TR

Green shirt is ready to go.  Like 20 something hours until we go to the airport.  Haven't packed at all... it doesn't really matter.  I packed for 10 days and stayed for five weeks and it was fine.  I somehow even managed without my computer for that long.  Granted, there were a bunch more around me that served the same purpose but still... 

I hope your case of The Resentment is not too strong... The Resentment was born out of a team that Alicia and I took to Haiti.  Their lives were mostly ruined by Haiti in that awesome God way that made it so Haiti was 99% of what was on their minds.  They came back to America, and others went back to Haiti before them.  Thus, The Resentment was born.

keep checking back for updates from haiti

Check out this graph showing searches about Haiti.  

Green Shirt

I'm not a person who gets excited about articles of clothing very easily.  But, one of the many reasons I enjoy going to Haiti is wearing my green shirt.  It's like one of those safari-rei shirts that costs way more than you think it is worth.  The second time I went to Haiti one guy had one and I remember sitting at the one stop, 15  feet up in the air on top of the Manassero's giant white truck - the sun beating down on us - listening to this guy tell us of the wonders of his green shirt.  I kind of thought he was crazy for paying so much for a shirt.  Of course, they come in other colors but the green one is my favorite.  It is even better accentuated by a tan vest.  People will actually think you are a journaliste.  When we were in Haiti for 5 weeks and I came prepared for one week, green shirt saved me.  My other clothes were literally falling apart - but did green shirt fall apart?  No.  Did it stink after I wore it for a week straight?  Maybe a little.  It didn't feel dirty, which is the most important part of green shirt.  You're sweaty, you're icky, you take showers with 4 cups of water (my personal Spartan record) but green shirt is there to make you feel normal.  If you put it under the sink, ring it out and leave it for an hour or two it feels even better in the hot Haitian sun.  Green shirt is waiting in my closet  waiting to be sprayed with Permethrin to repel mosquitoes and is ready to repel sun for me with its awesome built-in UV protection.  Green shirt is even long sleeve, and it doesn't feel it.  Man how can you not have a green shirt if you are going to Haiti?

You may think these are ramblings of a mad man, but you get a green shirt and just wait and see...    

Tan shirt also exists, but eh.

Wow

BonDye li Bon.  Overnight, our trip to Haiti was fully funded.  Thanks to everyone for their support and prayers... It really means a lot to us when people show their support for our trips to Haiti.  We can't wait to be there and share stories and pictures of what we experience with you.  Please keep checking back for more updates you can also check http://www.twitter.com/loomtronic for periodic updates!

Lucas

We're going back to Haiti!

Dear Friends and Family -

It seems like a day doesn't when we are not asked the question "When are you guys going to Haiti?"  Well today, we have some exciting news.  From March 26th-April 3rd we will be going to Haiti!  Immediately following the earthquake, although our hearts desired to go, we were instantly involved in communications for the Child Hope orphanage in the US.  I was obviously working on the Child Hope website/twitter/facebook and Alicia was hired to coordinate relief for Child Hope full time.  Thus, we were stuck in America.

The door has finally opened and we are extremely excited to be reunited with our friends in Haiti and serve alongside them.  Lucas plans to develop new content for the website (pictures/videos/new features) and also help with the computer related issues they are having there.  Alicia plans to meet with the staff in Haiti to develop a better system of communication as well as assess supply and project needs.

We are going with high hopes and bowed hearts as we anticipate encountering the reality of the massive devastation in a country we dearly love.  We are very excited to reconnect with and encourage our dear friends as well as the wonderful children.

We ask that you would pray with us for our trip and for God to guide us and direct our steps.  Please continue to pray for Haiti, the hard working staff at the orphanage and the children there.

Due to the short amount of time we have before we go, and since Lucas works for eDivvy and developed the cool little widget you see below - we have set up an event on eDivvy.com to raise funds for the trip.  If you feel so led, you can support us financially.  Your contributions are tax deductible.



Lucas

Global warming: A surprising name

It seems no matter what side you are on, in the media they are always trying to make things extreme with politics.  Obama is going to destroy the world, Bush is going to do this or that.

Why do they call it global warming then?  That doesn't sound extreme.  Who doesn't like to be warm?  Here are some alternate names I think would have been better:

Global melting

Global incinerating

Global burning

Global it's so hot all the water has dried up and I am dying of thirst-ing

Please leave your other suggestions for me below.

Thank you technology!

Technology saved us so much time after the Earthquake in Haiti.  As most of you know, we do a lot of stuff with Child Hope - here are some ways we used technology to keep us from going crazy.

eDivvy.com - Within about 24 hours after the Earthquake we had a social fundraising event set up.  People could easily tell their friends go to edivvy.com/childhope and donate.  Of course, this was blasted all over twitter and facebook as well.  200k was raised in under a month.

Google Apps
Since the earthquake we have had about 400 people sign up on the website to go to Haiti.  Imagine trying to sort through 400 emails looking for specific skill sets, which is what we would have had to do before with regular email.  What a nightmare.  Thankfully, we just created a google spreadsheet and clicked create form and in under an hour we had a form on our website.  The alternative was some php/mySQL combination that makes my head hurt.  I would probably have more options that way, but I needed something simple and fast and easily shareable.

We also switched some of the key people at Child Hope over to Google Apps mail, eliminating archaic email systems - although we still miss the "You've Got Mail" sound when we login... We don't miss full inboxes.  Processes in email are now automatic and streamlined.

Documents can be shared without having to send attachments and everybody can update documents.

Calendars of important events/teams can easily be shared by everyone.

When Alicia's hard drive crashed - I set her up with another one in under an hour.  Most of her important stuff was in her gmail or on Google Docs already - I didn't even install Microsoft Office, we are going online in this house!  Google Chrome and Skype.  That's all she really needs to work right now.

Skype - Invaluable.  Sometimes email wouldn't even work, but Skype would to communicate with people in Haiti.

We are still looking at other ways to streamline our processes at home and for our friends in Haiti, but these were the ones that came to mind.

Let's Go! - Passport

Let's Go! - Passport
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Prayer for Haiti

Prayer for Haiti
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Keep praying for Haiti. Updates and how to donate and help are at http://bit.ly/5WmAdL

Worship and Prayer for Haiti

Worship and Prayer for Haiti
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

We had a time of worship and prayer at our church for Haiti tonight.

We are raising money for Haiti relief. eDivvy.com is giving 5% for everything we raise. To donate and get updates, see www.childhope.org/about/earthquake.html Please feel free to forward to your friends.

Earthquake in Haiti

Dear Friends -

I am sure that you have all heard about the massive earthquake in Port-Au-Prince.  We are trying to get updates from the Manasseros and the others on the ground, but cell phones and other forms of communication are limited.  We have heard from a few different sources that the Manasseros and the kids are all OK with only one minor injury.  This is definitely a huge praise report considering how much this quake hit the rest of the country.  We have also heard that the Manasseros are running a medical clinic out of the boys home. We will try to keep the Child Hope website updated with new information as much as we can.

We so appreciate your prayers, please continue to pray for the Manasseros and all the people of Haiti. 

If you would like to contribute to earthquake relief please go to http://www.eDivvy.com/childhope-haiti.  Your contribution is tax deductible.  eDivvy.com is offering a 5% matching contribution.


Lucas

Art

Art
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Flowers in Bergama, Turkey

Flowers in Bergama, Turkey
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Order the Child Hope 2010 Calendar here!

Click here to go to the Child Hope website to order

Christmas Time

Christmas Time
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Today we had some great French toast for breakfast and then pretty much just hung out with the kids all day and they got to unwrap their presents. We got to eat with the kids and we also had the feeding program. It was a great last day here. We leave tomorrow.

Warning: Shoots flaming balls with reports

Christmas Eve Candlelight service
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

This was the warning on one of the fireworks we set off today. Today we hung out and got ready for Christmas and practiced some stuff for the postponed Christmas outreach on Monday. We went to Christmas Eve service which was really great. Some of the kids performed a dance that Alicia taught them. The kids all love the candles and some of them always end up with a little bit of hot wax on their hands. Then we had a great turkey, ham and mashed potato dinner with some type of chocolate jello pie for dessert. As we were eating, the neighbors were lighting off fireworks. Christmas Eve is a big time to do fireworks. If you research the history of fireworks you will see they have nothing to do with Christmas, but it's still fun nonetheless. We then took a look at our fireworks. We had a bunch of "rockets" and some type of fireworks with German instructions. We headed off to the boys home for the safest out of country fireworks display I have ever experienced. They can get pretty crazy, but this one was pretty calm. We only have one day left and I am sure going to miss it here.

On a completely unrelated note: The Haitians have what to me is an odd sense of humor... But it's funny still because I have an odd sense of humor too. Here are the responses to I've got to when I've called a person crazy here:

I'm not crazy because I don't have a rock in my hand
I'm not crazy, I'm a refrigerator

Yah.  In other news my camera keeps showing an Err message when I take a picture.  I guess that means I need to send it in for repair.  Ugh.

Due to rain, Christmas has been cancelled

Due to rain, Christmas has been cancelled
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Today we woke up cold. This does not happen very often. The wind was loud last night and it was rainy. It was about 70 degrees, which is just kind of ridiculously cold here. I've never seen it rain like this here, normally it seems like it rains for 10 minutes or maybe an hour but no it rained the entire day so we couldn't do our Christmas outreach and there isn't a way to have it on Friday. It looks like the outreach is postponed until Monday which means Alicia and I won't be here to see it. It's sad, but we know it's time to go back at least for a little bit now. Hopefully next year it won't rain on our parade. It was a slow day. Tomorrow we just have Christmas Eve service planned.

My Princess calendars were kept safe by a man with a shotgun

1practice-4506
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Today we practiced for our big Christmas outreach tomorrow. It's really coming along great. After that we played the waiting game. We waited and waited for the big white truck so we could finish taking the kids to Delmas 2000 and buying for their family. I think we waited for 5 hours. That's just part of life in Haiti, waiting. It was kind of a lazy day and then at 5 the truck returned. We packed 30 kids into the truck and headed out to Delmas 2000. Once again, we were in and out in about an hour or so. Thank you Lord everything went so smoothly. Last year we took smaller groups and could easily spend 3-4 hours with one group. So I guess I am kind of recognizable... The guy who is kind of I guess the manager of the story, I say hi to him. I was pretty sure I had talked to him when we did this last year. So after passing by him a couple of times he calls to me "Sir!" I figure I must have dropped something, but he says "I want to give you some calendars, but put them in your car... don't show anyone" What kind of calendars are these, I think to myself. Anyways he gives me the calendars and I go out the door and realize I have no way of getting in the truck. He is close to the door, so I tell him I don't have the keys to the car, and I put the calendars outside real fast so I can get the keys. He whistles to a guard with a shotgun and instructs him to stand guard in front of my bag of Princess calendars. That has to be one of the most hilarious moments I have had in Haiti. He also gave us more calendars as we left that are shown in this blog.  I look forward to going there again next year!

Tomorrow is our big outreach program, so looking forward to it!

Delmas 2000: All the stuff made in China 20 years ago you could everwant

delmas 2000-4100
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

After some painting, some website updating, the arrival of some new people to the guest house some of us ventured out to Delmas 2000. This store is stocked full of some of the most obscure stuff and some of it the prices are ridiculous. There was a giant sword for 70 dollars, a corded telephone for at least 20.  You can find fake flowers, fans, bags that say New York on them, clothes (BUT NO SHORTS! only jeans... because it makes sense to wear jeans in Haiti whereit is nice and cool).  But then there are the deals. Each kid is given 10 dollars to buy for the family they have. They really are experts at making it go a long way. We only had two hours there and we took 15 kids. The kids were done before we even needed to leave and none of them tried to do the whole "hey i'll buy this for you if you buy that for me". Maybe it was my speech before hand that they wouldn't get to buy anything if they did that. Anyways it was a great time and I hate to push American consumerism on them like they HAVE to buy something for people for Christmas... but I really think there's a whole other side to it. One they get an economics lesson in how to stretch 10 dollars and maybe a bit of a math lesson as well. And it's just great that they can have the opportunity to bless someone else, even if the gifts aren't really expensive. They all seemed to love it. It's hard walking out of that store because there are kids begging outside and they see me with all these Haitian kids with shopping bags and I'm like a target... I wish I could help everyone, I really do. God has me here helping these kids who were just like those ones on the street though.  Tomorrow, we will venture to Delmas 2000 again.

Totalli Goo

The beginning of the lasts
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Today we went to church. I am really going to miss it next week... We are starting to say oh this is our last such and such in Haiti. Thankfully we still have our Christmas Eve service to attend for church. After that I took a nap and had a nightmare I was back in America and was thankful to wake up in Haiti.

After that, we hung out and played some tetherball and danced. Then we went to Dominos - all the kids who are first in their class get taken out. It is the only real fast food place in Haiti... every other place takes so long to do anything, but I think our pizza was ready in ten minutes. We say things are Totalli Goo because Li goo means it's good, so obviously the next step is Totalli Goo. Anyways Dominos in Haiti is sooo Totalli Goo - it taste like pizza in America. It was fun to hang out and I am always down to go out and take pictures and just be outside of the house and little area we are staying in.

This week somehow we are cramming a Christmas program taking fifty kids to Delmas 2000 and a million other things preparing for Christmas and the Christmas outreach. It's going to be an awesome week and I am excited for it. I love this place and the people here!