StephenByxbe.com

I don’t know if it really is possible to melt… but I think today was pretty close. I started sweating the moment I got out of bed and continued to sweat until 9pm tonight. I lost at least 10 lbs today in sweat. I got up this morning with intentions to go to Ibo Beach and look at the construction. There wasn’t really a reason for me to go to Ibo today, but I was going anyways. However, I didn’t end up going. I decided there were a lot of things I needed to do today.

I gave Ronic everything he needed and then I started working here. I have been building a “depot” or storage shed over the past week or two. We have so many supplies coming that I needed a place to put everything out of the weather. I had two sections already built.. about 32′x16′. We went ahead and put all the boards in that came the other day. So this morning I moved a huge pile of rocks out of the way, which were in a gigantic ant pile. We lit the ant pile on fire after this. It was a lot of fun. We spent a few hours moving rocks and broken blocks. After we had cleared it all out we put gravel all on the ground to make a nice floor for everything.

Once we finished cleaning up, I built the next section to the depot. It is 11′X16″. It was about lunch time when we got the first 2 rafters up. We stopped after the first 2 and ate lunch. After lunch we finished with the rafters, lats and with the gravel under the new portion. I didn’t have any roofing nails so I couldn’t finish with the tin. I took a break and waited for the nails and the generator. As soon as that arrived I was back at work finishing the metal and starting the next section of the depot. It is the corner piece. I got half of the rafters finished and then called it a night around 6:30pm.

It was a productive, sweaty day. I liked it.

Now it’s time for some much deserved sleep.

Always with love,

Stephen

P.S. – the internet was down at the Insurance and Tag office today so we couldn’t do anything. Also, the alternator was bad so they had to get it fixed.

The alarm clock sounded – 5:15am…. snooze. Again at 5:20am… snooze. Again… no snooze.. just turned it off. Finally I got up and ate breakfast.. I didn’t get to finish breakfast. I had to go out to the gate and make sure all the workers were here and ready to go. When I got up I had a pretty bad headache, so I had decided I wasn’t going to the job site in the morning. They didn’t need me there anyways. I had worked out the majority of the problems yesterday.

So.. I returned to my room and finished with breakfast. I went back to sleep for a little while.  I didn’t get to sleep too much longer because we were shipping the group out for some touring of PAP. I sent the group off and headed to the depot… aka the soccer field. At the depot the guys were starting to put together groups of 1/4 rebar. They are tying it 20 pieces at a time to use for the foundations. They are also moving stuff around so we can build the storage shed for all of the supplies.

I then headed to Cite Soleil to check on the work that is going on. We are building 1 house and 2 roofs. The houses are starting to look really good. I was happy to get to see the workers in Cite Soleil. It has been awhile since I have seen them.

After C/S I took a nap to try to reduce my headache. It didn’t work very well. After the nap I went to the welder’s house and picked up some doors for the houses we are building. I brought them to the “depot.”

After lunch I sat down and started working on the numbers for the houses. I am trying to squeeze the budget a little bit to be able to offer a couple different things. I spent a good hour or two working on the numbers. I ended up going to Cite Soleil again to look at the work and saw one of the home owner’s. He was so happy. He is planning on bringing me some creole chicken when we are finished. These families are so nice. I love them all.

The day ended pretty nice. Some of the loudest thunder and craziest lightning I have ever seen. It was a fun time. I will admit I jumped a few times. The devotion was fun tonight. Talked about hope… hope for the Haitian people.

Tomorrow the team leaves. Always sad when a group leaves, but good news – BILL FUDGE is coming. FOR A MONTH! Bill Fudge is one of my favorites.

Anyways, thats it for today. Nothing crazy. Just a regular day in the life of an American-Haitian

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

Once a runner… always a runner. If I go for a long period without running, my body begins to hate me. I crave long runs. Today was one of those days. I am not a big fan of running in the area where I live. It stinks, it’s really rocky and uneven and even though I have lived here for something like 5 months or so… I still get lost. Today, I didn’t care. I had to go. So this morning, I put on the shoes and headed out. I think I ran at least 4 or 5 miles. It was a great time to de-stress and unload. I have been planning my trip back to the states and preparing for that time, which includes raising support. I am not a big fan of raising support but it is the only way I am able to be here. So that has been stressing me out a little.

After my run I did a good workout. I lifted some concrete blocks and did curls. It was a lot of fun using my make shift gym. I created a schedule for running and working out and drew it on my wall so I could see it everyday.

This was the last weekend for Ella, Gracie, Lucy and William so we all tried to have some bonding time. It was a lot of fun. More of a relaxed day. I am really going to miss this group. They have been great. We really feel like a family here. I wish everyone could stay.

We have a team coming in tomorrow, so it will be back to work this week. I feel like we haven’t had a team in forever, but that isn’t the truth. We have just been enjoying our time off.

It is getting late, so I am heading to bed.

Always with Love,

Stephen

Finally.. it will let me write. I think my blog wanted me to take the night off last night. However, I stayed up late trying to make it work. No worries. I didn’t disappear… I am still here.

So let’s see. What happened yesterday. OOoooo some randomness on the job site. One of my workers (Fredo) stops by the compound before work. He has a headache, but is telling me something about gang members trying to steal from him or from the workers and shooting at him or someone else. It didn’t really make much since, even after Byambison came out there. But, this alerted me that something was going on. After Fredo left, Ronic came by to give me an update on everything. He told me there had been some confrontation at one of the sites resulting in him only being able to take what they could use in one day. Where we are working now there are a lot of problems with things “sprouting legs” and walking off. There also seems to be a problem with people forcefully taking items… What I don’t understand is why someone would pull a gun on a worker for a bag of cement. Really… are they going to pull a gun… hoist a 100lb bag of cement onto their shoulder and expect not to get hit with a shovel as they “run away” with a bag of cement. This is just me thinking.. this has not happened.. so please don’t worry.

Anyways, I am pretty good about rambling on and on about all kinds of things. I wish I could stay on topic, but I think the blog would probably be boring then. Ok. So, yesterday. I am on foot in Cite Soleil all morning checking out job sites. At first I was with Ronic and then I saw Marconelle walking around so he joined. We scoped everything out, fixed a few problems, heard the real story about the “stealer,” and talked with some friends. The real story about the stealer was – a guy robbed the grocery store next to one of the job sites. The whole community started chasing the guy and he got scared so he pointed the gun behind him and shot, kinda up into the air. If it had not been up in the air it would have hit Rigo or Fredo. That was what Fredo was trying to tell me. I wasn’t as concerned after I heard this. I thought someone came up to them stealing from them.

After this, I had no transportation, so Marconelle and I took a nice walk back to Blanchard. It was kind of relaxing. We had a good talk. I love Marconelle, he is awesome. His new title is “Driver and Body Guard.”

After lunch, I hopped on the bicycle and peddled around Terre Noir checking on the roofing projects. It started to rain while I was riding around which made it kind of nice. I stopped by a friends house and said hello. I hadn’t seen him in awhile. By the time I made it back on my bike it was time to call it quits for the day. I ended up having to run some late errands with Ronic so I made it back to the compound around 8:30pm.

Now on to today. I think 75% of the staff woke up today with a headache and other sickly feelings. We all took a little longer to get going today than usual. Long story short… today was a little more of slow day. However, we finished framing one house and finished with the metal on 1 other. I had to make a bank run and then when I got back everyone, including me crashed. I was out until 6pm. Not sure what happened, but I hope everyone is better tomorrow.

This next week is going to be sad. We lose Ella on Tuesday & Lucy, Gracie and William on Wednesday. Half of our American staff gone in one week… It is going to be a hard time adjusting to life without them.

Well.. look at the time. 11:15pm – only an hour and 15 mins past my bed time. This 10pm thing is hard. Maybe tomorrow…

Goodnight for now.

Stephen

Sorry for not writing the blog last night… I know it probably threw everyone’s schedule off Anyways.. on with today.

Today was Sunday – you know what that means! Church and a Day OFF!! Wrong. We were out of water this morning so me and Jordan rushed to get water this morning before church, but it took us so long we missed most of church. One group was leaving at 9:15 anyways so I had to help them get out to the airport. After all of that jazz I took a nap. That was about the only relaxing thing at happened all day.

William and I left around lunch to go to Cite Soleil and finish the water filtration building’s roof. It has to be done by Monday afternoon because they will be using it on Tuesday – so we are on a time crunch. William and I worked on the roof until after 6pm. It was crazy.. so hot.. and nasty, but we are almost finished.

Around 4 o’clock the coolest thing happened. I am standing on the roof in what is supposedly a fairly dangerous place, where everyone is not just poor but extremely poor. Everything is dirty, sad and feels like there is no hope… when all of a sudden I hear a single voice singing Amazing Grace – in English. I couldn’t help but stop everything I was doing and sing along. As I stood there I thought about all of the people who have nothing but are sitting in this church praising the God of the Universe and crying out to Him saying how amazing He is, how thankful they are for His love an grace. Every time I see this, it reminds me of how small I am… how NOTHING I am.

After Amazing Grace they sang “Who Am I” by Casting Crowns.. hearing this song.. knowing what the Haitians have gone through.. I don’t even know how to explain it. Some things just don’t make sense. I know I wouldn’t be handling this situation the way that any of them are. They are such strong people. I love how no matter what happens.. no matter what is thrown their way, you will continue to hear them singing praises to our Mighty God.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week. God Bless.

Stephen

So much to do – so many things to get in the way. Driving places in Haiti is just ridiculous. Traffic is always awful. This morning I dropped my mom and aunt off at the airport – yes, so sad. I didn’t want my mom to leave… or my aunt. It was so good to see my mom. I can’t wait to September when I get to see the rest of the family.

After the airport, I headed up towards Petionville with Marconelle for a meeting. It took forever to get up there this morning because of traffic… long story short, I got a great nap. I had a great meeting with a new friend for the majority of the morning. He had a great view at his house. It was nice to relax for a few minutes as well. I headed back down the mountain around lunch. I went to Terre Noir to change clothes and grab some lunch. After lunch, I headed to the job sites in Cite Soleil. I needed to check on the progress of all the foundations that were being worked on. Also, we are putting a roof on the new building at the Cite Soleil compound so I tried to help them for a little while.

It is really hard working in Cite Soleil because there are so many people in need that have lost everything or don’t have anything and there isn’t anything I can do. It is hard to tell people over and over – I’m sorry, I don’t have any jobs or I can’t build you a house or anything else they want. Spending 3 weeks in Cite Soleil will wear you thin. But at the same time it is such a blessing to help people who absolutely cannot help themselves.

Something fun that happened this week was Soles 4 Souls came down to Haiti. They have been staying with us at the Blanchard Resort. They have passed out over 1500 pairs of shoes in 2 days! It has been amazing to hear the stories each day when they finish and to see them passing the shoes out to the kids here. They are coming back in August and I can’t wait!

Tomorrow I am hoping to take a little time off and rest before we have 50 this week. I need to spend some time reading and catching up with people. We’ll see if this actually happens or not.

Today was great overall… one of the busiest days I have had in a while but always fun.

Thanks for all of your prayers. I look forward to seeing everyone soon.

Always with Love,

Stephen

That’s a word I haven’t heard in awhile. Today was great, even though I didn’t really do anything. Maybe that’s why it was great. I was up bright and early this morning with the 5am “Mmm Bop” wake up call. It was followed by some Hillsong which prepared us for church. This morning we had 3 different church groups. We had 1 group working with the children’s church at Blanchard, 1 group at Blanchard and the last group visited all 3 churches. Crazy Sunday huh? We had people all over the place. The children loved having the Americans teach them some songs and play with them. I really enjoyed it myself.

Around 8 am I snuck away from children’s church and over to my room. I really wanted to skype my Sunday school class from back home. I miss them so much. I can’t wait to be back home so I can see all of them. We were able to talk for a little while and then church was over. I took my usual Sunday mid morning nap. I woke up around 11:30 am and arranged some work for the group of guys that are here. The third floor is almost finished at Blanchard but there was a BUNCH of ruble and broken block and trash in all of the rooms, so I had the guys go through and clean it all up. Best part was they got to throw it all off of a 3 story building into a dump truck. That was a lot of fun.

I returned to sleep after that. I slept for a few more hours and then woke up again to go to the store. One of the groups here is preparing food for the school kids. I needed to go to the store and buy bread for 300 kids on Monday and 600 kids on Tuesday. That’s a lot of bread.

Yesterday I gave my bed away to Byambison and Jordan so they would have a place to sleep. Therefore, I no longer have a bed. I have been sleeping on my window bench. It is actually really comfortable. This afternoon I should have built a bed, but instead I built a desk. I am so happy to have a desk again.

I tried to keep myself pretty busy today while I wasn’t sleeping, but still make it my day off. I think I accomplished that. We had staff meeting tonight right after dinner and I think it was the fastest staff meeting every. Normally staff meeting lasts about 3 hrs because we are all hanging out, but tonight it might have been 30 mins. That was exciting.

I am fasting today and tomorrow to spend some time with God. To make myself stop and realize why I am here doing what I am doing. Fasting allows me to take times of the day where I would normally be eating and talk with God and spend some time with Him. Please keep me in your prayers over the next day while I am fasting and praying.

Thanks to everyone who is out there reading this! I hope I am continuing to give you the everyday feel of life in Haiti. We are almost finished with 6 more houses. That will bring our total up to almost 30 houses and 5 roofs. We are making some progress. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to HOM’s relief project.

Well, I am going to try to make it an early night. So I am off to bed at 8:30pm. This hasn’t happened in months!

Always with Love – talk to you soon.

Stephen

I don’t know how many days it’s been since I’ve written a blog. This is really gonna mess up the book you guys wanted me to put together Maybe I’ll just make something up for those days. This week has been intense and has required a lot out of the staff. The 4 – 5 hrs of sleep every night has left me too exhausted to write a blog each night.

Let’s see if I can recap on some exciting this this week. The first part of the week we had a small med group. Which was made up of a dentist, 2 pediatricians and a few helpers. The dentist fell out from exhaustion on day one. His comment was, “These Haitians jaws are so incredibly dense! It’s wearing me out.”

We have had another med group here at the same time. They have seen over 1000 patients this week. That is amazing.  They also were able to run a clinic in Repatriote 2 days. This team also had an eye doctor that has done eye exams ALL DAY LONG. He was giving eye exams last night at 9pm to people in the compound. He was so happy to be able to help so much.

We had a team of 25 join mid week. They brought a dental team, art team and 2 construction teams. The dentist has been working non stop. These people have so many needs. The construction teams have built a roof and new benches for the cafeteria at Blanchard. They have been full steam ahead. They are taking a personal trip to Jacmel today so we won’t see them until Sunday.

Everyone at Blanchard is leaving today. We will have no one here until 4:30pm. Hopefully it will be a nice relaxing day – however, I’m not getting my hopes up. It’s work work work here right now. I love it – that means progress.

The weather this week was amazing. Storms were brewing so we had cloudy nice days. The sun is out this morning hot and bright. I wish we could have another week like the last but I’m thinking we are out of luck on that.

We now have what seems to be a MONSTROUS staff. It’s actually kinda nice. It is a great group of young people that help make this place feel like home. I’ll introduce you to all of them. Everyone knows Nathan, he came down with me (harvestforhaiti.com). Next we have Autumn. She came down in March with a team from her church and then felt led to come back and serve long term. She has been here for a little over one month. She runs the clinic (autumnwhitby.wordpress.com). Next we have Jordan. He is an engineering student in Ohio that has joined us for 3 months. He is working on the compound construction projects. We just had another worker join us, William White. He came down with his church, who is here now, but will be staying for one month. He will be helping me with teams and home construction. Our Haitian staff is growing as well. Nadege, Pastor Leon’s daughter, now lives with us. She works in the Blanchard school but also helps with the teams. Byambison, mine and Nathan’s translator, still lives here. He works on home construction with me an helps Nathan out with projects at the compound. Jean Wadson just joined us a week ago. He is Jordan’s translator and helps with the construction at Repatriote.  We should be getting 3 more short term staff in July, so the crew will grow even more.

On an even better note!!! My mom and Aunt come on July 2nd!!! I can’t wait to see them. We are going to have a fun time. I am going to show them all of the sites and take them to some great places to eat – maybe they will get to work too

I am excited for Nathan getting to go home in a few days. I know he is really looking forward to it. September is approaching fast… it’s going to be a packed 2 weeks. Hopefully it will be semi relaxing.

This next week looks like construction… construction… construction! Let’s get it done.

Always with Love,

Stephen

Today was beautiful. It felt so good outside. Overcast and a high of 82 degree. That’s like working in paradise everyday. Right now on the radar there is a gigantic purple spot above Haiti. I’m pretty sure that means a lot of rain. I’m up for  it.

I felt very good when I woke up today… I thought for a second “Maybe I will make it today without falling asleep or being exhausted!” So I got up, took a shower, got dressed up for the airport and ate breakfast. Breakfast was amazing french toast by the way. After breakfast I headed to the job sites to answer some questions. I got everything taken care of at the job sites and headed home to get a notepad with an address. As I was leaving my room, I clearly wasn’t thinking, I locked my keys in my room. This isn’t the first time this has happened. I went down stairs and got a 1/4″ piece of rebar so I could fish my keys out. After a few minutes of skilled work I had them. Thank goodness I left them in sight and was able to fish them out.

It is now 9:30am, I need to be at the airport at 11am. I also need to pick up a load of glasses from a place that is potentially 45 mins away. That is with no traffic jams, no problems, no flat tires, no nothing. I said lets go. I was with Marconelle so I knew I could get there fast. We made it there in 48 mins. It took up 25 mins to pick up the glasses…. I told Marco “We’ve gotta get to the airport quick.” He responded with his typical answer “No problem my boss. I know a short cut.” So off we go. It took maybe 15 mins to get there. How in the world did that happen? And why didn’t we go that way in the first place? Who knows. O and here is where the exhaustion picks back up. I made it until 9:35am. I was passed out asleep in the front of the tap tap. I slept the whole way there and the whole way back. Crazy huh?

I made it to get the glasses, took them to Cite Soleil and then made it to the airport all in time. The group I went to pick up at the airport has 25 people, so I was going to use my new trick. I made friends with the security guys that watch the big gate that you can drive into and pick people up. We just randomly struck up a conversation one day and now we are best friends… they let me do whatever I want! I can back trucks in there all day long and the people at the airport don’t have to walk outside the gate. The police officer tried to stop us one time and my friend came over and pretty much said “It’s no problem, he can do whatever he wants.” The police officer was pretty frustrated and just walked off.

I got the team loaded up and to the Coconut Villa. We had another semi long term worker come with there team so I picked him up and brought him to Terre Noir. Exhaustion once again. I crashed for a few minutes. After I crashed we got everything set up in the dining room for dinner and did a few other things around the compound and that was pretty much the whole day.

We had a great time at dinner with about 50 people. This is going to be a great work week as well. We are building 9 houses, 5 roofs, benches for the Blanchard cafeteria and running a medical clinic! Praise the Lord.

Thats enough for now.

Always with Love,

Stephen