Oh the joy!

Jessica sent me a text saying that we had 'checks' and I was so excited. I told my Mom to be expecting them and to let me know and when my son talked to my parents tonight my Mom so wonderfully told me that we had $350 bucks. $350 bucks? I spent over a hundred and 6 hours just making those damn newsletters and mailing them out. Then she sends me the picture of the checks so I can let our accountant know. And we got checks from 2 people. 2. Really? Why even bother. The goal was $10,000. And I sent them well over 3 weeks ago so any money we would have gotten is already in. Wow. I'm impressed. Such generosity. It boggles the mind.

Prove Me Wrong, People!

So I just spent 6 hours and over $100 making this newsletter, hand writing all the addresses, printed the return address labels, buying the stamps, putting the stamps on each envelope... all as a test. No. Just kidding. It's not a test. It's a clear sign that nobody cares about what we are doing in Haiti. Or I should say, nobody but family members. And I have spent forever trying to upload a screen shot of my newsletter with no luck. Of course.



It was a special newsletter regarding the Hurricane in Haiti and how we are trying to raise 10k to replace some roofs of schools and a medical clinic. Wish I could show you the newsletter.

Bittersweet

I watched 3 years of our croc collecting drive away today. The entire van was full of crocs with literally room for only the driver. Who's getting them you ask? Our friends, Clay and Amy with Just One:Africa. They get to go to Kenya multiple times a year and have a lot more money than we do and therefore we gave them to them to distribute to the Kenyan children.
Bitter - I didnt get to distribute them myself and see those eyes brighten and smiles widen
Sweet - at least they are still going to African children which is what we wanted. Not Burundian children, but at least African.

Missing Burundi

I don't exactly know why my heart hurts today in regards to Burundi. Maybe it's because we are about to give all of the pairs of Crocs we have to our friends who work in Kenya. Maybe it's because I'm not the one who gets to hand them out. Maybe it's because we aren't going to be doing Crocs anymore... ok so there are lots of reasons for my heart to be sad and miss Burundi. I really dont know if Africa will ever be an option again. What a wonderful trip that was. Going with my bestie, my husband paying our way... it was literally a dream come true. I'm glad the shoes will be going to other African children I just wish I was taking them to Burundi instead.

I dont even know if we will ever get back to Haiti to check up on our new awesome project. I just dont know what the future holds. (enter cliche) But I know Who holds the future, right?

Round Two - Ding!

First anticipated payback for our new set of loans was this past week and get this... 100% return. What.the.heck. Do you mean to tell me that not all Haitians are greedy, ungrateful brats? Yep. Apparently you just gotta know where to find them. Nick is kicking butt and taking names all while he has become the mayor of his town and continuing to go to law school where he is studying international law.
A couple weeks ago, or probably more than that, he let us know his computer is barely functioning and we asked him to see if he could find someone to fix it. The thing was literally coming apart at the hinges. The battery wouldn't hold a charge and the keyboard didnt work. Lol. Typical Haiti. So the poor man has been looking for someone who could fix it b.c computers are expensive in Haiti and he wasnt able to find someone who had the parts, and truthfully.. after I read the above it just needed to be taken out to the pasture and shot... or scrapped for parts (in the computer world).

Alisha tells me to look at our bank account and see if we can afford to buy him a new one. And lo and behold, wonders never cease, praise God hallelujah, we have plenty of money in our bank account. Which makes me go (I'm not that great technically so you kinda gotta fast forward to the part where dude opens the front door.

We have enough for Nick's salary for an entire year and then some. Again, insert the below video footage into your thinking. I know, right?!

Gluttons for Punishment

Who is? Us. That's who. No matter how many times I bitch and moan I keep getting sucked into the non profit madness. Why? Because apparently my heart wants to keep making a difference even though my head is saying, 'stop the madness." And it doesn't help that Nick has taken the reigns fully and run with them. We just sit back and let him go.  And go he has. Did you know that our very own Nicolas Victorin is being sworn in as the Mayor of Pignon on February 7th? Yes. It's true. Open Hand has opened (hey, didnt even plan for that but I'll go with it) many doors for him in his community. He's become much more well known and beat out 26 people to become the next Mayor.

Here we are 6 months after the first 25 loans were given and we had 100% pay back. *jaw drop*
So Nick has come up with a new strategy that will double our loans being given out without costing anything more than the first 25 loans. It's quite brilliant. So everyone pays 1/6th of their loan payment every month which enables us to within 6 months give out 5 more loans each month for a total of 50 loans out by the end of a six month period. Money constantly rotating. That ends up being 100 loans a year when we only had the money for 50 a year. How cool is that?

So in the next few weeks we will start again but with 25 new people. Fingers crossed they are upstanding Haitians like the first group so that we can continue the cycle.

Picture This

A girl walks into a bar (ok... it was Kona Grill's bar but you get the point)
Sits down next to her husband and her husband says, "I have $250,000 to spend on a charity. How about Open Hand?"
Girl thinks and says, "no thanks"

Why you ask? Because girl is done. Girl has no desire or passion to go back to Haiti. Girl could care less. Girl is over it. Yes, the project in Pignon is going great. Everyone is paying back 100% but I don't want to add more. I don't even want to manage what we've got which basically we aren't anyways b.c Nick is running the whole thing. So girl doesn't want the money. Girl knows that it is offered because she is the wife and he loves her. Not because husband is interested in Haiti. But that's not even the point. Girl is done. Passion is gone. C'est fini.

Well... wonders never cease

Monday was the first collection day for our new loan project in Pignon. We were anxiously waiting to hear from Nick but I was also hesitant to want to hear from him b.c I was afraid of what the answer would be. Yesterday I sent him a message asking how it went and we didnt hear anything from him. Of course, no news is bad news but this time is so different because we got the money and then funded the project. We didnt get a project and then scramble to raise the money. So my emotional investment is nothing compared to our first project.

Lo and behold we just received this text from Nick, "Friends of mine. We've got the best news for the first month. 100% of them came to pay their loans before noon. The group that lives the farthest is the one that arrives first. They are doing business and we have testimonies."

I'm stunned. How bad is that? Stunned. Maybe the Haitians aren't all the same. Wouldn't that be nice?