It’s been an interesting weekend to say the least, watching a worldwide pandemic unfold moment by moment and the swift actions each organization, business, school and government have taken to resist this thing. If you were anything like me last week, I was cynical thinking that this was not as big a deal that people were making it out to be. I mean, for hand sanitizer to sell out all across the country, then a mad rush to buy up every case of toilet paper just seemed l...

Happiness is........

 Smiling faces....

 Their bright eyes.

 Watching them have fun.

Happy Thursday everyone.

We are back at it this morning. Mike and Vernon are working on the cabinets, Bill continuing on with the electrical at the birthing centre, and Colleen servicing the sewing machines from the Tech school.

Wade and Anel have been painting the team rooms. When Wade is finished this one, they will all be freshly repainted. For those out there that like to stay in the room with the balcony, it is getting a new air conditioner installed in it -- just for you!

 This is what you...

We have arrived at a season of moving forward here at Haiti ARISE.  A small crew of some good friends have come for a couple of weeks to lend a hand.  Bill and Vernon are working on the plumbing and electrical on the birthing centre.  They each have a couple of students from our Tech school to work with them so they can get some practical experience.

Mike is working on the cabinetry for duplex #3 at the Children's Village so that we can get it completed. The s...

A number of years ago when we first bought our house in Canada, I thought we needed a houseplant to mark this new era of a settling down, establishing a sign in the road of our journey. The plant I chose was called a money tree, but it is a type of Bonsai tree with big leaves that sprout out the top of it’s twisted trunk of above ground-like roots. I loved looking at it, cause I could imagine the growth journey each of those roots took, to spring up, supporting one ano...

There is a settled calm over the country, like a healing balm. After months of endless riots and violence, the new year has brought in a new peace. The opposition and gangs are tired, realizing that even their own kids and families have suffered enough. 4 months of education lost, that everyone finally agrees kids need to make up. The school year will likely run into the next September, with some schools even calling high school students to come on Saturdays to ensure...

To dream again… life inevitably brings pain, tragedy, and struggle at some point in our journey. We fight or run to get back to normal, back to rest and renewal, back to comfortable. But what if you just can’t seem to get back there? What if you’re held in a constant pattern of trauma, short-fall, sickness, or abuse? When life drags us down this path, even as we fight and resist, it is almost impossible to dream, to look ahead to the future, to think that it could ever...

« It was a dark and stormy night. ‘Antonio, Antonio, tell me a story!’ And so, Antonio began, ‘It was a dark and stormy night... » The story goes on to repeat itself, the perpetual round my dad loved to tell us anytime my nephew came to visit. Why? Because his name was Antonio and it was funny, even when it got old, to muse about what the story might be. I would imagine a pirate ship at sea, and embellish the story a little further each time in my head, even though dad...