Rainy season hit last Thursday or Friday, and the timing was perfect! It was truly a God thing. As you are probably aware if you read this blog regularly, we have begun the building of new facilities for the Bible and Ministry Training School we are opening next fall. We hired Boss Wilner, an up-and-coming contractor in the area who seems to be honest and fairly skilled, to do the first building, a small dormitory. Around September 20th or so Pam, Boss Wilner, and myself sketched out a plan for this building, and he came back with an estimate. We knew the estimate was way too high, based on way too many materials, and at first I overreacted and thought we should look for someone else. But Pam had more experience with this process and thought we could work with it. We struck up an agreement to buy the materials ourselves and save money. He agreed. Pam gave him some money to get started.
His crew wasted no time and got right to work. In just a few days they had the land cleared and leveled for the foundation. The building is built parallel to the slope of the hill, or perpendicular to the ocean, so on one side it is cut into the hill, and on the other side it was to be built up with a rock/cement platform. Pretty cool, really. The workers cut into the hill, dug bigger pits for the pillars, and mapped everything out for the foundation to be laid. After that they began piling in the rocks, cement, and rebar in a furious frenzy of activity. Everyday I would stop by and watch, at a different time each day, and I was very impressed to rarely find them sitting around or calling it quits too early in the day, especially since they get paid per day of work. As we have probably mentioned before, all cement here is made by hand. No cement truck or mixer of any kind can be found here. The workers just open several 94 lb. sacks of mix, combine the necessary amounts of sand and water, and shovel the mixture into buckets to be carried by hand to the next spot that needs it.
So around October 5th they were completely finished with the foundation, with the necessary rebar pointing up to the sky and indicating where the walls would soon be built. The building will be only one level now, but should be set up nicely to add a 2nd level in the future. The completion of the foundation was a very nice stopping point, and sure enough, that very night the rainy season kicked in with full force. It was perfect timing, because Pam had only given them enough money to complete the foundation, and we didn't have the money in Haiti to buy the necessary supplies to continue after that point. We never imagined they would finish all of this before the rainy season kicked in. It was more like we figured they would work at it a day or so each week in October, working during the few rare dry patches, and maybe be close to finishing when Pam returned on November 2nd. But this is perfect. They can just take a break during the next few weeks of rain, and we'll pick it up after that. Praise God for perfect timing!
Rainy season is something to behold here. I don't think we were hit too hard this spring. It was nothing like it has been the last four or five days. It just rains and rains and rains. Bruce and I did some work on the roof in September, which has helped a lot to keep the house dry on the inside. There are still a few drips here and there, but it is much better. Everything shuts down in the community when it is raining, so you need to have a comfortable home to enjoy as you sit around playing cards, reading books, etc... My heart goes out to those who are sitting in wet homes all over the community even as I am sitting here typing this blog...especially those with dirt floors. How miserable.
The air is much cooler when it is raining. It is very refreshing. Heaven forbid the Sun comes out right after a downpour, though. Humid! Another interesting thing following rains is to go out with the motorcycle and drive down our dirt/gravel roads in Ti-Rivier. It feels like you are driving on them for the first time. When you drive here you subconsciously catalog all of the big potholes and ruts and other obstacles you need to avoid. Right after it rains the road is completely different. You are forced to relearn the best route to take on the road, because there is a whole new topography to account for.
It probably won't be too long before a little bit of cabin-fever sets in, but we'll do our best to get by. Pam remembers times when it didn't stop raining for over 20 days here, so we'll see if that scenario repeats itself this October. We'll take advantage of this time to rest, enjoy family time, and get a lot of planning and writing done for the Blog, the Bible School, the Youth Group, and other ministries. Again, God's timing is perfect...so let it rain!
The first half of this blog was written on Monday morning. The following was added on Tuesday afternoon...
What a difference 24 hours makes when you are talking about the effects of rain! Over the past day we have been completely saturated with a constant downpour, and everything has changed. I kept telling Sue, “I wish we had a rain gauge, because it has got to be somewhere in the 10-15 inch range, easily. The first half of this blog almost makes it seem like rainy season is a cute little hiccup in your day, a little tiny inconvenience to deal with and move on. However, last night and into today we have witnessed the raw power of what water can do.
Last night the staff in the orphanage compound came over at about 9 o'clock to get tools out of the tool shed. They told us some water was coming in to one of the houses. I volunteered to go over and help out. I wasn't prepared for what I would see. The whole property was covered with water, and part of the wall highest up the hill had cracked and water was gushing through. At the bottom of the compound, especially by the gate, a small lake was forming. Lubin and Renand's house was taking on water. It was coming in between the wall and the floor, reminding me of basements after big rains back in the region we come from. The toilets were filled with water as well, and the retaining wall was cracked in several places and bulging.
We poked a little hole in the retaining wall by the flooded house, and that relieved the pressure and cleared up that problem. We opened the gate and let all of that lake go down the path out front. Hopefully it didn't end up in the house of someone farther down the hill. Next we all took flashlights and went outside the compound to take a look at the other side of the wall. The compound is at the bottom of a fairly large hill, and the wall actually gets lower toward the middle. I was afraid of what we might see. I imagined the wall holding back a lake of water, like a damn just waiting to burst and cause who-knows-what to happen
There was a lot of laughing as we made our way behind the wall. None of us knew quite how jungle-like it had gotten back there! We took a good look, didn't find any standing water, and then suddenly we all began dancing around and yelling out, “Foumi! Foumi!” (Ants! Ants!) I don't know how they do it, exactly, but they all start biting you at one time. It is like some leader ant gives a signal...”Wait, boys! Don't bite until we all get on their legs and pick a tender spot. Okay, on the count of three. One....two...three...BITE!!!!!” We ran back into the compound, concluding the water situations was relatively safe for now.
This morning we began considering plans for how to deal with the problem before we get another big rain. Meanwhile, Adrien, Sue, and myself decided to try to squeeze in a “bulk run”, which is a trip to the city to get all of the big bags of cornmeal, beans, oil, sugar, seasonings, and other food items needed to keep the meals flowing for everyone who lives here. Adrien had already made the trip to Cayes in the middle of the night to take Dan Elliot, another local American missionary, to the bus station. This morning he went to Port-au-Prince to meet his wife and kids and bring them back to Ti-Rivier. Patchouko went along with Dan to help out.
The bulk run went alright. We found most of the items despite the fact that most o the shops weren't open. Les Cayes is a very low city, near the ocean, and the streets were flooded pretty badly. Driving there was relatively uneventful, and the deepest water we drove through was probably 18 inches or so, and it wasn't moving too fast. We finished up and left town around noon. About that time we got a phone call from Dan saying they, too, were in Cayes and had stopped beside the road because of flooding. The van driver they had hired from Port didn't want to try to continue.
Soon we caught up with the Elliots, and many cars, motorcycles, and pedestrians were stopped at that point. It was unclear whether we could pass any further. We took Dan's wife, Kari, and their two kids in the vehicle with us, and their visitor from Sioux Falls named Todd, and we decided to go for it. Little did we know how big the adventure was about to get!
That first little stretch was probably the scariest. Water was almost up to the headlights of the SUV, and it was flowing across pretty fast in places. I asked Adrien, “Are you concerned about the car stalling out?” He just stared ahead and said, “No.” Later he told me he knew how high the carburetor was, and we were good to go as long as it didn't go that high. People in the car were pretty anxious about the whole thing. Water was pushing hard on the side of the car and coming in through the doors, and spontaneous, audible prayers broke out from more than a couple mouths.
We made it through that test and several more, finally arriving back in Ti-Rivier almost 2 hours later. At one point the few cars making this journey stopped. I walked ahead in about a foot of water to see what was going on. Huge chunks of earth had washed across the road, and the traffic was waiting for some men to try to break down the barrier. Others were carrying motorcycles across by hand.
Finally it opened up and we were able to continue on our journey. At that time, as I trudged back to the car and glance up at the mountains about five miles away, it dawned on me what had happened. I was wondering how the water could get so much higher in the few hours since we had passed there in the morning. I suddenly remembered that we were in a huge plain, filled with rice paddies and sugarcane fields, gradually sloping down to the sea, and it was only at this time that the huge rains from the night before were finally arriving from the mountains. The sheer volume of water was no longer able to soak into the earth. In a way were driving through a gigantic river that stretched about 6-8 miles wide.
We survived the ordeal, and about an hour later Dan and Patchouko showed up in town as well. I still haven't heard how they got a ride through the mess. The real tragedy in this adventure was the countless homes in the flood plain completely inundated with water. We could see the water gushing straight into the front doors of many homes. Adrien had already heard of some people drowning the night before. I wondered to myself, “Does this always happen during rainy season.” Right on cue, as if he was reading my thoughts, Adrien answered my question, “I've never seen it quite this bad.”
Thank you God for bringing us safely through this adventure! Please protect us for the remainder of this rainy season.
ENJOY YOUR ADVENTURE TODAY!
-The Grimm Family Adventurers
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