Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Pastry & Laptops + finished roof.

How great to witness the success of the children of the Foyer NDL selling all their cookies !  Thanks to Michelle’s teaching and providing the set up and follow up by Amy, Vic and Odile and most specially France, the coop of the Patisserie NDL: une cooperative des Jeunes du Foyer Notre Dame de Lourdes is in existence! What was just a dream when Michelle and I talked about it in August has become a reality. GREAT JOB Michelle, the thoughts, organization, success at fundraising, and your passing on your skills are paying off. RT1 is very very proud of your accomplishment and thanks you for trusting us to facilitate your involvement.
Michelle teaching cake decoratingE

Elphania, Mirlaine and Rosena practice

Mano learns how to make frosting

Rosena and Dieudonne practice

Et voila!

First sale: sold out in 10 minutes
Equally exciting was to see all the children mesmerized by the computer screens of the three laptops and printer given by Louise F., John H., Jason M and David O. of Loyola University Maryland. A big thank you to the IT team and to David O, RT1 wants to express heartfelt gratitude for the generous spirit, effort to put all the equipment together, bringing it down and setting up what is now a functioning micro-lab at the Foyer NDL. Congratulations.  David became a favorite of the boys, also for his domino playing skills J
Learning how to type
David teaching basics

Practicing on new laptops


Another accomplishment of the past two weeks is the tin roof over the multipurpose room in the main building and the plumbing progress at the construction site. The young men who started learning construction less than a year ago show how much they know!


Jean-Baptiste and Fenel installing roof over multipurpose room

The roof is done, tin in the front and cement in the back over bakery, kitchen and laundry room. Now we need  doors and windows!!!

And then there are the 5 new “cabris” at the convent of the Sister in Tabarre. Their farm is prospering and the guest house sees a lot of visitors.

“Free the slaves” contribution of craft items are on their way to Jérémie. The children of the Centre Saint Jean Bosco ( that is getting an addition to accommodate the craft center) will discover their new tools when they come back from vacation this week.
To all those who have contributed to this continuing venture, many many thanks.
It is heartwarming and wonderful to witness all these steps towards positive change.