Leslie Rolling - Part 19

Construction Week 49

We’re already at week 49?!?!

This week flew by. Seriously. I went into it feeling really stressed out. I keep looking at the calendar and counting how many weeks we have until move day and thinking about everything that needs to be done, and then my head wants to explode while I crumple to the ground and cry. But then I went into this week and changed some things up and all I can say is WOW.

I have pictures, but they don’t really communicate everything that was accomplished this week. It’s crazy and mind blowing.

Let me put it this way – on Monday morning I walked into the house and the only stuff in the kitchen were the boxes of fans that needed to be installed and a pile of plywood. That’s it. Yesterday when we drove off site at 5:23 pm I had lower kitchen cabinets with a very freshly poured concrete counters.

I’m not even kidding.

We went from me trying not to hyperventilate and imagining us cooking on a stove outside to “We have a kitchen!!!” And, a pretty darn nice one if I do say so myself!

So, what was the change I made this week? I recruited help. One of our workers, Johnny, stopped and was chatting with me last week while I was out there working, and I found out he’s been studying to be a carpenter, and was very interested in what I was doing. He was always admiring the stuff I was making, and on this particular day was asking a lot of questions. I suggested that if I needed help with anything maybe I’d have him work with me. On Sunday that’s exactly what I decided to do for the next day. When I came home that day I was amazed at how much we’d gotten done. He’s been such a blessing to work with. He’s very smart and attentive, eager to learn, takes instruction well, and we got to the point where once I explained what we were doing and we started he was able to anticipate what I needed. A lot of people here don’t understand things like how to use power tools well so they work for you, checking details like angles, and structural stuff. Johnny was so on top of all of it.

The first time we went to start ripping down some plywood I explained the Kreg Rip Jig that I got. It attaches on to a circular saw and holds a measure so you can rip in a straight line. It’s a fabulous tool because I can never cut in a straight line with a circular saw. Anyway… I explained what it was and what we were going to do. He got the plywood, we set ourselves up, and I cut the first cut. Our friend Al was out helping that day and needed to talk to me so I stepped away and went inside. A few minutes later I heard the saw start up and almost had a panic attack. I’m so used to people trying to be helpful, but not fully understanding what’s needed, so it makes things worse rather than better. I went out and saw Johnny cutting down the next piece of wood – flawlessly. From that point on I decided that I wasn’t just going to have him help, I was going to teach too. I became the wood holder and he was the cutter. My body wasn’t sorry at this division of labor, no siree!

We quickly got into a rhythm in everything we were doing and by Wednesday I was able to start giving him tasks while I went and did other work. We started joking around and talking a lot more, and on break on Wednesday we had a great chat about so many things. It was just a great week of feeling helped and encouraged, and having the pleasure of teaching someone something. He’s like a sponge, which is so fun.

The other fun thing has been watching the process come together for him. Simply saying, “Okay, we’re going to build a kitchen this week!” becomes so much more when someone is walking through that process for the very first time. As a part of the puzzle would come together I could literally see the lightbulb come on and it was so fun. It was good for me to be the teacher in a new way too. I’m learning a lot about how I communicate, and where I need to be more direct and clear. It was also fun to introduce him to new things that I know he wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to learn simply because the carpenters here do so much by hand with simple tools, and they all tend to build furnishings in similar ways. He keeps thanking me for teaching him so much, and I keep thanking him for being so helpful :)

One of my favorite moments from the week? Showing him how to use a chalk line when we needed to cut some strange cut outs for the counter tops. When I stretched it out, explaining what was going on as I went, then pulled it up and snapped it his face literally lit up like a kid opening a Christmas present. Part surprise, part wonder. So funny.

By Wednesday we had all of the cabinet boxes built and the face frames on. That’s a huge amount of work in and of itself, and I was anticipating it would take me most of the week to get there by myself. I realized at that point that if we pushed a bit we could pour the counters on Friday afternoon, and we’d be sitting in a great place. And you know what? We did it. And we did it without cutting corners. In fact, in moments where I knew we could do something better, rather than letting it slide and just accepting it, we redid it. I’ve realized this week that when I get tired and discouraged I let myself get away with stuff like that. Working with someone else who’s on the clock had me wanting to maximize our time and make every minute count. Then I started seeing how much we were getting done and I got excited. And then more got done. And now I feel like we might actually get everything done that I had on my list before we move. And that’s crazy.

I’m so excited with how everything is coming together. I was telling Chris that I’ve literally been thinking about all of this and working on plans for two years. And now those days of thinking, and pinning things on Pinterest, and drawing out plans are becoming something tangible. It’s amazing to go in the mission house and know that I dreamed it all up and put it on paper, and then other people ran with that. I walk through and can visualize how the spaces will be used, and it makes my heart so happy.

So, where are we at?

Well, like I mentioned, our friend Al came out to work with us for Monday, but he was also there Tuesday. Such a huge help! He was able to get our last door installed, the one for what will eventually be the pantry under our stairs. It’s a smaller opening, so it was hard to find a door to fit. We needed one that was 28″, and I saw one one day in Port, but wasn’t able to buy it, and then never found them again. Two weeks ago I was in town again and found one at a different store, but it was a French door. I knew it was either that or I was making one, and I knew I didn’t have time for that. The fun part is that now that we have it and I’ve painted it I love it.

I decided to do something different with it. Rather than match it with the stained doors I painted it grey. This was a total surprise to me. I’m not usually a grey person, but the night before we were in town to buy paint I decided I wanted grey in the house. I’ve been trying to think about the things that bug me or end up being more work, and to eliminate as much of that as possible so our house is lower maintenance for us and Yonese. While I love the color of our current kitchen cabinets, the thing I don’t love is that they show every single thing that gets splashed on them. Chris loves spaces to be as bright as possible, and I’ve learned that trying to explain what I was aiming for is something he just has a hard time with. He’s much more visual, so I mentioned wanting to go darker on the bottom kitchen cabinets while keeping the uppers white. He finally said that I could just do whatever, after I asked him to just trust me. I could see it all coming together.

So, back to the grey. Originally the plan was to have all white built in cabinets in the office, but I kept looking at the desk we currently use and the fact that it’s no longer white, and I knew we weren’t going that route this time. The day before the Port trip I decided we were going to paint the lower cabinets grey in the office, and the one sole upper cabinet would be white. I had also originally planned on putting in a white subway tile in the kitchen, but when I couldn’t get it at the tile store we were getting our floor tile from I decided I wasn’t going to drive all over town looking for something that might not be available. And I’m glad I did because I think I gave myself permission to do something I am so excited about in the kitchen. Not going to let the secret out yet because it’s one of those things that I think will be better when it’s just seen rather than explained. But, it’s going to be amazing. With the grey in the office and the kitchen surprise, I knew I could get away with painting the pantry door grey, so I did. And I love it. I’m waiting to take the plastic off the windows until after we finish with the paint around the door jamb. And, the windows will get a frosted vinyl put on them because I don’t want to be looking at my pantry shelves all the time.

Al also installed all of the door knobs on the downstairs doors, so we can close them now. We’re still waiting for our solar batteries to arrive, and until they do the power won’t go live in the house and we have to use a generator. That means anything that needs power, whether it’s a drill or the water pump, needs to have the generator running. And it’s loud. But while we’re working inside we can close the office doors and cut some of the work sound. LOVE!

The other good thing about the doors cutting the sound a bit is that I can actually hear my phone now. Which is good for when people get stuck in places. Like Al. On Tuesday he was putting the door knobs in, and the jambs had warped a bit from when they filled in the concrete, so he was planing them down and trying to get the doors to fit. I had been outside with Johnny, and eventually noticed that Al wasn’t in the house, but just thought he’d gone out to the bathroom. Then I went to the bathroom and it clicked that since I was in the bathroom, Al wasn’t. I also had my phone in hand and scrolled through my messages and saw that Chris had just phoned, and then noticed that Al had sent me a text, which seemed strange since he was working just inside. Until I read it, and it said, “I’m stuck in the storage room”. Sent 45 minutes before… Darn loud generator. We had a good laugh about it.

So we now have fully functioning doors all through the main level of the house, and no one will get stuck in any of the rooms. They look so good. I’m really happy with the stain color and how they look in general. I need to finish painting the door jambs, but that only takes a couple of hours. You probably noticed that our exterior doors have something on them – that’s primer. Olivia panicked and wondered why on earth we’d ruined the doors. I had to tell her to chill and trust me. They aren’t going to get the final coat until just before we move.

On Tuesday All had some extra time before he needed to go, so he installed the office cabinets. I was so happy! I didn’t know when I’d get to them, and now they’re almost all in place. Two need to get attached to some other stuff because they’re going to sit away from the walls to create a wrap around work center.

The floor tile upstairs is still moving. We’re down to two bedrooms now. We did actually have a tile crisis last week when we realized, for certain (it had been mentioned, but we weren’t sure) that we definitely didn’t have enough tile. We’re not sure where the miscalculation happened, but we were two bedrooms short. Thankfully, because we went with a neutral, plain tile, it was something they had in stock and we were able to pick up the rest the next day. On Friday Abner got the joints grouted in the bathroom, and Thony got the last coat of paint up so we can start prepping for installing all the fixtures. This next week Johnny and I will be building the bathroom vanity, which I’m really excited about. It’s going to be a mix of rustic looking wood and a concrete top, which you’ll see we poured yesterday. I think we should be able to get everything finished in a couple days in there and be ready for putting the ceramic up. It would be amazing to have it all finished this week.

And now, the kitchen.

You guys, I’m SO excited about how it’s all coming together. Like, happy dance excited. The guys had been watching the cabinet boxes come together, then get spray varnished, then get other stuff done, and then we took them inside. I’ve pretty much banned everyone from going through the downstairs unless they’re working in there, so they didn’t really know what we were doing with all these things. Yesterday as we were getting the last bits in place before we poured the concrete, Abner came down and did a full inspection of the cabinets. I wish I’d taken a picture because he was literally lifting the plastic and sticking his head inside. He was just so interested. Later when they started pouring he came back and we were chatting and he just had this look of admiration, and kept saying, “It’s a normal kitchen”. Most Haitians cook outside, so by “normal” he meant first world. Last night as we poured and it was all hands on deck the guys just kept talking about how nice it was already, and we don’t have paint or anything done. I can’t wait to get the form work off and to sand and polish the counters. I think the guys will all be fascinated by it.

Yesterday was also a day where I got to see our guys shine. It’s been a long week and everyone wanted to quit at 2, the end of the work day. It’s quite normal for the construction crew to work later. Evens came to talk to me and I told him I needed to get the counters done, so if a few people could stay and help that would be great. He knows we’re pushing to get done, so he talked to everyone and told them that if they wanted to leave at 2 they could take a tap tap, but that some people would be staying. About half of the guys stayed to help.

When it came time to pour, we got all the concrete in place and mostly smoothed and then the guys started packing up. I asked when they were going to really smooth it and we all realized we had different ideas about what we were doing. They thought I was going to put ceramic tile on it, so having it rougher would be good. I thought they knew we weren’t. It was my fault because I didn’t clearly communicate what we were doing. I’d talked to a lot of people about it and just forgot that those people weren’t the people in the room, and that there are a lot of ways to do a counter top in concrete.

They were all very gracious when I apologized for the confusion, and they went right to work at getting things smoothed out to where I can polish them. They’re really proud of what they’re doing, and even though we were literally watching the sun go down and burning daylight, they kept going and got it done. I know that when I look at the counters I’ll remember so many hands going to work and their great attitudes. In Creole there’s a saying – Anpil men fe chaj pa lou – Many hands make the load lighter. It was so true yesterday.

Looking forward to being able to share pictures of the finished kitchen soon! I’ll be posting a separate post about the whole process of forming and pouring the counters, because I know there are people that are interested.

~Leslie

November 14, 2015 2 Comments

The Leaving

One of the hardest things about being a missionary/expat is the leaving. It never gets easier. Not even after a decade of leavings.

I’m talking about the people. People just like us who feel called to come to a place like Haiti. We all come, and we set up life in whatever way we know it needs to be in order to do the day to day here. We’re all sure that this is where we’re supposed to be. At least for right now.

The truth is, none of us ever know how long it’ll last.

Some of us come with a definite time frame. One month. Six months. A one year commitment. A two year contract. And in that time we build our lives, but I think there’s always that bit that’s held back from being fully here. Holding out for the end when you know time will be up and you’ll step back into your own culture, your family, your friends.

Others come with a vague time frame, and sometimes it’s shorter, and sometimes it’s longer. Often the latter. There’s a pivotal point when you’re a short termer that knows you’re supposed to be a long termer. You take that leap, you dig in, you set up house and you start investing yourself differently. Over time you become a “stayer”.

Stayers are the ones who probably started with a short commitment, but it grew over time. A year becomes three becomes five and soon you realize that a third of your life has passed by and you’ve developed a life for yourself in this new home, your adopted country.

I’m a stayer. I started out as a short termer, then I married a stayer and I fought that whole idea for about a year. God had to really do a lot in my heart, and there were things I had to come to terms with. Last month marked a decade of staying in Haiti. Of it being home and this place that I identify such a huge part of my life with.

The challenge of being the stayer is all the leaving.

In my mind I break each year into “seasons”, and it’s always divided by when we take our vacation and when the people in our lives will all be back and we get back into our “normal”. Typically the beginning of June starts the exodus out of the country so we can all go home for the summer to rest, see friends and family, fundraise, meet with our organizational heads, etc. Part work, part play. Also typically, starting sometime in August, people start coming back. The coming back can take more time with people straggling in over a period of about two months. By the beginning of October all the familiar faces are back, we’re back to doing our regular missionary gatherings, hanging out with friends, and just doing life together. The same cycle happens in December with those people that choose to go home for Christmas. They leave in the middle of December, and by the middle of January they’re back.

I can do the exodus. I can do it because there are times where I know people will be back.

With every single person that we meet here, one of the first questions after we exchange names and where we’re living/working is “How long are you planning on being here?” When they’re doing the asking it’s “How long have you been here?” Being completely gut level honest, when the response is “X number of months” there is a fleeting thought that runs through my brain where I decide right then and there how emotionally invested I’ll be. The shorter the time, the less investment.

That might sound harsh, but when you see people come and go annually, it’s hard to open up to the same level with each one. That opening up costs something. It takes energy. It requires work to make the time to share and be together. Life is already hard on a daily basis. Sometimes there just isn’t enough energy to go around.

When people answer the question with, “I don’t know” my ears perk up. I don’t know might be a year. It might be 10. At the very least it gives us somewhere to start. And, I’ve been here long enough to know that sometimes the very deciding factor is whether or not there’s any kind of community here to be a part of, to see yourself in for the long term. That very opening up might be the thing that creates a stayer.

We’ve been very blessed in the past few years to have had a lot of long term, open ended type people move into our area. I think back to our social network five years ago and Chris and I were the youngest members of the group. We were the only ones with small kids, or kids here period. We didn’t have “normal” things like Bible studies and guys/girls get togethers. We all stuck together because we were all we had. Some of us even joked about the fact that if we were all back in our home countries we would never be friends because we were all so different.

Now there are other young families. There are singles. There are marrieds with no children. There are older go before us types. Our community here is very varied and it’s beautiful and I’m so thankful for it.

That’s what makes the leavings harder.

And, no one ever leaves in a way that is easy. If someone knows that their time here is coming to an end, and they have the option to wrap things up, to transition out, to say good-bye it doesn’t make it any easier. Sometimes having the time to process it makes it hard. Because it is hard. Sometimes you wish it was like ripping off a bandaid, and that it could just be over, but you know that would hurt too.

Some people don’t plan on leaving. They go on vacation, and can’t come back in the way that they had planned. We have dear friends who left in August to go home for a two month break. A month after they got home they found out they were expecting their second child, which we’re all SO excited about. But, in the joy and excitement, we’re also sad because our friend has rough pregnancies. Last time she was here and was sick the ENTIRE time. This time around has been the same. Because she hasn’t felt well enough to travel they made the hard decision to stay, and give it time. Maybe her body will ease out of it this time, and they can come back for a few months before taking a break to deliver back home. But, maybe we won’t see them until after their little one arrives. The not knowing and the missing them and the excitement and joy all smash together and the longer it is the harder it is. It’s just. so. hard.

And then there are the unplanned, unexpected, speed of lightening leavings.

On Monday one of my best friends here had some family stuff come up. She’s been having a harder time this year being pulled between two places – her love for being here and doing all this, and her love for her family and friends and life in the US. Monday she made the hard decision to go home to be with her family for a while. She just needs to do it. And I’m 100% supportive of her going. I was hoping she would make that decision because I knew she needed to.

But, the leaving.

Last night she came over to do a last load of laundry and we talked and we cried a bit because there are so many unknowns. Is this a short time where we’ll see her back in January after a break and the holidays with her family? Or is it a time where God is going to be transitioning her into the next thing. Will her next trip in be to pack up her life here and say her good-byes while we all promise to stay in touch a visit when we can?

None of us know.

And it hurts. It hurts so bad.

Her heart is aching. Mine is aching. Everyone is aching.

In my mind I kept telling myself it’ll just be a couple of months. But the truth is I don’t know. None of us do. There is no answer right now.

And after a decade it doesn’t get easier. Never easier.

One time she asked me how we do it. The opening up. The staying open. The constant process of getting to know new people and saying good-bye to others. The best I could tell her was that I honestly don’t know. Sometimes we don’t. We pull back and don’t invest. Other times, when there’s a glimmer of something that might mean friendship we choose to take the dive, but always know that it might not work. That it might mean more of ourselves spent and poured out just to be back at square one because we’re the stayers.

Today has been hard. This morning as we texted back and forth while she waited for her flight in Port the tears kept trickling down my face, and she may have had a few people concerned in the boarding lounge because of her sobbing. The really hard thing is that she wasn’t just my friend, she was our friend. Mine, Chris’ and our kids. Aside from family, she’s probably our kids favorite person of all time. I grieve not just for myself, but for them too. I’m thankful right now that they don’t fully understand what’s going on, and I’m hoping and praying that this is just a short term thing. But, only God knows.

I know that a lot of people look at those that are serving in missions, or living abroad as expats, and there’s a tendency to only see the adventurous side of things. If you take any one thing away from this today, let it be this – this life comes with great loss and grief.

At some point, for those of us that become stayers, there is a decision to be made about which world we will live in – the one we left, or the one we’re currently in. We cannot live in both. After a certain amount of time we have to make a decision about where we will invest most of our energies. The longer we’re gone from our home countries, the more blatantly aware we are of the fact that everyone from back home is moving on, and we have to face the reality that we too have moved on. In the same way that we struggle to identify with the regular, daily life stuff that our friends and family are experiencing back home, they also struggle to identify with our daily life stuff in our new home.

There comes a point where we have to choose to be fully in. To take steps that move us beyond a period of time to an indefinite time. To stop thinking about things in blocks of time between vacations or furloughs, and start putting pieces in place that will allow us to live life to the fullest in our adopted homes.

But none of it comes without sacrifice. The sacrifices look like not being able to be there for every birthday or holiday. Not being there for births and funerals. Not being able to do the “normal” things we once did, like going for coffee with friends, or being part of our communities like we once were. Everything about life abroad is often harder and much more work. Doing daily things like grocery shopping or insuring your car can be momentous accomplishments. Every social interaction takes planning and juggling and consideration of safe times to travel, what time to be home, and having limited options for what there actually is to do.

There is no way to live in both places, so often most of us have two versions of our selves. We have our previous life version where we can slip back into life while on vacation and resemble most of who we were before with some changes. And then we have our abroad selves where we combine all the things we’ve had to learn in order to just do life in our new home. Things that our friends and family back home would find so not us if they were privy to every little bit of it. It is survival.

And surviving means letting things go, feeling all the feels, and figuring out how to move on.

It means knowing that there will be more leavings. That they can’t be avoided. That they will hurt, no matter how many there are and how often they happen. There will be tears. Anger. Understanding. Denial. Acceptance. Grief. Hope that maybe it’s just temporary. Joy for the next steps of the ones we love. And amazement as we watch God carry us all through, as we watch him heal the broken places and bits and put us back together and keep us still soft for the next people to come along.

No, I don’t know how we keep doing it. We just do.

To all my fellow stayers, and to my loved leavers – thank you for being part of our lives here. Thank you for making them so much richer, even if it’s for a season. Thank you for crying with us and walking beside us as we grieve together, and thank you for celebrating with us and being love as we all navigate life together away from our home country selves.

Water keeps running out of my face and it’s getting harder to see the screen, so I think this is where I sign off. I would love your prayers for our Haiti family today. So much love, so much sadness, so many hard things. Thank you :)

~Leslie

November 4, 2015 2 Comments

Construction Week 46

This week has been a whirlwind of activity at the house. I think I’ve switched from calling it “the new site” to “the house”. Because it’s taking on it’s personality and it isn’t this vague thing any more. Every time we walk into it there is more done and it’s starting to look like this amazing, beautiful place that we’re excited will be our home.

Chris was out there on Friday and sent me a text that just said, “The house is beautiful”. I may have been grinning from ear to ear. This whole process has been very different for each of us. He was the one that took care of all the land purchase stuff, and then we talked about where we wanted certain things to be on the property, and he did things like making a map to show where everything would be located. When it came to the house we talked about what we knew needed to be in it and the general size we were going to aim for, and then I took over and did up a floor plan. This was over two years ago. And he was in this place where he just didn’t have the ability to focus on it much because he was dealing with other stuff here. Eventually we started nailing things down, and he finally helped me make final decisions on things that we could pass off to the engineer.

The whole time though, while he was thinking square footage and footprint and orientation for solar panels, I was thinking about flow and how rooms would feel and what life they would take on. Where would our furniture go and how much space would there be? Would something feel cramped, would it give us the room we needed and will use? What annoys us now, and what will mean less maintenance and work over time? I translated all of that into floor plans. I spent hours, maybe days, pacing things out and measuring things in our current house. Most of the time Chris didn’t ever see this happening, but it was. I think I’m just a space conscious person. I think about this stuff naturally. My friends in college would get me to help pack their cars because they knew I could make it all fit. :)

As we’ve been building Chris was the one directing construction, along with our friend Chewie. The vision he had for the house was found in red and blue lines on the engineered drawings. He thought about structural stuff like where each rebar was to go and load weights and window openings and power system set up and all the things. And I was happy to let him do that and just chime in on things when I needed to, like where all the electrical sockets needed to go and light switch placement and making sure doorways were the right sizes. In all that though, Chris has never had a final vision of what the house will look like when all the tile and paint and cabinetry is in place. I have. It completely changes things for each of us.

For him, every time he goes out to the house he sees another layer of wrapping taken off the gift with more being revealed. It’s like a constant process of surprise now. And every time he comes home and talks about something that he likes, which makes me so happy. One time a week ago he came home and just kept talking about the amount of light in the house, something that is so important to him. We didn’t skimp on windows and the place is full of natural light in every direction, but not in a way that is glaring or uncomfortable. We were out there one evening a couple weeks ago, and as we walked upstairs and down the hall we saw this amazing evening glow thrown down the hall from the window I fought for at the end of the hall. Without realizing it we had lined the house up with sunrise and sunset, and we’ll get to enjoy that every evening.

For me, as the house comes along, I find myself getting giddy because this vision I’ve been carrying for over two years is becoming real. This feeling, this vibe, this THING is becoming an amazing space for our family and the mission. While Chris is opening the gift, I kind of feel like the gift giver that has wrapped it up and is enjoying watching his reaction as he peels away the layers. The delight and surprise as he puts the pieces together and sees it all taking shape makes my heart swell. And I can’t wait for the full picture to be done.

So, this week was crazy busy as we kept pushing towards move in day. I went to Port au Prince on Monday and did what I hope will be my last shopping trip. I need it to be because my days will be filled with actual hands on work. Richard and I spent the day getting all the last things. So many cans of paint and finishing items. If you were to go into the downstairs room in the round house, or the round house period, you would find little paths where you could walk in the midst of the lumber and paint and fixtures and tools. I’m pretty much the only one that knows where anything is! Lol!

On Tuesday I went out to the house and spent the day out there treating floors in a few spaces. I’ve mentioned our tiles are cement tiles. We didn’t seal them in our current place, which in most cases is okay because they develop a natural patina over time. But, in the office space we’ve gotten a lot of pitting because our chair wheels pick up dirt and roll over it. They’ll be getting a cleaning before we put them in the house, but we wanted to put something on the tiles to protect them a bit. I was able to find a cement sealant that hardens the cement and adds a water block to it too. So, we’re treating the floors. I thought doing the little bathroom and entry way would take a couple hours. I was wrong. I spent about 4 hours on my hands and knees scrubbing paint (water based, thankfully) and cement off the tiles. That all came up easily. The part that was a pain was the pencil marks from the tile boss when he was cutting and pairing up tiles. Pencil! Ugh. I did get the bathroom, entry and lower deck all done though, and it looks great. Tomorrow the tile will all finally be done on the first level, so I think Wednesday will be sealing day for everything. Then we can install stuff.

Which, brings me to the rest of my week!

I spent the latter part of the week working on building stuff. And I was in my happy place.

I honestly don’t remember what I did Wednesday. Thursday I had Chris help me rip down some plywood so I could start working on the entry cabinets, but only after spending an annoying morning working on door jambs. I was feeling stressed about getting the door jambs done so I was excited when I found door jamb kits in Port. I bought 10. Got them home and realized that they were set up for exterior doors, and they were all right handed opening. Sooo, the doors jambs that I thought would save us time, have created more work, but we’re working with them. I put that project aside and started working on building cabinet boxes. I got the entry cabinets put together, so on Friday I had Chris come and help me rip down all the wood for the office cabinets, and then I cut and drilled and prepped everything.

I was honestly thinking that each cabinet would take me hours to put together because I’m used to working piecemeal. I was starting to feel like I was way out of my league with taking this project on, and how on earth was I going to pull this off. And then, the magic happened. I started assembling the cabinets and in less than two hours I had all of our office boxes done. I still have to do the face frames and the drawers and fronts for them, but the boxes are together.

I realized that if I spent about a day prepping and cutting everything, I could have the kitchen cabinets assembled in a day. Knowing that, I can actually plan things out and set goals. My big goal is to have the office done, and the kitchen bases all in place and be pouring the kitchen counters by the middle of November. That will give us enough time to unmold them, polish and get the back splash up, then do all the touch ups. I feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Today I want to sit down and do some calendar planning so I can have that in front of me and be as productive as possible.

I know I’ve mentioned our friend Chewie (his real name is Andy, but everyone calls him Chewie) has been helping us with the construction. His family was scheduled to come back a week and a half ago, but had to change their plans and aren’t sure when they’ll actually be able to be back. Nothing terrible, just some life stuff that they need to deal with right now. I had been basing all my plans on him being here, so in the past week I’ve had to recalibrate a lot change things up. The good thing for me is that it’s meant asking for help from friends and I’ve been very encouraged by their willingness to pitch in. Yesterday a group came over and helped me with a bunch of little things, like painting cabinets with primer, prepping doors to be hung, sanding and cleaning the round house so it didn’t look like a bomb went off.

We had a fun day and I made everyone pizza for supper as a thank you. Aside from the help I got from the work that was done, I was so encouraged and reminded about one of the main purposes for how we designed the house – to be in community with others. As ten of us enjoyed dinner and visiting last night it reminded of what a blessing the mission is to those we have around us. Many of our missionary friends see Clean Water for Haiti as a place of rest. They can come here and relax and enjoy our company, let me feed them good food that they typically aren’t able to get in their specific situations, and step away from the chaos that is life here. We’ve been here longer than any of our friends, so we know the challenges and can love people through their transitions, offer advice and encouragement when asked, and mostly just practice hospitality in a way that brings a sense of normalcy in a place that is anything but for most of us.

When we designed the house we thought about all these things. It’s not abnormal for us to have 10-12 people around our dinner table once a week. I’m keenly aware that the house is not our house, it’s the mission house. We just get the privilege of being the ones that get to make the decisions and live in it. My hope all along has been that after we move Clean Water for Haiti will continue to be a place where people can come and rest and feel safe and enjoy being in community. As we worked together yesterday it felt fitting that these same people would be able to put a bit of their stamp on the place. To know that they’d helped build this place that would welcome them. And I was reminded that there’s so much beauty in the body, when we let each other be the hands and feet and noses and elbows. When we move in I know I’ll look at different parts of the house and smile because I’ll know that Robert fought with my doors to make them hang properly, and Erica sanded every edge on the cabinets, even the ones that no one would see. Naomi meticulously went over the bases with primer, and Jonathan and Stephanie rocked the edge banding. I’ll remember my sweet girl and Sendy wearing dust masks as they tidied up the round house every time I walk in there for the next month and a half – the last month and a half that we’ll be living here – and know that they didn’t have to do that, but they did.

Community is beautiful, and as we get closer to moving I’m more and more excited to share this blessing with those around us. I see the love that people are pouring into this place, and know that they’re doing it because they love us and the mission. Just yesterday as we were working, some of the guys that had been out doing filter repairs came to see what we were doing, and they were excited to see the cabinets coming together. The guys love to watch what I’m working on and often comment on how amazing it is that I do it. I see them thinking and I often wonder how many of them watch and think that maybe they could do something they didn’t think they could because of it. Chris and I were talking about how the guys are working so hard on the house and they’re taking so much pride in what they’re doing. They’re doing it because they want to do a good job. And, they want the mission to have great facilities. But, I think it’s more than that.

I remember very clearly the day that we took everyone out to the site. It was the first day of work in 2013. We had signed all the papers just before Christmas break in 2012, and it was the first day back at work in the new year. We took them there and said, “This is it!” We all walked the perimeter, because at that point that was all we could do. It was so overgrown it was hard to see from one corner to the next. I remember how hesitant everyone was. They were all quiet. They were looking around and we could almost hear their thoughts. We had just come off a few really hard years and the trust between them and us was very fragile. Eventually we started working out there and they started to get to know the community. It wasn’t until last fall when the shop was built that we really started to see a shift in how they felt about the place. It was because they didn’t know what we knew – that there were so many things in our minds and hearts about how we wanted to develop things that would be so good for them. That we wanted to do just for them.

On the last day before we took our vacation this summer I was out there doing a walk around with Evens to make lists of things that needed to be done while we were away, and as we checked on the progress of the floor tile in the staff bathrooms he turned to me and said, “Thank you so much for giving us nice bathrooms.” I told him that we were SO happy to do it and that we wanted everyone to know how much we appreciate their hard work by building a site that will be so good for them. I was fighting tears. Our staff have only recently started being more vocal about how they feel about us and working here. It’s that trust thing. It doesn’t come easily in relationships here. But, we have been so blessed to see this thing unfolding, and that’s one of the big reasons that this whole building process has been so rewarding for us. It’s not just about buildings. Yesterday as I was working with our friends, I just kept thinking, “This is literally going to be the house that love built”. That might sound cheesy, but in so many ways it’s true. And I’m going to cherish it every day that I get to live there.

Okay, let’s bounce back up from that moment and look at some pictures!

This is about where we left off with the last full update. And looking at this, I’m shocked with how much has been done in the past month! This is where we’re at now…

This is every reason why I wanted to do these posts. So much has changed! The mortar work on the entire house is now done. The paint is on about 2/3 of it outside. The windows are in and most of the window openings are being done. The office door is in, as well as all the doors in the house. We’re officially in lock up stage! Yesterday, because we’re done with all the cement work outside, the guys started cleaning up around the house and digging away by the foundation so we could paint that and truck in some good dirt to plant things after we move. Yay!

The bosses were still working on the mortar on the posts, and they were just welding the frame for the solar panels in place. The rest of the south side of the house hadn’t been mortared yet and Abner had just finished doing the deck tile.

Posts are finished and solar panels are up and welded in place. The mortar is done and the windows are in. The tile has been cleaned and sealed. The little building on the roof has been painted and that black thing sitting next to it is our water tank. It’s 1600 gallons and this week will get put in place on top of the little building and get connected.

These are the other sides of the house earlier in the week. I don’t have pictures from a month ago of these particular angles.

The east side of the building. The door goes into the office. The space between the door and the deck is the office storage/power station. Upstairs is the master bedroom. The space between the window above the door and the deck is a small laundry room that opens onto the deck. After that is our closet, and then the entry way to the deck with a linen closet tucked in there. As we finish stuff up inside it’ll be easier to take pictures so you get a feel for the space.

The west side of the house. Mortar is done, kitchen door is in. The windows are in. The window to the left of the door is the kitchen. The upstairs bathroom is right above that. The window above the door is the one at the end of the hallway. The windows in the right corner are in the landing of the stairwell.

The glass blocks were being installed (now finished) in the upper stairwell. The picture doesn’t do this area justice. It’s really beautiful. I’ll take better pictures after all the paint is done.

A month ago Abner was just filling the joints in the office floor tile.

My phone seems to be distorting pictures and making things look off. This wall is 15′ long.

This was earlier in the week. Paint being touched up and electrical being finalized.

Daniel was still painting outside, thus the plastic on the windows. Normally this room is very bright.

Not the most exciting picture, but this area will look very different in the coming weeks :)

Looking from the office door into the rest of the house. Storage room door on the left of the picture. In the hall the entry is on the left, first floor storage room on the right. Further on kitchen is on the right and living room is on the left. The opening that you see just to the left of the kitchen door is for an under the stairs storage room, which will eventually be my pantry. Originally I was going to use it for tool storage, but last week Chris suggested that when we build the welding shop we just make it a general work shop and make space for my work benches and tools out there so I always have a place to work. We don’t weld all the time, and often more in concentrated bursts, so there are times where the welding area won’t be used at all. I’m excited about this!

Entry door went in upstairs. This meant putting in tile in that area so the door could be placed. Starting Tuesday Abner will continue working upstairs.

Looking down the hall from our bedroom. Abner will run the tile down the hall first, and into the bathroom so we can start installing fixtures in there. The other rooms don’t have much work that needs to be done, other than installing closet built ins.

Well, that’s a lot for one post. I’ll try to write more later this week if I get a chance. If you think of it, pray for Haiti today. It’s election day here and we’re not sure what to anticipate in the aftermath. Could be fine, could mean protests and craziness for a while.

~Leslie

October 25, 2015 No Comments

I’m Leslie. I started my blog back in 2005 when I was fresh off the plane in Haiti. I lived in Haiti for over 17 years as a missionary, wife, and eventually mom. My husband and I ran Clean Water for Haiti together, day in and day out. We carved out a life we loved doing something important to us. Sadly, in the fall of 2022 we had to make the difficult decision to leave Haiti because of the insecurity. We’re now settling into life in the US. I’m thankful that I get to continue my work with CWH as the Executive Director for Canada and the US.

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