Here's Hugues and me with Mrs. Kim, Chairman Kim's of Sae-A wife, and their family at the inauguration last Monday.  What a wonderful lunch we shared with them.

Career Assessment testing is scheduled with the Philo class (52 students) over the next four days (Thursday, Friday, then Monday and Tuesday). Please pray for my stamina; more importantly, pray the internet stays UP! The testing will run from 7:30am - 6:00pm. 

Had a wonderful visit with the Iannetta's this past week. They headed back up north yesterday after flights cancelled Monday due to Hurricane Sandy. Our prayers are with all those affected. The photos are just astonishing that we are viewing from the internet. Our rainy season rains today paled in comparison, even though I had to move my car to higher ground due to flooding. We had an especially long rain this afternoon. 

Good night!

Here are some photos from last week's Sae-A inauguration of the ribbon cutting ceremony and groundbreaking for the school, as well as a tour of the housing development. Check out their website www.sae-a.com; very impressive company doing amazing things in developing countries throughout the world. You will notice some famous faces in the photos. As I stated in a previous blog, it was a good day for Haiti, and a really good day for COCINA. We are excited for all the opportunity this day held. Thank you to Charles, for including me. Thank you to Richard, for including Jan and Tony, Hugues and Jim. I've been busy following up with those we met that day. We were privileged to share what COCINA is doing in Northeast Haiti. Look forward to having many of those we met, come visit us in the near future at Institution Univers in Ouanaminthe.

On a separate note, I woke up this morning praying for all those along the East Coast as they are in the path of Sandy's ravish. Please let me know you are O.K., my East Coast friends and family.

It's a beautiful, lower humidity day in Haiti, with balmy Caribbean breezes blowing. The sun is out after three overcast days; rare for Haiti but understandable with the hurricane that past the island this week. We, in Ouanaminthe had only rain, which we need.
It's been an incredibly busy week with working therefore I'm again behind on the blog!
Monday, thank you to the executive I met from Sae-A on the flight from Ft. Lauderdale, I was able to join Hugues, Tony, Jan and Mac to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the Caracol school and ribbon cutting ceremony of Sae-A's factory in Caracol. It was an exciting day for us in that many new contacts were made; major networking opportunity. I am in the midst of following up on the many contacts I made. Very exciting, for C.O.C.I.N.A.! Specifically, I am following up with those I met for future opportunities for our students, as well as some operation-related opportunities.
Please google "Caracol Haiti" for lots of articles reported on the day's events. Also, I understand their is a video of the days events that the COCINA contingency were in, but I haven't seen it yet. As soon as I get a hold of it I will post it.
Need to continue my weeks news later. Need to drive Jan and Tony to visit with the Isaac family.

Had a wonderful evening last night after work with new friends, having pizza at a very beautiful restaurant that has opened in Ouanaminthe. (Progress in the city - yeah!) Stayed out until the wee hours of 9:30pm!!! On the way home we stopped at a "real" supermarket in Ouanaminthe. It has a lot of the same products that I've been going to the Dominican Republic to purchase so I am happy I can now support the Haitian economy. (another progress in the city - a bigger yeah!)

This morning it felt so good to jog almost to the Univers Farm - furthest I've gone so far. The air was a bit cooler and the mountains a vibrant bluish purple so I just kept running! On my return route,  I ended up having a man who was also jogging join me and started chatting as we ran. He happens to be a security guard at the border for Haiti and a friend of MedJoe's, one of our school administrator's. Good to meet such people in such places.

I then met Rodelin to go to the Ouanaminthe market to purchase my fruits and vegetables. I love walking all over this city, taking in the sights, sounds and the "Bonjou's" on Saturdays. Such lovely people and loving, big hearts. After I got home Rodelin helped me with some tasks around the house. He is the young man who has worked very hard to advance in his school work to pass as many grades as possible in the years I've known him, as I've shared his story with some of you in the past. He doesn't attend I.U., but works odd jobs around the organization's venues. As a thank you for accompanying me to the market, I purchased double of everything I was purchasing for Rodelin's family, as his mother is unemployed due to a disability and dad is not in the picture. They have no income coming in except what Rodelin is able to earn from the odd jobs. What a treat to spend time with him.

I voted this afternoon. Yes, I did in fact receive my absentee ballot in Haiti. Everyone here was quite surprised! Jan and Tony Iannetta are due here tomorrow for a two week visit so I'll have them take the completed ballot upon their departure. I surely don't miss all the yard signage, political bashing, and commercials on television. Another benefit to being here. Actually, that one is real low on the extremely long list!

Here's Linda and me at a Tokyo sushi restaurant...you wouldn't expect the "Girls gone Sushi" to be anywhere else in Tokyo now would you?! Miss you Linda, and thank you again for a life memory! love you, too!

Time to study some creole. Bondye beni ou, tout moun (God bless you, everyone)!

I am back in Haiti safe and sound. So good to be back. I missed "my" Haiti, although the experiences and the people I've met these past three weeks has been beyond amazing! I was privileged to travel to China and Japan, invited by my dear friend of 30+ years, Linda, on a trip her insurance firm earned through their relationship with M Financial Group. As some of you know, The Koptis Organization is part of M Financial Group as well, and it is the organization that I worked for last summer, on the book on Long-Term Care Insurance. All that to say, I was among familiar friends and business associates as well as I had the opportunity to meet fabulous people from all over the United States. Linda and her family were one of the host families of Marline and Rose-Dania this past August for the ESL program. (see previous blog post from August). Linda was excited to introduce the M Financial family to our organization, which I am overjoyed she did! Some of you reading this are those very people from the trip who were willing to let me share with you to "tell the story" of our ministry. Thank you again, for your interest and for  the desire to get involved more with the high school graduate placement program in particular and/or the other areas of our organization. And for some, to express your desire to personally partner with me financially is such a blessing. Reference the "Partners" tab of my blog for the information you need to support me personally. And again, THANK YOU for your devotion to these amazing students you are allowing me to serve.
In my travels I also spent a few days in Florida, meeting many new people and having meetings on behalf of the students, as well as a meeting and tour with ECHO (www.echonet.org) on behalf of Univers Farm. What an amazing organization this is, supporting those "in the field" (no pun intended!!!) in developing countries all over the world. They have already put me in touch with resources for consultation on our livestock, irrigation, wells, and other miscellaneous topics I brought to them. wow - God is at work!
On the return flight, I met three people who can potentially be a resource for our economic development, as well as we with theirs, for the Univers Medical Centre (UMC) and UTEC (COCINA's vo-ed tech school). I have introduced Dr. Charles and Robenson, administrators at UMC, to Dr. Ted of the Cap Haitien Health Network (www.caphealthnetwork.org) as of yesterday and this morning Dr. Charles told me he has already made contact with Dr. Ted. yeah!
And, the other two gentlemen I met are executives with the textile factory that has opened near Ouanaminthe that expects to employ 20,000 (1,600 have already been hired); the UTEC industrial sewing and industrial sewing machine repair services can be a resource to them.
These are just a few ways God brings people together!

School is now in full swing. What a joy it is to greet the students as they arrive and then to participate in the school devotional in the main lobby each morning. The new speaker system sounds terrific!

We are now getting rain, almost everyday. Good, hard rain! thank you for praying! It helps everything, everywhere. There is so much water on the road near the school that we have named it "Lake Univers". This morning on the motorcycle ride to school as we passed by it, I told Gerald I should start giving sailing lessons! We actually have to take an alternative route as it is too deep to pass through. But, we are getting rain, which is a GOOD thing!

Children are singing and clapping outside my office window right now. I am so glad to be home in Haiti!