Friday, January 6^th 2012 day 6. We woke to cool temperatures and clear blue skies. It has been unseasonably cool according to the several August team members who never miss an opportunity to tell us “newbies” that we don’t know how good we have it! The trip is going well and it was good to see Danielle and Amber at breakfast again.  They both had been a little under the weather and had missed out on yesterday’s lunch and the afternoon all team trip to the boy’s orphanage.

This AM I was involved in a team led by Kyle. Our mission was to demo a storage shed in the tent village…it was supposed to take an hour. Kyle and I exchanged several anxious glances and both realized it would take much longer. We got right to it with absolutely no grumbling from the girls that were with us.  Many thanks to the “rubble” crew that teamed up with us to haul the roof section out in one piece through the maze of isles in the tent city. It was a chunk of metal roofing and rafters that was at least 20 ft. square that had to be carried at an angle in many places to avoid knocking over the various porches and overhangs of the tent city. One little older lady who failed to get out of the way, starred wide eyed as we went right over the top of her!

Later our team picked up Jill, Bethany, Dave and daughter Hailey and went out to the school to put the finishing touches on the classroom partitions.  I was involved in this project from the beginning and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The project involved demolition of a portion of the roof section over an open air classroom and replacing with new rafters and metal roofing.  We also built portable partitions for dividing one main room into class rooms and installed a partial wall in the kitchen area.

Definitely the most interesting part of the project for me, (other than being amazed at the spans that are acceptable for spliced 2×4 rafters), were the rides to and from the job site in the back of an open bed pickup truck. As we hurtled through the streets, the sights, sounds and smells are hard to describe. It was also a great opportunity to see the Haitian Nationals up close.  Several things I noted were the gracefulness of the ladies as they carried huge loads on their heads, the clean clothes that most of them wore, and the ready smiles, (particularly from the kids).

Today we had our favorite security guard/interpreter, Frankie, with us and he was able to introduce us to the pastor.  He had been out of country with his daughter so it was the first time we had met him.  Through Frankie, he was able to thanks us and express his genuine appreciation for our work.  It was particular touching for me when he said that they had wanted to do this for a long time…. but didn’t have the money. His thought and talk pretty much made the entire trip worthwhile for me.

Being a guest of Kyle’s, I am not a regular attender at Solid Rock Church so it has been awesome to get to know the other team members. I honestly have not heard one bit of complaining or observed any rude or petty behavior and it has been really refreshing.  The leadership that Kyle, Jeff and Steve have provided has been superb. The worship times led by Nate and Kristen had been wonderful as well…

Jeff wanted me to keep this as short as possible, but there are so many good things happening here that I just couldn’t help it.  Thanks so much to all of you for your prayers and financial support.  From and outside observer I would have to say this is far and away the best short term mission trip I have ever been involved in!!

God bless you all!

Craig T. Ulrich