Progress Report 11/28

Bonswa friends of the Haiti deaf community,

I hope this message finds you all loving life and feeling just as passionate, if not more so, about your work with the deaf community in Haiti.

1. I traveled to Leveque once again on Thursday to view the construction progress on the new homes and was blown away by the progress! Attached you will find pictures of five homes with foundations and walls nearly complete. The foundations have been finished on another 11 homes and I expect that walls will be up within the next few days. Plots are finished for 20 more homes and construction of the walls on those homes will also begin by the end of this week. The building site and the beauty of the new location never cease to take my breath away.

2. Everything in the current community continues to go well. Our educational programming for children has been incredible as I now observe many young hearing children communicating with adults in basic Haitian sign language. When asked where their parents are, over a dozen young children now respond with the sign for “work.” The kids are applying their new knowledge to communicate which is the mark of any successful education program. I continue teaching the children twice a week via music and they often chase my motorcycle through the community when I arrive asking if we will sing together today. Many deaf adults in the community regularly sit back and enjoy watching their children signing with tears of joy in their eyes. AWESOME!

3. Five older children in the community (15 and up) have taken it upon themselves to learn English and have asked me to teach an English class every saturday after my Bible study with the adults (before long we will have a few potential Kreyol to English interpreters available for work with all of our 410 Bridge teams!) This coming Saturday will be a busy day of teaching with a Bible study, English class, short leadership training, and meeting with the community leaders.

4. We welcomed two new babies to the community this week and I had a chance to visit with the new mothers this afternoon. Please check my blog (www.kyleinhaiti.com) for pictures and birth announcements for the two beautiful new additions to the community (blog should be up by Monday evening). With the arrival of the new babies I am struck once again by the new hope for families in the deaf community. These new children will have a chance to grow up attending good schools, eating nutritious food grown in family gardens, and playing soccer in open and safe fields (to name just a few).

As always, thank you for your support and hard work in this incredible mission. On this Thanksgiving weekend I am indescribably thankful for all of the passionate people who have gathered together to support and work alongside a wonderful community in Haiti.

grace and peace,
Kyle