The rooster that no longer crows.

Written yesterday. Posted today. Internet was down.

Hello all. We hope that all of you lovely people that are reading this are doing well. Things continue to go great for us here in Haiti. I’m sitting outside as I write this. It’s after nightfall and I just realized that tonight is the first night that I’ve taken the time to look up into the Haitian skies and see the multitude of stars. It’s spectacular.

The last few days we’ve been busy at work as usual. Chad especially has been hard at work. He arranged to have the moulds for the pre-fab posts adjusted by four feet. They picked them up today and they look great. Mr. P and Chris, if you’re reading this, Chad would have loved you here to do some metal work…welding perhaps. You would have saved some money! Today he and a helper also poured several more concrete wall inserts, five I think. He was hoping to use the cement mixer that is down here but apparently it may not be working…and it’s out of gas. He mixed by hand – strong man that he is, and I must say, although I am no concrete expert, the panels look great. The vibrating table that was rigged up on a previous trip really works – no air bubbles in these panels! Even I’m excited to see how they turn out. It will be great once the posts can go up and the first part of the wall is started.

This afternoon Chad and I had our second Creole lesson. Yes, we are taking Creole. Thankfully our teacher, David is very patient with us and is a great teacher. I think that we’re both starting to pick up a few more words and phrases that we will be able to use during our trip. We learned how to ask if a store has cookies….which is very important, especially after our last attempt to purchase some.

I finally had a chance to put on the old soccer boots for a little game of pick up this evening. It was against a 6 year old and a 9 year old, and they are really quite good! We tied. It was a great time, with Chad joining in the fun as well. He played in his crocs which I think was quite spectacular. Thankfully, despite the rather rough terrain, there were no twisted ankles. I was totally exhausted afterwards. I am unbelievably out of shape…but it was worth it. I hope that Chad and I will have a chance to boot the ball around again at some point with some young Haitians.

So, you may be wondering about the title of this blog. Yesterday an interesting “event” happened. Chad was sitting outside watching Christoph the gardner and a young child, perhaps 10, chasing around a rooster that we often see wandering around the compound. He thought they were just having a good time…until he saw them hand it to Luciana, our beloved compound cook. Luciana then proceeded to dispose of said rooster. I happened to walk outside just as Luciana was putting the poor rooster out of its misery. Chad warned me that I might not want to look but I couldn’t help myself. I should have listened to him. Anyway, we had rooster for dinner last night. This morning, the compound yard was very quiet. The rooster that has woken us up for pretty much every morning since we’ve arrived has crowed his last.

We also came across a huge tarantula yesterday. Actually there were 3 found during the day, and thankfully they were all disposed of very quickly. I have never been so grossed out in my life – they are enormous!

For those of you who are wondering, Dublin is doing great. He has adjusted very well to the heat of this country and he loves his baby-sitter. He’s very, very close to taking his first steps on his own, which is very exciting. Chad and I had a hard time when we first arrived, mainly due to our protective nature, but Dublin has done great and is now quite happy to sit and be held by whoever happens to pick him up. He truly is loved.

Anyway, I should wrap this up. Once again I’ve rambled on. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. Much love to you all.

Chad, Kelly and Dublin.