Thursday January 10 2013

Thursday's update for home: great day again today. very breezy and really helped to soften the temps today. the Team is doing well. spirits were good today as the team is now very comfortable picking on each other. we topped out the west wall today! scaffold building went well and we now have sturdy safe portable scaffold on site. the freindships with the Haitians continue to grow. Don left this morning. 4 more leave Friday 8 am.  leaving here will be tough. we will really enjoy running water and electricity that is reliable, but these beautiful friendly people will leave a void for some of us.
God is amazing! i see transformation occurring many places. some will be home soon, others in a few more days. God is good!  thanks for your prayers.

Progress on the job site was amazing again today!  The cooler breeze had a profound effect on us but I also realize that God inspired and empowered us to maximize the last day we would have a full Team. The walls really went up fast today.  The grouting crew had trouble keeping after the masons. The Team seamed to relax and have a lot of fun together today, the Haitians joined in as well.

 Steve just "looking out", doing what guys do best. Steve spent a lot of time making sure everyone was doing OK.  He was a sincere blessing to me as I knew he was always "counting heads" and making sure no one got left behind.  Thanks Steve!

This is Jack's helper, Jackie Chan, he has been on site almost every day.  Jack is doing a ground temperature experiment this week.  We dug a hole 8' deep and inserted some pipe so he can take temperature readings.  If his data reveals a substantial temperature difference between sub-grade levels, there is a chance that his students can design a solar powered AC system for the buildings!  This system uses no electricity, it utilizes natural thermal convection to draw cooler air from under ground up into the building. This design is very innovative and exciting for this project!

 Hey, there's Joe with a cup of coffee in his hand!  And look, here he is supervising again! Seriously though Joe was a sincere blessing to the Team, he kept us all thinking.

Topping out the west wall!

         
Katrina is spending time teaching the workers English, even in the backhoe bucket.  They really are thirsty to learn our language.  We have taken pen and written words on their arms so they can see them, practice them and learn them.  It is really fun to bring our cultures together.  Everyone  is working to learn more about each other, our Creole is coming along very slow compared to their English.