StephenByxbe.com

Tonight’s blog is going to be a work in progress. I will type some now, but will have to come back and add later. So many things happened today.

To start.. Bill Fudge is here for the month. He loves Marconelle, almost as much as I do, so when he is here… he wants to use Marconelle. I am nice, so I let him. Therefore I have to find someone else. I have been trying to go to the cheaper route. I have been using a motorcycle. It is awesome.

First problem. Little old man stealing rebar from the job site – at his house. We finished.. there were 10… we came to get them.. there were 5. Not sure what happened.

Second. Rented a bobcat today. They decided I didn’t pay for transportation so they drove the bobcat all the way across town to Repatriote. They used all the fuel so we had to get them more. Then the driver pretty much just played in the mud.

Third. The police stormed one of the job sites at Ibo Beach claiming that the land we are building 4 houses on is not ours to build on. Funny thing is they have no right to say that… that is the Mayor’s problem. But besides that, we have the papers for the land. Ugghh… they told everyone to stop. I told them to keep working.

Forth. We are building a roof in Cite Soleil. I look over the wall and his backyard (private blocked in area) is full of my block and rebar… wasn’t quite sure what to think other than take it all back. As I start taking it I realize there is a huge pile hidden under some old block. I was pretty upset… I broke a few things.. but it all worked out

We worked on the roof until almost 6pm in Cite Soleil. 5am – 6pm is a long day.

Pastor Leon is back in town now. So glad to have him back.. it’s just not the same without him.

That’s it for now.

Always with Love,

Stephen

Today I am writing to you very early… it is 6:30pm. I have just finished dinner and I am starting my blog because tonight I know I will be asleep soon.

Today was an interesting experience. This morning started out at 5:30am, standing out front of the compound with 30 haitian workers… waiting on the truck. I keep trying to call Ronic (the driver) but Haitian cell phone service doesn’t really work until 6 am. Finally I reach him. His starter is messed up. He makes it to the compound around 5:50am. We load up 112 pieces of rebar, 30+ workers and hit the road. We made it to the job sites are 7:30 – 1 1/2 hrs late. I got everyone started and explained the new houses to them. With every set of houses there is always one person who is amazing. There is one lady we are building a house for who is so sweet. She made juice for the workers today, she bought water for me and she hugs and kisses me every time I show up at the job site.

After I finished getting everyone started I went to the cement place. This is THE cement manufacture for all of Haiti. I learned that I could get a really good price on cement so I decided to check it out. Yesterday I stopped by and learned that they do not take cash. I had to go to the bank and do a transfer to make it possible. So, now I have my transfer receipt in hand and I am ready to work. I show up at the gate. They take all of my information again. We stand around and wait… They take my picture and create a temporary badge for me. After 30 minutes of preparation we are ready – but wait – it can’t be that easy. I am the only one that is allowed to go. Praise the Lord I speak a little creole. They will not let anyone else go.. oh and get this. You have to walk the half a mile road from the guard shack to the admin building. They won’t let you drive back there until you have a receipt for pickup. This is the most secure place I have ever been in my entire life… the sad thing is it’s all about cement. So… I make it to the admin building after walking down this huge hill (that I will have to walk back up). When I reach the building I meet a group of Haitians that are waiting on their turn. I sit down and join them. I think I sat there for an hour. It was a long time. Also, no cell phones work once you enter the main gate. It is like they have a signal blocker. Finally I met with the lady, who does not speak English. I explain that I paid for 1000 bags of cement but I only want to take 200 today but I want them 100 at a time. She says no problem. It takes about 30 mins for her to create my account and print out the bagillion receipts I had to have. We joke for a few minutes and then I start my hike back out to the main gate. Once I get to the gate, everybody gets in the truck thinking it is just easy to go get everything… Nope. Everyone has to show their ID’s & Ronic cannot enter because he is wearing shorts. This place has some crazy rules. This took another 15 mins to work out. Now that we have wasted all morning, we are on our way. We drive through this huge compound (that is right on the coast with their own personal port), make it through the scales and more security and start loading cement. This place probably bags 200,000+ bags of cement a day and sells every single one of them. There were 50 flat bed semi trucks waiting in the parking lot ready to load up. When one left another showed up. Each truck carries a minimum of 1000 bags of cement. They open at 6am and close at 6pm. They are doing some serious business. Anyways, I made it out alive. We drove to the job sites and unloaded the 10,000 lbs of cement we just picked up and then did the whole thing again (minus the admin part). So today we moved 20,000lb of cement. It was very tiring and I was incredibly dirty. The really sweet lady I was talking about earlier kept trying to clean my face and arms. I was so dirty it wasn’t working very well, but I appreciated the effort.

I spent all day at Ibo and made it back to the compound at 3:30pm. I got a shower and then did some work here. Time flies here. It was 6 o’clock before I knew it.

Today was a lot of fun. I enjoy busy days. The mosquitoes are really bad right now so tonight will not be fun.

It is almost time for devotion. Thanks for everything.

Always with Love,

Stephen