As written by Tim Van Maanen, Board President of MH4H

As you can see by the pictures, the streets of Pignon aren’t the same as they usually are. This weekend is what the Haitians call Carnival. It is equal to our Mardi Gras. They celebrate from Friday till Tuesday. We have been hearing the music into the wee hours of the morning.

This is a normal sight during Carnival. People dressed in masked, wearing a costume made of newspaper cutups. Another shot of the same scene.

For the past 2 days we have been building shelves for Jude’s dorm to help make C&C’s life easier. Trust me when I say they can use all the help they can get. Living in Haiti full time is hectic and unpredictable. You can see in the picture we are working with Jean-Rene…..I mean Jeff and myself are just watching Jean-Rene work. We built some shelves and put them in the kitchen. We also hung a dinner bell (‘kloch’ in creole) for Beatrice and Evenie. You can see just how excited they were!

Jean-Rene hard at work, with his two “helpers” in the background! 🙂

Beatrice and Evenie have been cooking up a storm for us every day. Today was market day and you can see what they bought to fix for us these next few days. These ladies spoil us!

Beatrice and Evenie, two wonderful cooks for teams. The food purchased at market to be prepared for teams.

We also had the opportunity to go with Woody and Burns to Savanette to pass out food to the Thrive for 5 kids. Woody stood in the truck as the store threw bags of rice to him. Once the truck was full of food….we all jumped on to snap a photo. As the truck pulled out of town, Elsie jumped on the back of my motorcycle, Christi jumped on Craig’s, Steffanie jumped on with Woody, Lorie rode with Burns, and Jeff went alone on Appolon’s bike. We were quite the gang of blancs riding in a pack together.

After we arrived at Savanette, unloaded the food, and started gathering the Thrive for 5 kids…..I relaxed on a bed of rice and got in a little siesta……(Christi quickly snapped a picture so I got caught). We saw many familiar faces as each family came to pray and pick up their food.

Woody loading up the truck, catching one bag of rice at a time. The team loaded up and ready to head out to feed families in our Thrive for 5 program. Familiar riding style in Haiti. On to Savanette! One of the 65 Thrive families that were blessed with our monthly food distribution.
Tim in a candid photo, just waking up from his sleep on the food.

Tim in a candid photo, just waking up from his sleep on the food.

Pic of the day!
This is one of those days in Haiti you will never forget. When the day was winding down and we were arriving back to the dorm. Steffanie discovered she had left her room key at church. We decided to find a way to break in. Our plan was to find a small child and have him crawl through the air vent at the top of the door. Problem……no small child….. solution……Christi!!! Only in Haiti….you gotta love Haiti!

God Bless, Tim

Christi breaking into the locked room in the dormitory.