Haiti and Holidays!
Can you believe May is nearly over? Memorial Day is now behind us in America and the unofficial summer season has arrived after a long, cold winter and spring in many places. Florida was not one of those cold places, and, of course, neither was Haiti! In the last month, Haiti has also celebrated Labor / Agriculture Day on May 1, Flag Day on May 18, and Mother’s Day on May 31. It’s been a busy month! We’ve celebrated each Haitian holiday from afar as we’ve been in Florida for several months and are now in upstate New York (the Rochester / Finger Lakes region, not the New York City area!)
Haiti Happenings Update
So what have we been up to this month? We’ve been working like crazy to care for our kids during this coronavirus lockdown while looking ahead to next steps as our kids learn and grow. Our days are often filled with Zoom video calls, and WhatsApp calls and chats – the tools we use to communicate with our Haitian and American coworkers. We’re so thankful for the dedication of our essential staff in Haiti and for all the work they’re doing to keep the campus running smoothly and keeping food and supplies for the kids coming in. We have many changes that we’re working on, and of course it’s a bit more difficult to manage change remotely, but we’re moving forward with everyone’s help. We’re moving kids as they hit the maximum age for our campuses, we’re making campus safety improvements, overseeing repair and maintenance projects, and preparing for more of our kids to head out into the community and beyond.
Continue reading “May Reflections”
In this season of Thanksgiving, we want to reflect on other things that we’re thankful for….and it starts with the amazing donors, supporters and friends that are all essential to making this journey possible! Thanks for all your prayers, financial assistance, encouragement, conversations, care packages, and sharing our social media posts. We can’t do this without you and really appreciate each and every one of you.
This weekend we had the opportunity to celebrate the first high school graduation from one of our kids within the Hands and Feet Project (HAFP) organization! Congratulations to Marvensky for making it through 13th grade (Filo) and we pray that he will continue with his educational success and fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor! He is currently looking at universities in Port au Prince where he can continue his education.
As we approach the end of our 2nd year in Haiti, there are some successes that bring us a great deal of joy. Our relationships with the kids continue to grow as they see that we’re not packing up our belongings and leaving Haiti. That’s been a topic of conversation with some of our kids as many of our predecessors left before the 18-month mark. It’s also exciting to see 12-15 of our older kids wanting to go with us to church and wanting to also attend church youth group 
Therefore, Hands and Feet Project has transition housing outside of our facility where our kids can live for a few years to help them transition into living in the community. They have a resident assistant to help them navigate living independently without all the benefits of those living on our campus.
Every time we write a new post, it seems like we talk about how fast the time goes by. This is no exception. Summer is sizzling away here with temperatures at least in the 90s every day and the heat index into triple digits. We visited our old hometown of Rochester, New York in the last part of June and into July. Soon after our return to Haiti, there was a period of unrest and some rioting over a proposed significant increase in fuel prices. You can 
The period of unrest resulted in an increase in the travel advisory level from the US embassy / state department that caused us to cancel 2 teams that were supposed to visit us this summer.