The Bridge Blog

From Wednesday (July 29, 2009):
We have done a lot of respecting of the Haitian culture and graciously doing our construction projects their way even though it doesn’t make sense to us, but today we were able to do things in a more efficient way and the Haitians were impressed. Mind you, it didn’t start out that way. We are pretty sure that Pastor Peter was humoring Nathan and his crew when they gave their suggestions.

You see, our team was asked to help with the pouring of the cement for the floors on the level the children will live on. Pastor Peter stated that there are usually plenty of helpers around when they work on the orphanage, but not when they need do concrete because it requires that they carry buckets of cement up the flight of stairs. One of the workers that we talked with later said that he did that once and he’ll never do it again. He could not even touch his arms afterward. Imagine carrying heavy buckets of cement up and down the stairs all day. Maybe now you can understand.

So Nathan, Paul, Bryan and Ernie stumbled upon a pulley and began formulating an idea. They found parts and pieces around and rigged up a pulley system to carry the cement buckets. They even tore pieces of rags to cover their hands as they pulled on the rope. Well when they completed 3 times the amount of work that Pastor Peter had expected to get done, the guys were pretty proud of themselves. That is when Pastor Peter admitted that he was impressed. Pastor Louie is now suggesting we complete the rest of the work on that floor tomorrow…

Anne and Stacie worked among the Haitian women in the kitchen, organizing it in there. They were able to complete the task of going through food, throwing some things away and also clean it. Clorox wipes are an amazing inventions! At one point, they found a big storage bowl of rice with mice droppings in it and decided to feed it to the chickens in the backyard. We’re pretty sure the Haitian women were trying to understand why we’d throw such a perfectly good bowl of rice away.

Speaking of chicken, yesterday Ernie came upon the women who work in the kitchen. They were catching some of the chicken who run around the yard and killing them for our lunch. So he asked if he could kill one too. They said yes! So Ernie learned a new skill yesterday and today, on his birthday, got to enjoy the product of his new experience as we ate lunch. Don’t worry, we’ve got pictures of that one!