marking features of a flood plane. I reasured him that I was not looking for a place to build a house. He showed me where he had just lost one not long ago due to flood waters. I continued on down the ravine till I came to the ocean where I stoped and talked with a fisherman at the bay. He was very friendly and we talked about what kind of crabs he harvests. He said he was very glad to see us doing work in the area. We then headed back home. Rain was in the air today but nothing really fell. Please be praying for rain for the peoples crops. Also for a small group bible study we hope to start with some of the soccer boys. Wow, just got a couple drops of rain :] Sorry this is rough but time is limited the end...

First Day in Haiti

2007-03-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

Well yesterday I flew out with MFI to haiti. Flew with Sam, a pilot who has been flying with mfi for many years, he has about 20,000 hours in a DC3. The flight took about six hours and was fairly uneventful. We arrived on the DC3 at about 11:30 am and my next flight on the puddle jumper took off at 12:30. I did not quite make it to my next plane. I had to go through customs which I was a little nervous about because I was bringing quite a bit of supplies with me. The lady was very nice though and ended up only charging me about $20 US. Next task was to get my 120 pounds of luggage to the other side of the airport. This is less of a physical feat as it is a negotiational feat. There are many enthusiastic will carry your bags even if you refuse them people waiting just outside the door. The trick is to pick one guy and say you are responsible and you will only be paying them. Then it is up to them to choose who will help them. So I found a guy and we managed to get to the ticket counter of the puddle jumper that would be taking me the rest of the way. Another half hour of negotiation with the ticket counter people and I was able to get a ticket and passage for my cargo. So to make a long story short, I got on the small plane, had a good flight but a rough landing. Rob picked me up and we headed to where I will be working. I was going to insert a picture here but the formating goes haywire when I do So I will try something else.
Ok think I have it sorted out here is a picture out the small planes window. It appears to be lush but much of it is just ground cover. There are not many forested areas left in Haiti. There has not been much rain over the last month but It rained petty good right before I got to where I am going. I rode into TPWIS (the place where I'm staying) with some patients that rob was picking up from the hospital. One guy had been shot in the face with some sort of shotgun, saw the xray and it was pretty narley. Caught up on sleep last night and I am feeling a lot better. My next blogs will be fewer but more detailed and I will try to make them a little more interesting. More people and photos. Ok well I must go here is one final picture for the road.

Made it

2007-03-08T19:12:00.000-08:00

Hey everone made it to here safely. Will write more later :]

2007-03-08T03:43:00.000-08:00

On my way :]

2007-03-07T17:05:00.000-08:00

Well today went fairly well considering. I lost a bag in chicago last night but got it back along with a $50 ticket voucher from southewest so it worked out. Stayed with friends last night, and did a little bit of shopping making all the final little purchases i needed to make for some of the missionaries over there. Learned not to get on the turnpike by accident today. Nearly ended up going all the way across florida today, there are no exits only "official use only" u turns. Well the toll lady told me to take the u-turn so I figured that was official enough. Making one last trip out to pick up supplies tonight then its off to bed. I fly out with mfi tomorrow morning. They are a pretty amazing group of people, without whom it would be difficult to get anything done in Haiti. Well I am new at blogging so let me know the type of things you would like to hear about and I will try to focus on those things. If you want to check out where my last flight will land me tomorrow (Lord willing) click here. I will be landing on the dirt airstrip that you see in the center of the satellite image. Thanks again to all of you who made this possible.

On the way back to Haiti

2007-03-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! It has been an amazing month... As many of you know I had quite a bit of work to catch up on while I was back here in the United States. There were a few sleepless nights but all in all it went very well. The Lord does provide for and take care of us. Mathew 6:25-34 has been a great encouragement to me, I will not name names but some of you have been making sure that I don't forget that passage, and for that I thank you :] Many of you have been very encouraging to me with you prayers and financial support. I should not be but I am nonetheless amazed with how able and willing God is to provide. (Matt 7:7-12) Pray that I would be a good steward of the time and money he has given me as I go to Haiti. It is easy for me to get caught up in the projects I am working on while in Haiti, pray that I would Focus first on loving God and second on loving others, in particular the Haitian people. A lot of times it comes down to remembering that they are more important than any project, as simple as that sounds I find it is often something I loose sight of over there. Well, thank you guys for the going away party, all of you have been a great blessing in my life and I have enjoyed getting to know you. I wish that we could continue Bible study together, but I am also excited about the prospect of you (the bible study group) getting involved in the community. My flight leaves soon. I will try to continue this post at a later time :]