Today was a very productive day, for Haiti anyway. Kip, Scott and I went to a village called Cabera, about 40 minutes away, to buy materials for the shower/toilet house that I had the Haitians build (it needs tin and some 1x4s). I told them it would be a trip they wouldn’t forget, and it certainly was! All we needed was 24 finished 2x4x8s and 6 pieces of tin. First you have to wait in line to order materials, then you take a piece of paper to another window where you pay. Then you take that piece of paper to another place and they stamp it. Next you drive about half a mile to the lumber yard.
So, we got there, and they didn’t have 2x4x8s, only 2x4x16s. They said they could cut the 16-footers in half, but we would have to go back to the place where we bought them. So we drove back the half-mile, waited in line, went to one office, then to the other to pay again. Then to another and back to the first one to get the paper stamped. Then we drove the half-mile back to the lumber yard. They pulled the 16-footers out and took out a dull hand saw (and I mean dull) and started the slow process of cutting 12 16-footers in half. I finally took out my leatherman and Kip and I sawed one in half. To make a long story short, this all took about 4 hours–welcome to Haiti!
While we were gone Mike and Pat worked on a project at the mission house, while the rest of the team played with the kids. At the end of the day all the men were playing soccer with the boys.
It’s really kind of funny–Pastor Do keeps asking me what the schedule is, and I keep telling him there is no schedule. He just can’t understand that we are on God’s schedule. It was a great day with the Lord!