Greetings from Haiti!! - Full Day #2

We ended our second full day here at Mountain Top Ministries admiring the shooting stars, praying for what lies ahead, and singing praises to our almighty God.  Today has been filled with a wide variety of activities like yesterday and we look forward to waking up early tomorrow to serve God and the Gramothe community.

Today the Matts and Jay continued to work hard at getting an internet connection from the guest house to Gramothe where the computer lab is on the mountain.  So far an internal network has been created so file sharing can take place but internet connection has not been maintained yet.  The guys were able to simulate an internet connection here at our guest house so they are encouraged that an internet connection should be made quickly tomorrow!!

Jack, Dave, Merv, and Wayne have almost completed the cabinet that will be holding the laptops in the computer lab!  And the workshop is almost unrecognizable after a major spring cleaning - hopefully, it will be a huge help to workers as they are using the shop.  As Claudia was cleaning out the cabinet full of craft supplies in the computer lab, she found an interesting surprise that rats apparently are very intrigued by the wax from crayons and have eaten a hole through the cabinet to get to the box of crayons and devoured them!  (And yes, they do poop the different colors of crayons from eating them...we have evidence!  Gross but true...)

The rest of us did various tasks on the mountain including digging a trench at the new hospital construction site in order to pour concrete and build the hospital walls.  We were able to work alongside of a couple of men from Haiti and communicate as best we can with them as well as with some of the high school students who stopped by.  The high school students were so excited to hear that Bryan is a chemistry teacher and the students were able to explain what they were learning to him.  It's always encouraging to witness a common interest being made between us and the Haitians especially when the language barrier is difficult to overcome.  Esdras is so valuable to our team as our translator!!

Josh and David seem to be thoroughly enjoying their time playing with the other Haitian kids their age climbing walls and flying kites.  The other kids are still enthralled by both of them because Josh is caucasian and David looks like the others but doesn't speak Creole, which is confusing to them.  However, these differences don't keep them from laughing and having a fun time!

Tomorrow is going to be a big day with the medical clinic opening up to the community for the next 3 days.  Justin, April, Claudia, Chelsea, and I will be teaming up with the UIC medical team (Little by Little) who arrived today to provide medical help to the hundreds of Haitians each day who will be traveling from very far distances in hopes to be treated.  We also hope to get the internet fully functioning in the computer lab and finish up the computer cabinet.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support!!  We are thankful that everyone is still healthy and trying to stay as hydrated as possible.  We are learning the importance of sunscreen too... :)  (Yes mom, I am sunburnt but I promise I'm using sunscreen!)

Lots of love and hugs to you all,
Bekah & the rest of the crew