Trying to wrap up

Sitting at home in Bakersfield, trying to wrap up the last of the applications (JJF), but since my mind has been really distracted, I'm trying to at least be distracted by doing something useful, namely, the accounting for expenditures done in Haiti.

Of the 3 kids, I've now sent out AV and MJ's applications by Fedex, and emailed the pdf's to someone who'll send them on to the appropriate government office. JJF's application is the last of the 3, and I must admit, one that has been hard to focus on. Distraction is my ever present enemy.

My sister called me the other day and asked how AV was doing, and I have to admit that I don't know. Since that scary voicemail a week and a half ago, I haven't heard anything good or bad. I hope that means he's doing ok.

Hopefully in the next day or two, I'll finish JJF's application, and turn in the accounting, and get on with preparing for an entirely different kind of work in Boston for the next 6 weeks, which will be consuming in its own way.

Still, I've stayed in touch with By, and I hope to be able to help or advise him with anything that comes up while I'm there.

Related to this, it turns out that I've escaped two burglaries. When I got back to Bakersfield, my roommates mentioned to me that the house we're renting was burgled (is that the right word?) recently, and that my roommate's laptop was taken. They didn't know if anything was taken from my room, but they did notice that the door was open, and they told me they'd left it closed the whole time I was in Haiti. I haven't noticed anything missing yet. (I left my room in a rather chaotic mess when I left for Haiti, so I have to kind of wonder if the burglars opened my door, looked inside, and realized that finding anything of value in all the mess wouldn't be worth the time.)

Anyway, it also turns out that a week ago, By came to the house and worked there during the day, along with the house staff. They left in the afternoon and locked everything, including the doors to the house and the gates to enter the premises. When By returned Tues morning, the house had been burgled. The office laptop, the house electrical inverter, and a container of gasoline were taken. Fortunately, they didn't find the other valuables that were there.

The security guard we hired works 6 nights a week, but he has Mondays off. It kind of makes us wonder whether folks in the neighborhood have been watching our comings and goings and knew that that evening was the time to break in. Or maybe it was an inside job. Hard to know.

Alright, need to get back to the work. I do intend to write more stories and observations from Haiti in the next couple of weeks, if for no other reason than to preserve my memories of the trip, and to think through them.

Please do keep praying for the 3 kids: AV, MJ, and JJF, that I'd finish JJF's application, and that the powers-that-be would look favorably and quickly on their applications, and that God would preserve their bodies, especially in the next few weeks.