I (Steve) have made two trips to the Dominican Republic in the past several weeks. Our dump truck has unfortunately been going through differentials at an alarming rate, and we need to go over there to get repairs done. So the first time I went over with Michael Rudolph, who had been there several times before and knew some contacts there. This last time I went with Nate Grice; we went over last Tuesday morning and returned on Friday.

Flowers...

On a hike recently, I shot some pictures of flowers along the path. Hope you enjoy them like I did...

Bonus picture!!! Looking down into the Allegre valley...
The group of buildings to the right includes the church and school.
The mission is almost directly ahead... Can you see the road below,
with a pickup on it? Where that disappears it also curves sharply to
the left... After a few hundred feet the mission drive branches
off to the right.

Bonus #2! :-)
Men working in a yam garden...

...And now- for the REST of the story...

I said we were surprised when we arrived. Actually we were shocked and horrified. As Sujet later commented, "Nou ginyen kochon ak kay pi bon pase kay sa!"

This is the progress of the new house. Needs walls, floor, doors...

With characteristic Haitian courtesy they brought chairs for their
visitors- in this case borrowing the chairs from the neighbor. They
didn't have any chairs of their own.

It is so humbling to look at the conditions in which this poor widow
survives... Then turn around and eat from her small store of food.
But it would be unforgivably rude not to, so we ate...

Alex and his sweat rag...

Going in to the half-existent, crazy structure this lady- Mde. Beria-
calls home currently...



Bed.
Yeah, you read right.
The widow's bed.
The spot of dirt between the chicken, and her bare feet.
Damp, cold- unfathomable smell.
Walls tumbling around her.
Her home.
Bed.



The roof above her bed. Yes, water runs in every time it rains- even a light
rain. Can you imagine what it was like in this hut last week??? When
the after-effects of Hurricane Irene dumped 7-8 inches of rain on us?
Soaked day and night for two days straight???
No.
You CAN'T imagine, face it.

Talk about a hopeful view for this poor lady! Looking out through the old
doorway, towards the new house-in-progress!!! Wow!!!! Think she
can hardly wait?? She cried as we left. "God has heard me!!"

Her.
She doesn't know how old she is. Lost track of the years. Over 70 though...

Some idea/perspective on the distances and mountains here.
Here is the opposite mountainside, at about a 48x zoom...
Notice the steep zig-zag path... That leads up to scores
of houses called home by local residents...

...And at about 12x...
Still see the path? Barely?
Goes a l-ooooooong way up doesn't it?
Picture yourself heading up it- with a 5 gallon pail of water on your head.
Dozens of ladies do- several times a day...

...And without zoom...

What Sujet said was, in effect, "We have pigs that have better houses than this!!!"

He was right of course. And the new house we're erecting for this widow, will cost less than $700 US.

Are there more like her? You bet. Right here in our zone? Oh yeah. Will we be able to build them a house too?? Nope.
Do you know of anyone who would like to help with something like this? Please forward this to them. Anyone can visit the GTH mission blog for more info on what we're doing here. And the clinic blog as well- notice both address's above in the welcome message of this blog.

And don't forget to pray for the poor and suffering- here and around the world.

Hiking...

Sometimes things that we take for granted, things that happen often in our lives, are interesting to others simply because those very things are quite different from their everyday experiences. When coupled with an interest in the people whose lives are represented by these experiences, we find pleasure in perusing things that, to the actors on the stage of life from whence these scenes originate, are dull and ordinary; or at least, as we mentioned before, taken for granted.

Come along on a hike with pastor Sujet, Alex, and I in the mountains here in Allegre. We're going to see a widow lady whose house is being rebuilt after earthquake damage last year. It has been shelved for several months, due to staff being occupied with the cholera epidemic. And Michael Horner, who oversaw this project, is no longer down here.

What we found, surprised us...

On the way... I never cease to marvel at the beauty of this country...

There is so much potential in such a fruitful country...

There was a meeting going on up at the church, regarding the upcoming
school year. It will begin the first of October...

The bean crop- one of the staples of agriculture here- is coming on
beautifully! The plants are blossoming now....

Definitely the cutest hiker in the bunch.. :-) He's getting so strong it
amazes us sometimes, hiking up the mountains tirelessly...

The mountainside...

All the green foliage of the bean plants adds greatly to the
beauty of the landscape... Here is a glimpse up close...

Heading up the winding trail to reach the top of the ridge at the right
of the picture...



Looking back the trail we just passed... Hard to even see a trail, the
tropical vegetation closes in behind...



Anybody know what that is? Looks like some kind of cactus
growing on the limb of this tree, I'm not sure what it is.

Well, we're almost at the house. Don't want to overload you with too many pictures and info at once. More tomorrow...?