They made it to Haiti!!!!!

YAAAAA!!!! They made it safely and the best part is the WIFI in the house they are staying in works!!! I am going to cut and past what Kevin said in his email but I am sitting here with the biggest smile on my face right now knowing they are doing so well, especially Owen. I am just thrilled to say the least!!! Here is the email from Kevin:


We made it here just fine, traffic out of port was insane and took a long time.....however, we were picked up in an AIR CONDITIONED van!!! no riding in the back of the truck!!! Owen was super tired but wide-eyed for most of the drive. He is loving it here, the food, the people, the sleeping arrangements, the house, the work, all of it. He took a bunch of pictures on the drive but they were all pretty bad except for a few (lots of blurry ones and lots of van door post pics).

We did a little work on wall baskets today in the vacant lot next to the CI house but Saturday is traditionally a half work day so we are relaxing now. We walked around a little yesterday and caught up with most everyone. Maxie was so excited to see me. He has been going to an English class taught by Nixon and he is excelling (of course). He is quite conversational now and we have very much enjoyed being able to talk to each other. He passed with straight A's last year and was very excited and thankful when I told him I brought money to pay for next year. He is going into 8th grade and has 5 more years to finish. He wants to be an engineer if he can get to college. The children and adults are so interested in Owen, everywhere we go they stare at him and some children come up, grab his hand and ask him to come play with them (Ernst translated that part). Owen doesn't seem to mind and no one has been aggressive or anything.

 There is a girl named Sarah that is doing a 9 month internship here with CI. She is from Surrey, BC. She lives about a mile from where my house was in Delta!! too funny.



I will try and send some of the pictures now too,

 A wonderful church from Louisiana has partnered with our church a few times and this time there are 3 people from their church- 2 of them have been there before with Kevin. Great group!!!!

 Working hard

 Cutting the baskets that make the walls of the rubble house. They basically make walls with that wire on the ground and then line it with chicken wire and then fill the baskets with rubble from the house that fell down. Totally cool homes-- you can read about them here-http://haitireplacementhomes.org/

 Owen is my worker man!!!  He is the hardest working kid around!!

 Building the walls. They use to build the homes and had a difficult time attaching some pieces or something like that. Last trip down there Kevin was able to develop a way to bend the wire that GREATLY improved the way the homes were build. They named the wire the KEVWIRE and if you go onto he site I gave you the link for before, under terms, they have that wire listed as KEVWIRE and a brief explanation about Kevin-- too funny!!!

 This is the bunk house where they are staying. It is in the back yard of the main home where they relax and eat meals.

 The bunk house

 Owen sitting in front of the rubble house that Kevin completed last October when they were there.



 Taking a break-- It's crazy hot so you have to rest and drink a ton of water or you will have problems.

 I love this picture. It is all the kids we grew to love when we were there. The first kid in the burgundy is Maxi who was the kid we just fell in love with. We sponsor him with my friend Laura through the church school there which is a way better school than what is available to him. Then there is Owen then little Kevin who my Kevin had a great relationship with (remember slap hands-- that's little Kevin) and then Jean Paul who we also fell in love with. I cant believe Owen is sitting and working with all of them-- too cool!!!!

Lining the walls with chicken wire.

 

I am so thankful they are doing so well. More updates to come soon.