Dear Everybody:

The other day I flew into Port-au-prince. The flight was great. Terry Snow, the base director here met me at the airport and as we drove back I got my first glimpse of Haiti. Much of the road looked like perhaps it was not a road at all. At one point there was a large amount of black smoke, and when we came up to it, it turned out to be from an overturned truck on fire. There was a large crowd watching it burn. The rest of the trip was uneventful. I arrived just in time to eat dinner and attend my first creole class.

The next day, I went with a crew of staff to drill a well in Saint Marc's city park. We picked up the well drilling equipment from the city jail where the previous well was drilled and also where Terry snow was imprisoned for a short time. Fortunately, the local officials no longer imprison YWAMmers, instead they are very grateful for the nice things that YWAM has done for the community, like well drilling. I learned all about how to drill a well. It is a lot of work. There were five of us drilling the well and about 40 or 50 people standing around watching. 

On Wednesday I went on a "port run", a trip to Port au Prince. There are stores where you can get most things there, and they are guarded by scary looking guys with shotguns. We drove into pap through Cite de Soleil, one of pap's most poverty stricken areas. I wouldn't want to live there. I'm glad I got to see it though. Terry said if anyone tried to jump in the truck and steal stuff that he would take one guy and I should take the next guy. I don't think I would be very good at that. 

Haitians are extremely friendly. The staff here is mostly Haitian, so I am trying very hard to learn Creole. It is a fairly simple language. For example, "he", "she" and "it" are all expressed with the word "li". I learned some creole from the locals who watched us drill in the park and the staff helps all the time. In Haiti it is normal for men to hold hands sometimes, which may take a little getting used to. It was particularly disconcerting to see a big, scary security guard with a shotgun in PAP holding hands with another big scary guy. 

In addition to drilling wells and mechanicing, I will start teaching English a little on Friday to a class made up of people from the community and a few staff.

The living arrangements here on the base are interesting. The dorm is quite large, and I'm not sure how many guys actually live in here. Everyone has sheets put up to provide a degree of privacy. There are no windows, but there are holes in the walls to provide a nice breeze. I sleep pretty well here except for when the roosters next door get crowing, which can be at any time during the night. I thought roosters only crowed in the morning, but apparently not in Haiti. Terry says it's because Haitian roosters are possessed. Two staff apartments will open up in June, so I am hoping to move into one of those. The rats aren't as aggressive on base as in Jamaica. The mosquitoes haven't bothered me as of yet, but apparently I arrived at the beginning of rainy season so in a few weeks they will be everywhere. With mosquitoes comes the risk of Dengue fever, which most people get. There are five strains of the Dengue virus, and you can catch all five. All in all, I like Haiti a lot so far.

Okay, my contact information has changed. My new e-mail address is chrisrolling@chrisrolling.com, and my new website, which is definitely worth checking out, is www.chrisrolling.com. It should be up by now, but if it isn't, keep an eye out for it. I will only check my hotmail account every once in a while, so don't send e-mail there anymore. It would be nice to receive encouraging e-mails and news from back there. I am working on how to hook up to send e-mail with my new laptop, but internet access isn't readily available here. I am going to talk to a guy with "clean water for Haiti" about it. If you decide you really want to send me snail mail, I recommend using Lynx air. The specific address for them is available under the listing for Haiti on YWAM's international website at www.YWAM.org. The power is out right now and I can't really be bothered to stumble around in the dark and find it, sorry. You can send envelopes to me up to 2 pounds via Lynx air without me having to pay duty. Send the envelope to the office wthout my name in the address. Write my name either on the letter itself or on the back of the envelope. The base phone number can also be found on the international website. YWAM Haiti will have its own website up soon and I will let you know about it. 

Support raising has gone very well so far. Unfortunately, I have not raised all of what I need. I have been pledged $460 out of my goal of $750/month. $460 is enough to pay staff fees and expenses, but it is not enough to cover my student loan payments, so until the rest of my support money comes in the U.S. government will have to be patient with me. 

Peace be the journey, Chris

Haitian proverb:

Dele Lanmidon meye pase lakot-fot. 

Sometimes starch is better than glue. : The most important things are not
always the best ones.