One Stop Market

If you visited us here in Haiti before the earthquake chances are that you've heard of, or been to, the OneStop Market.  One Stop, like many buildings, crumbled to the ground on January 12.   When Randy drove by One Stop the day after the earthquake he was pretty conviced that no one had stepped out of the bottom floor alive, people on the street told him otherwise.  God was merciful and had spared everyone inside.





This past week was again a reminder of God's faithfulness. 

Tarek, a good friend of ours (because we can beat him in Settlers and Farkle!)and his Uncle had the grand opening of their new store, One Stop Market.  It's in a new location and it's a totally different store but the management is the same. 

Tarek and Trisha, we are so thankful to have been able to celebrate One Stop's Grand Opening with you and we pray that the One Stop Market may be used for His Glory here in Haiti.

Entrance to the New One Stop

First time entering!

Tarek and his beautiful wife Trisha

Levi perusing the One Stop Aisles



A basket full of Levi



Poko

Adoration is almost ready to start the 2011-2012 school year... all we are waiting for is the government! 

The first day of school was supposed to be in September but unfortunately the Ministry of Education announced late in August that the first day of school won't be until October 3rd.  Since we are a Haitian school and we try to follow the Ministry of Education's school calendar we are waiting till October 3. 

I won't get into all the reasons as to why this is frustrating but instead we'll focus on the positive, the extra time it gives our teachers for planning and decorating their classrooms....



Annelle (Special Ed Teacher) preparing decorations for her classroom



Ilda (Special Ed Assistant) making an Alphabet board



Node (Kindergarten II) and Ketie (Kindergarte II assistant) preparing lesson plans



NB We do have male teachers but they somehow didn't make it on the camera the day I took these pictures!

Belladere

A little over a week and a half ago we dropped the Broersma family off in Belladere.  Cornelius, Mindy and Chloe will be spending three weeks in the countryside immersing themselves in Creole as well as seeing life in the countryside.  It's quite a bit different from city living but really good to get a taste seeing as most of our students have either spent time in the countryside or their famiy is still in the countryside. 

We haven't heard much from Cornelius and Mindy but we do know that they are surviving :) they've gotten a little bit of city power and they are trying to soak in as much Creole as they can.  I'm sure they will update you more on their blog when they get back in a week and a half.

We took the whole family along to drop them off.  It's about a three hour drive North-East of Port au Prince.  We really wanted to take our children with us because Randy and I also spent three weeks out in Belladere three years ago.  We were one month pregnant with Maia and we hadn't been back since then, so we thought it was a good opportunity to introduce our children to some of our friends out there.  They got lots of attention!

Levi soaking in all the attention

 


Guilene is a member of the Christian Reformed Church out in Belladere,
she is Cornelius and Mindy's host for the next three weeks.



Chloe sharing her toys with the rest of the children

The house where Cornelius, Mindy and Chloe are staying

Please keep Cornelius and Mindy, Chloe in prayer as the countryside can be challenging, fun, exhausting, hot, lonely, exciting and tiring all rolled into one.  Pray that their Creole learning goes well and that they are able to sit back, relax and enjoy this time.

Two Man Team

Although Curtis and Andre have been gone now for almost a week, we still need to do blog justice to the time they spent here and the work that they did.  They joined us for 10 vigorous days of work.  Building, degajing, and building some more.  They tiled, built tables, joked, put in a handwashing station, storage depots, joked some more, painted, built a new sun-roof, hung up soccer mesh, and drilled, astaught and mentored some young Haitian men.  Thank you two very much for all of your hard work and for getting so close to completing the never ending job list (not sure if it's ever possible to complete :)

Curtis tiling the front entry

Yder helping with the building

Andre, Cadeau and Dendy drilling to put in piping

This may not mean anything to you... but to us she's a beaut!

Supervisors, Maia & Chloe, checking out the handwashing station

Even Cornelius got his hands dirty a day or two... hee, hee