Bonjour! from Grand Fond, Haiti

Hello to each one of you from the lovely mountain area of Grand Fond, Haiti!  We got another good rain last night, so everything is fresh and clean and the sun is brightly shining.  The birds are happily chirping, the ravens are squawking, and there is a cool breeze coming in the window.  It was very dry here for awhile, but it has started raining a few times a day for the past week and our garden is greatly appreciating that! The first tomatoes are ripening!!

It has been too long since we have sent out an update and we do apologize for that.  There has been so much going over the past couple of months, there was a lot of stress for awhile just trying to get everything done and meet deadlines. To be very honest with you, when things are like that you just can’t simultaneously find time and words to write an “update”. Maybe we should just make a prayer request email next time things are that busy.  Things are slowing down a little now, though our days are still very full and filled with unexpected surprises, but that’s okay. 

So, where to begin?  I’ll start with April.  In short, the beginning of April was filled with preparation for our Haiti wedding reception, a medical team, getting our box truck unloaded and the things hauled up the mountain, many house projects, a lot of time in Port au Prince, LIFE Literature work, etc.

Our Haiti wedding reception was on Saturday, April 18, and it was quite a big ordeal!  Before we were married, many Haitian friends asked us if we were going to have a wedding reception in Haiti since our wedding was taking place in the States and it was impossible for them to come. We realized that culturally it was a big deal that we have a “fèt” (party) here as well since this is where we live.  We spent several hours consulting with some Haitian friends as to how to do culturally correct food, invitations, decorations, seating, etc. In the beginning we had this idea of doing things “simply”, but they said that it wouldn’t be a party unless we did decorating and a LOT of food.  They said the success of any celebration in Haiti is completely defined by the food you provide. They said they would love to plan it for us and make the food, for which we were very relieved and thankful!  Pastor Levi (from the local church in Allegre), his wife, and sister oversaw it all with help from ladies at church and we assisted where we could. They made 3-4 kinds of fried chicken, 3-4 kinds of pasta salad, various beet and cabbage salads, and many more things that I didn’t even have a place on my plate to try.  A missionary friend, Jo Seibel made a beautiful wedding cake.  At the party, before everyone ate, there was a short sermon, the church choir sang a couple of songs, Pastor Levi talked for a little bit, Michael spoke for several minutes, and then everyone feasted.  Quite a few Haitian friends came up to Michael afterwards and said things like, “Because you gave us a party, you are part of our family now.”  I will include some pictures below!

Our house is still coming together. A couple of weeks ago Michael did all the threading of copper pipe from the basement to the upstairs to hook up the stove in our apartment!  So I am enjoying being able to cook in my own kitchen.  There are so many things that go into making a house truly usable like it’s meant to be, so any “spare” minutes (we force Michael to have, ha!) are usually spent on him fixing something, putting something together, or one of the many projects brand new houses seem to require.  So working on the house has been an ongoing thing around here that one of these days we hope we can at least mostly check off our list of things that need done.  Michael has also been working a lot on the property here, cutting down some trees that needed cut down, driveway renovation, putting in a foundation for another storage container for medical supplies, and things like that.Another big project the beginning of May was Wilmane’s house.  Wilmane is the Haitian gate guard and helper who lives here on the property, and has worked with Michael for about 5 years.  He was living in a shack that was already on the property when AFH purchased it, but it was in poor condition and it needed rebuilt.  So Michael poured concrete posts, purchased supplies and prepared the site for his dad, Philip and his brother, Timothy to come down and build Wilmane a new house.  They came and built it in about a week, and now it is a nice little place.  Wilmane is VERY happy with it!  While Philip and Timothy were down, they also installed the cupboard doors and drawer fronts on Virginia’s and my kitchen cupboards, so WE are VERY happy! It was very nice to have them here, we enjoyed seeing and spending some time with them. Currently Michael’s friend Lyndon from Port au Prince is staying with us for several days to help Michael with some projects.  Today, they are actually in Petit Goave getting a shipping container for Michael’s cousin Don who has a children’s home near us. Then on Thursday, Lord willing, they will get one for us to store Aid For Haiti’s medical supplies in.  They plan to haul the containers up the mountain one at a time on the back of Don’s large truck.  The truck needs fixed before it can do any hauling though, so they are working on that today as well.  The container will be great to have on the property here.   We are hoping to get all of the medicines and medical supplies out of La’Cule during the next couple of months and store a lot of it in the new container. That is a huge project coming up, but it needs to be done. The building in La’Cule where AFH has been storing the medical supplies is expensive to rent, and now that we will have a place to store it, we are going to be moving it up to the mountains and re-organizing everything. So that is what we’ve been up to the past 6 weeks.   In brief, over the next month and a half or so, we will hopefully be able to finish up the house projects, build the patio/dining room on the main floor, move and organize La’Cule medical supplies, make security window bars for Wilmane’s house, change the engine on Michael’s truck, and prepare for the next surgery team coming in July.We recently received some questions as to how we get our mail, so I thought I’d provide some information on that.  We get mail through a missionary mail service called Missionary Flights International (MFI).  If anyone would like to send letters, etc. the address below is the place to send it to in Florida, and then MFI brings it to Haiti where we pick it up in Port au Prince. Any envelope under one pound is free, after that we pay $1 a pound and whatever customs charges.  Here is the address:Michael and Breanna Rudolph3170 Airmans Dr # 2201-AFHFt. Pierce, FL 34946Some people have also asked where to send support or donations; that is better sent to our address in the States which is:1367 Old Manchester RoadMorrison, TN 37357Never doubt that we love hearing from you! 🙂In His Service,Michael and Breanna Rudolph

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