Saturday In Haiti...From Colleen!!

Good morning!
It has been quite an adventure so far! It seems we have been here for days already. We arrived in Haiti at lunch time yesterday at the Methodiste House Port au Prince. Last night we had orientation by Mike Willis a pastor from New York who is serving here as the volunteer coordinator. He provided some encouraging news. There are more people here helping on projects for UMVIM than ever...which makes hosting us a bit of a challenge. There are 15 teams here over the next 2 weeks. There is no air conditioning but there is wireless internet. There are plenty of roosters (they began crowing at about 2 am) with dogs barking, horns honking. The staff cooked us a wonderful meal last night. Many are homeless and sleep on the porch of the house and other places on the campus of the church.
We will be leaving in a few hours for our work-site and anxious to get there in the Leogane community. We will be staying in tents with our translator and a few cooks. We've heard a about them and the community and how lovely they are. We are also looking forward to sampling the bread. There is a local bakery with delicious bread we are told. Our jobs will be demo of a school and working on a security wall. We will mostly be hauling material while the more skilled locals do the demo. The church nearby and temporary shelters are being used by the school. There used to be 500 students but because of the earthquake and the economy there are only 100. We have the opportunity to provide scholarships for more students for less than $100 each per year.
We met several locals and artisans yesterday. There are some beautiful gracious people here and I am overwhelmed by there sense of contentment. We already gave a soccer ball and basketball to 2 young boys living on campus. They were thrilled.
We will not have the ability to communicate much if at all until Thursday night. I am journalling so I don't forget other things we want to share with you...and taking lots of pictures!  We feel your prayers and love you all!
Colleen