yesterday in Predi

Ashley and i had a great day in service yesterday. We spent the day in Haiti with the group. The service meeting starts at 8:45am in Pedernales. Then we walk over the border to Anse-a-Pitre. Jonas Philistin, the brother in charge of the group, helped us with a small presentation in creole to start off with. Right away we started using it and by noon Ashley had two studies set up for Thursday and I had two studies and one RV for Thursday! It was fantastic.

a street we worked on

Haitian Countryside. The aquaduct
supplies water to the town

The Haitians are so kind. When you get to there house, they quickly invite you in and get up to find chairs for you to sit. And they all come around and listen to to speak.
At noon we start to head back to the border to go home for lunch. At the border there are motorcycle taxis that will bring you back into the town for about .75. We have already learned to take advantage of this, as by noon the heat is pretty intense. So a ride on the back of a moto is nice a refreshing!
I don't think I have mentioned this, but we actually have moved from out first apartment to house that a sister lives in. It works out much better in a lot of ways. One of those ways is that she has a Dominican sister who cooks for her, so when we get home around 12:30 there is a fantastic lunch set out for us. I was really looking forward to eating Haitian food here, but I am finding that Dominican food can be just as good!
So after lunch we have a short siesta and then we go back out around 3pm. We took a moto back to the border and met with a Haitian bother on the other side. I got to work with him in the afternoon for a few hours. He has a study with a young boy names Israel, who comes to all the meetings on his own. He is around 13 years old.

Nicola avec Israel

 After the study we walked into the country side for some visits. The surroundings were so beautiful! And everyone we met was smiling. Then, out of no where, the rain started. We had to run for cover in a house that was nearby; two other men passing by ran in behind us as well. The rain came down so hard, the porch on the house was not doing anything for us, so the family whose house it was, gestured us to come inside and sit down in there only two chairs they had. There we sat out the downpour for about 15 minutes. Afterwards, as we were walking back through the wet town, the brother I was with, Nicola, was all concerned that the rain might have made me not like the afternoon. I assured him, the Oregonian that I am, that I LOVED the rain. especially in a Caribbean country do I love the rain:)

ashley et Valerie

Girls playing in the aquaduct

After it rained, it was a bit tricky
traversing through the streets!