Posted in Pictures by Jonathan Bunford on 8/27/2010
Above: House in Tigennen right along the water.
Below: The Bunford's (don't we look good!?) in the Tigennen house.
Above: The team painting the house in Tigennen along with the Haitian builders.
Below: Our favorite house in terms of location (on the water) and colours. Cinthia feels like it's very close to being the Guatemalan flag, if only it had a quetzal in the middle.
Above: Another house in Tigennen, the Haitian builders showed us we don't need "real" ladders, and we can save lots of time by standing on the rafters.
Below: Jileh (the groundskeeper) getting us coconuts as a way of thanking us for painting his house. This is the 3rd time the homeowners have given us coconuts!
Above: Coconuts are delicious, but that doesn't mean you should stop working!
Below: Esther's house (one of the cooks). It started out as orange & cream, but the orange wasn't mixed well and it looked more red than orange. In Haitian culture, red = voodoo, hence the colour change.
Notice the girl on the right....some people just enjoyed watching us paint.
Above: For some reason, I always ended up with the most paint on me (see the shirt?) since it's oil based paint the only way to clean it is to use paint thinner, or in a developing country where they don't have paint thinner, you use gasoline.
Jean-Renee was always ready & eager to clean the paint off of me. When finished, he'd pass me the rag & gas and said "maddam", suggesting I help clean the paint off Cinthia.
WHAT'S NEXT?: Tomorrow (August 28), our team will be leaving the place we've called home for the past 4 weeks at 4-5am. We'll arrive at the Port-au-Prince airport and from there we'll be flying to Dublin, Ireland via JFK. In Dublin we'll be attending The Awakening which is a worship conference & reunion for past & present World Racers. We're not sure what's planned for us after The Awakening, all we know at this time is that we'll be somewhere in Europe (probably Eastern Europe, but we really have no idea at this time). We're excited to see what God has in store for us & we'll keep you informed along the way!
On Tuesday Daniel and I, along with Brian
and Chad (2 of the guys from the Lighthouse Team that was visiting Nate's
ministry as well) jumped in the back of a truck and rode off to Les Cayes.
Background: Before arriving in Haiti, the Yonker family (see pervious posts if
you don't know who I'm talking about) had shipped various supplies and tons
(literally) of food. This was the food that they were going to eat during their 3 months stay in Haiti. The container
never showed up but God provided food (more than they could eat). With
Tuesday being the Yonker's last day in Haiti, it only makes sense that the
container arrives.
The ride to Les Cayes was your typical
ride, very bouncy, lots of stares, people yelling "blanc, blanc", and tap-taps
passing each other dangerously close. About 3 hours later we arrived at a doctors office in Les Cayes.
The 4 of us, along with the driver and 3 of
the local missionaries (who were from Vancouver!) loaded all the tools/supplies, 300 bags of soup (approx
55 litres), 3,500lbs of rice, and 315 litres of oatmeal. Needless to say, the ride back was a bit
less roomy than the ride there.
On the way back to Petit Guave we picked up
another one of Canaan's pastors who proceeded to toss his personal bags in the
back of the truck, along with his cat.
Feline
Side Story: Putting a cat in the back of a truck probably isn't PETA friendly, so the pastor put his cat into an empty rice sack.
About 45 minutes later, I felt like I could hear the cat meowing particularly
loudly. I believed the cat was injured but don't
fear the cat had simply escaped the
rice sack, and was trying to climb up through the stockpile of items. We
notified the driver, had the truck stop, and he took his precious cat up with
him into the cab.
Ch-ch-ch-Changes: The Yonkers, along with the Lighthouse team have now gone back
home. We're sad to see them go though our ministry continues through Sister
Gladys & Pastor Marc.
Upcoming
Adventures: I can't believe that we've got a bit
more than a week in Haiti. On our last weekend here we're going to another mountain
village. The village we're going to this time is accessible by road
(apparently), so we're (hopefully) taking a tap-tap right to the village. It
will be another weekend of encouragement, worship, prayer & simple living;
obviously we're pretty excited!
Our
next financial deadline is approaching on October 1st right now we're short $1,031.49 to meet this deadline. Please prayerfully consider partnering with us
financially.
Posted in General Posts by Jonathan Bunford on 8/14/2010
So far we've been in Petit Goave for 2
weeks, though no 2 days have been the same, our typical day has been as
follows:
- Wake up
- Team devotions
- Breakfast
- Ministry
- Lunch
- Ministry
- Dinner
Ministry
Our ministry has varied day to day, some
days we've delivered houses, some days we've gone to a tent city, and others
we've painted houses.
Delivering
Houses: The houses are built in Port-au-Prince and
the pieces are delivered to our ministry site. We then load the houses
individually onto the back of a truck, ride on the truck to the build site,
remove the pieces from the truck, & carry them to the build site. So far
we've delivered 4 houses and loaded 5. One house was delivered "down the
street", one up a pretty high hill (about 15-20 minutes when empty handed), and
two up another hill.
Tent
Cities: We've only been to one tent city (though
we've planned to go to quite a few more in the upcoming weeks). We walked
around and met some people that had been spoken to before. We also encountered
spontaneous Haitian worship which was incredible!
Panting
Houses: The entire house building/painting process
is pretty incredible. After we deliver the houses the building crew arrives
(unless they helped us deliver the house) and they go to work. In 4 hours the house is built, a few hours
later the cement team is finished doing the foundation (they put that in after
to hold the house in). It's then our job to paint the houses, this is not just
to make them look nice, but it's also to weather-proof the house.
That's about it for our day-to-day living
here. Some misc. details:
- There's no running water, so showers are done with buckets
- Electricity here is very inconsistent, so we literally cheer when the power
comes on and the fans start blowing again
- On average, the temperature here has been 30-38C (86-101F) and it's
incredibly humid!
- Sunscreen is pointless, since you sweat so much it doesn't have a chance to
soak in
- The kitchen has 3 frequent visitors: Sparky, Bobbi & Daryl (a rat, and
crabs respectively)
- In North America any food left on your plate goes into the garbage (or
compost), here in Haiti, the food left on your plate goes to the pigs,
literally! The leftovers go to the cook's kids or people in the area.
- There must be a club nearby since every night we hear wall thumping dance
music from 8pm until...well I'm not sure when it stops, but it's after I've
fallen asleep
Our
next financial deadline is approaching. By October 1st we need to
have $22,000 in our account. Right now we're short $1065.89. Please prayerfully consider partnering with us
financially.
This past weekend, our team was given the opportunity to go hiking into the mountains. We woke up at 3am, left the house at 4 and began our journey.
After walking for 10-15 minutes, we arrived at a tap-tap stop. Tap-Taps
are essentially pick-up trucks that get loaded up with as many people as can
fit. We then took a tap-tap (loaded up with 20 people and all our bags) to
Viale.
We got out of the tap-tap and began our hike. We walked up past people
heading down to sell stuff in Viale, we jumped over streams, dodged oncoming
donkeys, mules & horses, though tired our faces all expressed the joy we
had to be on this adventure.
Background: Before I continue,
let me fill you in on our expectations. The
pastor told us that it would take us 6 hours to get to the village and that
a donkey would meet us in Vialle to carry our packs up for us.
After what felt like forever (but was only 1 hour) we were still
carrying our heavy packs. The
further we continued, the steeper our hike became, our water supply was going
down faster than anticipated and we were beginning to get really hungry.
Finally the donkey met up
with us, we gladly tossed all but 3 of our packs on the "millet" (tossed is
figurative, the poor thing was struggling with the packs it had). We then ate
some bread, and with a new burst of energy we continued our climb.
Over 5 hours after we left, at around 9:45am we
arrived at the peak, 1000m up.
Side Note: The pastor told us
that this was "the last climb".
By this time our water supply was severely depleted, and though we were
glad to have made it, we were exhausted. We continued walking, now on level
ground (for the first time since 5am). We stopped of every now and then to
catch our breath, enjoy the cooler air and the breeze before continuing the
hike.
The hours ticked by as the countless peaks and valleys slowly moved
passed. Every time we went uphill the pastor reassured
us it was "the last climb", that along with his persistant "vayan solda!" and
"djan djan" I began to ignore anything that came out of his mouth. Each
time we asked "how much longer" the ETA kept increasing, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3
hours!
11 hours, and
approximately (it's hard to judge since the path zig-zagged so much) 20kmslater we arrived at Nado Village. We spent 2 nights there, sleeping
on the floor of the church surrounded by Haitians.
I can now say that there is no way I had the energy to hike for 11
hours, without adequate food & water. There is no way I made it to Nado
Village, but God carried me, God's strength never wears out but mine definitely did.
PS: Our return trip "only" took us 7.5 hours, we had more
water, more food, and 2 donkeys to help us along the way.
I've been trying to get pictures up, but our internet is too slow. When I get them up I'll let you all know where to find them! Also read the blogs of my teammates,
as we all had different experiences.
Posted in General Posts by Jonathan Bunford on 8/3/2010
There's so much I want to say about what
we're doing during our month in Haiti but I'm afraid that my organization (or
lack there of) will not do it justice, but I'll try my best.
We're in a city about 60 kms south of
Port au Prince called Petit Goave. It's closer to the epicentre of the January
earthquake then "Port", so the damage here is pretty severe. Due to the earthquake, our
power comes on from 6pm until sometime in the morning, and there is no running
water.
The group that we're with is officially a
branch of the Canaan Orphanage run by Sister Gladys. Her dad oversaw over 300
churches and the ministry here is hoping to build up and encourage the local
pastors. This allows those in the communities to build relationships that are
more permanent than they would be with Western missionaries. Nate, his wife,
and their 5 children, and a family friend (who are all from Michigan) are
heading up this ministry.
Unfortunately due to the earthquake in
January the ministry here has taken a drastic change, though the discipleship
program is still being worked on there is a much more pressing need. There are
countless numbers of people living in tents, this is either because:
a) their house was destroyed in the earthquake
b) they don't feel safe sleeping in their cement houses
c) they want hand-outs, so they choose to live in tents rather than their
houses
Nate is working with Pastor Marc and they
are building houses for people in the area. The best thing about their ministry
is that Nate is trying to stay behind the scenes so the people receiving
everything are associating it with a local pastor rather than "the white-man".
It's an amazing ministry that unfortunately
doesn't get nearly enough aid. They're also doing things in such a way to
empower the local economy (hiring Haitians to build the houses), and empower
the local churches (recipients are connected to a local church).
Though Cinthia and I are still in need of
our own financial support, we cannot urge you enough to consider partnering
with this ministry. They're here in Haiti making a change directly with the
people. We've met the people, we've seen the houses, we've used the water
purifiers, tomorrow we're even going to carry a house (in pieces) up a
mountain!
You can learn more at their website: http://www.ebenezerdtc.org/
100% of the money they raise goes directly to the people here in Haiti. There
are no overhead fees, since the Yonker family pays for all their necessities
out of their own pocket.
It's hard to imagine that the first month
of The World Race has gone by already. I cannot believe that on July 3rd
we flew out of Toronto airport and met with the other team leaders in Miami. I
seems unreal that we then flew to Santo Domingo to train and later meet with
the rest of our squad. The last few weeks flew by faster than I had originally
thought possible. In such a short period of time I:
lived in a 4 room house with 45 other people
got connected with the community
made friends
fell in love with kids
taught the kids about Jesus
prayed for people in the community
celebrated being married to Cinthia for 3 years
got amoebas, probably from a kid everyone called Gordo (means chubby
in Spanish)
spent 2 nights in a clinic to get rid of the amoebas
grew to trust my teammates
rode on the back of a motorcycle to fill a propane tank
set-up and took down our tent daily
went to a concert (Noche de
Alabanza!)
We're now in Haiti at our ministry location
in Petit Goave. The ministry here is amazing and I'll fill you all in on the
details in my next blog, until then, continue to pray for us and support us, we're still in need of $8,382.89.
For those who have travelled, it's common
knowledge to "not drink the water", the reason for this is that there are
things in the water that our North American bodies can't handle. If you're
unaware of this, here's how it goes: you drink the local water (or eat food
washed with the local water) and you'll be on the toilet for a few days.
We've done a really good job protecting
ourselves from the local water, we buy water jugs, and we wash our hands and
use hand sanitizer on a regular basis. This is all well and good, however our
ministry sites make it difficult to stay fully protected. We're in the slums,
we're playing with kids, and things are bound to happen.
Last Friday, for reasons I'll omit, Cinthia
wanted to come to the clinic to see if she had picked anything up, the results
came back and she had a couple things, nothing serious, take some pills, the
end. The doctor mentioned that what Cinthia had could be transmitted through
clothing, and bedding. This raised a flag since we share a laundry bag and we
share bedding, SO I decided to get the tests done too (just as a precautionary
measure). Good thing I did too since the results came back and I have so many
amoebas they can't even count them, but they're estimating approximately 40-45
p/c (por campo)(we're not sure
what that means, per something...).
Friday and Saturday nights I spent at the clinic,
the nurses and doctors were really friendly, the food wasn't bad (mashed
potatoes, cheese & juice), and I had a tv which played old American shows
with Spanish dubbing (old = 90210 and 7th Heaven to name a few). The doctors were understandably
confused because my amoeba count was so high but I wasn't really showing signs
of having such high numbers. I figure we caught it early and thank God we did
since we leave for Haiti in a week!
I'm sorry if there were tense errors, I originally wrote the post on Friday and attempted to rewrite it on Tuesday.
If
you'd like to partner with us in this ministry, please consider supporting us
financially by clicking on the link to the left of our blog, Cinthia and I
still have $8,440.54 to go before we're fully funded.
Posted in General Posts by Jonathan Bunford on 7/17/2010
Our ministry in the Dominican Republic is
in a neighbourhood called “Villa Liberación” (or in English, Freedom Village).
The neighbourhood is technically government housing built after Hurricane
George hit 12 years ago. Villa Liberación is a really large area so we’ve been
paired up with Team Transformers for the month, they’re such a wonderful team
to work with!
Our first day of ministry was on Tuesday
when we first met Pastor Tony, we intended to do a prayer walk around the area
but we were immediately distracted by the kids (we’re thinking there are about
60-80 kids that flocked to us).
Wednesday we played with the kids and went
door-to-door to meet people in the area. Thursday we realized that our pastor
was so easy going and we had no plan for the next 2 weeks, so we walked around
the entire area for the afternoon and prayed. Afterwards we met and all agreed
that we’re here for the kids, there is so much pain and abuse that’s happening
behind closed doors, these kids need to see that someone loves them. We’ve also
seen a lot of the teenagers have the ability to lead and take charge, however
they do so out of intimidation.
Our plan for the next 2 weeks is to do VBS
(Vacation Bible School) with the children in the morning, and play in the
afternoon (after a siesta since it’s SO hot). Yesterday we took latex gloves
and garbage bags and began to clean up the field that they play baseball in
(it’s got broken glass bottles and garbage everywhere), it was amazing to see
the children come out and join us to help the cleanup process. One man in the
area even took pictures of us cleaning to encourage the locals to take better
care of their neighbourhood.
I could literally go on and on about the
kids we’ve met so far, there’s a lot of potential in these children and there’s
a life that they don’t see simply because they’re not encouraged to live any
differently than they currently do. One thing that’s hit us all pretty hard is
how they have so much joy out of something we literally throw away, a perfect
example is this:
That’s a tractor
tire that these children use as a trampoline, there are a few of the kids who
are able to do full front flips, back flips, twists; can you imagine the
potential if there was a gymnastics program available to them? WOW!
Anyways that’s enough rambling for now,
we’re all doing well & we’re all healthy. We’ll update again soon! Be sure
to check out my teammates blogs as well, especially Daniel’s, he’s our video
guru so be sure to check those out!!!
If
you’d like to partner with us in this ministry, please consider supporting us
financially by clicking on the link to the left of our blog, Cinthia and I
still have $9,459.10 to go before we’re fully funded.
Posted in General Posts by Jonathan Bunford on 7/9/2010
One thing that was stressed at Training Camp was that World Race participants need to be flexible: teams may change, leadership may change, the route may change, our ministry contacts might change, anything can change, so as a result we must learn to be flexible.
Our first lesson was in Toronto when our original flight (going to Cleveland before heading to Miami) was delayed so much so that we'd miss our connecting flight to Miami (and therefore we'd miss our flight to the D.R.)
The lady at the ticket counter quickly found us seats on a flight direct from Toronto to Miami! What a blessing...until THAT flight was delayed an hour due to a computer needing to be restarted (must have been running Windows).
Anyways, the flexibility has continued, we've told many of you (if not all) that our first country of ministry would be Haiti followed by D.R. however with 11 teams (74 people) they've decided to divide us up SO this month my team (Team Green Light) along with 6 other teams will be STAYING in the D.R. while the other 4 teams go to Haiti, and in August we'll be switching.
Later today the 7 D.R. teams will be getting on a bus to head to San Juan where we'll be living together but going to separate ministry sites around the city.
Continue praying for our squad, our team, and the people in San Juan we will be working with.
Posted in General Posts by Jonathan Bunford on 7/4/2010
Hello everyone,
Well the real adventure has begun! Were now in Santo Domingo and boy is it hot & humid here!
The leaders all arrived yesterday and the finance and logistics people met up with us today.
Today we went to a supermarket, had lunch and now Im sitting in a barbershop using a computer in a back corner while the rest of my team chit-chats with a kid who helped us find the place (who would have thought to look in a barber shop?).
Were staying at a pretty nice place (nice = running water, electricity, etc.) and were looking forward to the rest of our team to arrive (tomorrow afternoon).
Hope youre all doing well, keep in touch & God bless!
