Soma Austin

Building Homes
This morning the team separated into three teams, two of them building homes in beautiful Kenscoff and the third visiting potential partners & recipients for micro-loans.

Team One
The first team had two tasks, learning how to sift and mix sand to make stucco and learning how to build the roof. They did a great job learning and jumping alongside local Haitians who have absolutely mad skills.

Team Two
The second team had their work cut out for them hauling blocks down the side of a hill, through muddy trails and placing them at the job site. It had been raining earlier and the trail had to be prepared with a pick-ax digging foot holds and some rocks distributed in key areas where the soil was saturated. The path was downhill about 100 yards and then back up. Oh, and at an elevation of about 4800 feet.

But as you can see from the picture to the right, even grandmothers can do it if you take your time and grew up on the mountain. What was also amazing was to watch a boy and girl under 10 carry them on their heads. Crazy awesome.

The woman to the right is named Roselene. She is a widow and the recipient of the house that is being built. She isn't just waiting for us to do it, she is jumping right in. Right when the team was nearly done with the first stack of blocks a truck arrived to drop off another stack. Rather than be defeated, the team just kept chugging along. There were several injuries, a smashed knuckle, a cut arm and a twisted knee, but they will all heal.

Team Three
After hauling some blocks for awhile the third team (Chris Marlow, Jacob Vanhorn, Tom Ward & Pastor Jean-Alix Paul) visited a pastor to discuss a micro-loan for his business. In Haiti nearly all pastors are unpaid from their church and must support their family with a job or business. The pastor showed us his shop, explained his business and shared what a difference a micro-loan could make. One of the current challenges with micro-loans is the high interest rates that some loaners are charging. The beauty of our (new & still forming) program is that there is no interest charge to the loan recipient and when he or she pays it back the money goes toward another loan for someone else. A win for everyone involved. In a couple days Chris and I will be traveling to Ferrier in North Haiti by plane to see other small business/micro-loan options.

Tomorrow
Tomorrow we will be back at Yaveh Shamma Kids Home and visiting Pastor Gaetan. We will be working with the kids on updating their bios, helping them make Christmas cards for their sponsors and just overall playing with them much of the day. It will be a welcome break for the team after their hard work today.

Please pray for Haiti, for our efforts and for Jesus to be made famous in the world.

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