Hello from Haiti! I have been thinking the last week or so that since we didn’t send out any Christmas card or letter I should just put an update on here with a photo so I can highlight some of our 2020.
The year started out really well for us! We had several different groups of visitors in January and February. We had a group come in January that installed our solar panels and new batteries. They have worked wonderfully for us and we never have to use the generator anymore. Not even during rainy season when it’s not very sunny. We also had Chad Groff from Pennsylvania come in January to spend several months with us. We all enjoyed having him around and he was able to get many projects done while he was here.
Bryan’s parents and youngest brother came the end of February for 2 weeks. We had a great time with them! It was Bryan’s brother’s 1st time here. Our children always enjoy when other young people are around to play with. We went to Jacmel with them and got to go to a beautiful waterfall,Basin Bleu. I was so glad we all got to go. Something I’ve been hoping to experience ever since we moved here! They left the beginning of March and Haiti closed their airport down without any warning, because of Covid-19, soon after they left. Even after the airport closed flights seemed to get authorized every week to leave Haiti even though no flights with passengers were coming in. We had 2 different weddings we did not want to miss in June so we hoped those flights would continue getting scheduled so we could still get to the States for the weddings.
In May different circumstances made us decide to get the next flight available to leave for the States. We got an email from the embassy on a Tuesday letting us know a flight was leaving 2 days later on Thursday. We booked tickets and also got a small plane to pick us up at an airstrip close to us on Wednesday. It felt a bit crazy to leave in such a short amount of time but we were glad we left when we did. We got to the States 3 weeks before my brothers wedding and a month before Bryan’s sister’s wedding. We first flew to Ohio. We spent about 10 days there then drove to Iowa for my brother’s wedding. We spent a week in Iowa before heading back to Ohio for Bryan’s sister’s wedding. After her wedding we went back to Iowa to stay until the Haiti airport opened for us to go back. We were able to fly back July 10 after exactly 8 weeks in the States. When we went we had no idea how long it would be before we could get back to Haiti. 8 weeks seemed like a fairly long time but it could have been longer!
Since we’ve been back we enjoyed a bit of summer vacation here before starting school in August. Peyton(7) is in 2nd grade. She loves animals and also has started to be a pretty good dishwasher for me. She spends lots of time reading. Hard to keep new books around for her since she reads new ones as soon as I give them to her! 😊 Weston (5) is in Kindergarten and learning to read. He goes with Bryan any chance he gets. He also loves to be the one to keep the girls bike tires aired up and any other job that gets him in the shop. He is very hands on and likes to take apart anything that we allow him too.😊 Alliyah (3) often writes in Peyton and Weston’s old, used school books and does ‘school’ too. She is a great worker and likes to keep things organized. She keeps her doll clothes folded and her shelf of clothes in neat organized piles. She also enjoys looking at books and being read too. I have enjoyed homeschooling much more then I ever thought I would. It’s so fun watching them learn! So far our school year has gone very well but we do have some visitors coming and we are hoping to go to the DR this winter so I’m glad we have worked hard so far so we can take off when visitors come.
Bryan stays very busy with all his responsibilities. He always has office work to do and has a really nice food forest growing around our house now. We had a group of students from another area of Haiti come for a week to intern for HRM and learn. It’s the 2nd time we’ve had a group come and I am so glad to see some of progress HRM has made here go to other areas in Haiti. Just a few days ago Bryan brought in a small fruit called a miracle berry. Weston was the one who ate it but hopefully soon the tree will be bearing so we can all try it. It’s so great to have fruit off of trees that Bryan has planted. Bryan does well at updating his Instagram so if you want to keep up with things that are happening here you can check it out there.
I think its time is sign off and start to get some other things done this afternoon. Thanks for all the Christmas mail we have been getting. It’s so fun to see pictures of your family’s. Even my children have really enjoyed looking at the pictures. God’s blessings to all of you as you start a new year! Love -Ashley
ourlivesinhaiti 