Welcome!

17th April 2011

Thank you for visiting my blog and welcome!

Since arriving in Haiti a couple of months ago things have been moving pretty slowly.  There are a variety of reasons for this.  Things are never as you expect them to be when you come to a new country, new job, new culture etc.  In fact that is pretty much the only expectation you can count on!  In a lot of ways it has been good to have had the time to settle in, get used to our surroundings, learn a bit of the lingo and generally find out how life works here in Port-au-Prince.

The house that we are living in currently is situated in an area called Tabarre in the north west of the city.  Its a fairly quiet area...apart from the huge UN base about 200 metres away!

We share the house with our landlord, Alphonse and his family.  It feels very secure inside the 10ft walls,  but still homely with the enormous and bountiful mango tree that dominates the outside area.

Jackie, my co worker, and I spend many hours on the veranda in the shade of this giant tree reading and studying, writing emails...and playing scrabble!

Our latest news is that we have a meeting with some folks at the Samaritan's Purse base tomorrow morning to discuss a couple of projects that we may be able to get involved with.  I'm really excited about the prospect of working with such a well established and well respected organisation.

We went to visit the base last week and thoroughly enjoyed being out of the city for a few hours, and driving along Route 1 which gave us our first good view of the Caribbean Sea since our plane landed 10 weeks ago!  We were invited to join the Chaplaincy Team that afternoon as they visited one of the Samaritan's Purse cholera treatment centres just outside Cite Soliel, one of the poorest areas of Port-au-Prince.  I was impressed at what can be built with a few planks of wood and some tarps...and in just 9 days too!

We spoke to some of the nurses, most of whom had just arrived the day before, using their annual leave to work 12 hour shifts in 35 degree heat...now that's impressive!  You can't fail to be moved by the sight of the low, hard beds, also covered in tarps with holes cut in the middle above a bucket for those too ill to move.  While we were there though a young woman was allowed home and it is these victories that must keep the staff going through the darker moments of their work there.

Most Sundays we attend Pastor Forges church, Solid Rock Church, which is relatively close to where we live.  They lost their building in the earthquake last January and meet in a huge tent.  The church has around 3,000 people come on any one Sunday in 2 morning services.

There isn't enough room for us all to sit inside the tent so most weeks we are outside in the sunshine.  The first week, however, Pastor Forges spotted us and invited us to come and sit inside...on the front row...where else?!?

(Can you spot me in this crowd of worshippers?)


We enjoy the worship and recognise some of the songs so we can join in...when we can remember the English version that is! The sermon is a little above our knowledge of Creole unfortunately.   We have been known to be sitting with our Bibles at the ready only to realise that we're still on the announcements...its still early days!

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Thanks again for taking the time to read my blog.  I'm looking forward to being able to fill these pages with exciting stories of what God is doing here in Haiti, and some more nonsense of what I've been up to along the way!!!