As Julie posted earlier, we are still taking it day by day. We are on special duty with the girls since the Director is off for at least two weeks undergoing medical treatment in a city about 3 hours drive from here. We anticipate her return around the end of the month.

Here's a random sampling of just the general goings on that we get to be a part of on any given day. One day about a week ago we spent nearly the whole day running back and forth between the Ministry of Immigration complex and the various services around it ( Bank, roadside ID photo booth, photocopy dude etc.) to complete the final paperwork for Julie's Permis de Sejour application. This document is our permanent residency, and kind makes us all official here. It is occasionally frustrating to run into the variability of standards here when dealing with the government. It really doesn't matter if you went online ahead of time and looked up all the paperwork requirements and carefully assembled your package making sure to not miss anything. If the person on the other side of the table wants you to redo your photo you go across the street and redo it. If they say you need an official letter requesting a Permis de Sejour (even though you will fill out a lengthy application to obtain your Permis) you get a letter form someone. 

The day before yesterday - Friday (which was a school holiday - Haiti's Flag Day) we had a great morning taking our girls to the Quisqueya Chapel property, and had a great time on the playground swings and running around the open field with bubbles, a frisbee, and a soccer ball. It was great to see the girls have some space to run around. It was also fun to all go out again all together in the big 15-passenger van that was given to us. By that afternoon back at the girls' home things got a little rowdy, there was a food fight during lunch, and the rest of the afternoon was spent disciplining unruly girls with sassy attitudes. You take the good with the bad I suppose.

A normal day - if there is such a thing - consists of getting breakfast out and our house guests off on their days, then taking care of guesthouse responsibilities in the morning. Around 1pm or so walking down to the girls' home as they are returning from school to help manage lunch ( i.e. wash your hands "yes Gerdinia, with soap", and everyone sit down at the table and pray before eating) then helping get homework done. Playing video games on my iPod Touch is a high value motivator for the youngest girls to be the first to finish so they can be the first to play. Each day the girls have about 2 hours of homework to complete. Usually 2 subjects of written work, and 2 subjects of memory work. There is still alot of rote memorization in the Haitian school system. 

So that's just a smattering of what we might or might not be happening on any given day. There are also the unannounced drop by visitors (It is culturally totally acceptable to knock at someone's house without warning just because you were in the neighborhood - even if you weren't) the houseguest special requests, and the list of things we'd "like to get to soon" that pop up to keep each day interesting. We still say every day we are 110% glad we are here, and 110% convinced this is exactly where we are supposed to be. That's one thing that keeps us sane when things are hard and we feel like we have no clue.

Another thing that keeps us sane is all the love, support, and encouragement we get from our families, friends, supporters, ministry partners, and co-laborers here. Thank you so much to all of you. We really really appreciate it!

Many blessings from Haiti!

G+J