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Top o' the evening to you all:...Did you all wear green today? By happenstance I did!....but not a drop of green beer in sight. So to all with Irish blood flowing in them Happy St Patrick's day.

It was another day of taking care of the business at hand. Got the ladies off to the market this AM to get fruits and veggies, met with Joel and Fleury to straighten out some job duties, saw Joseph and Jorel off to purchase materials for the depot. Then Christophe and I headed to the school to check out what prep work we needed to do for the wall repair when the team gets here. I met with Clovis while I was there to go over some details from the budget he prepared. He was there to see that work on the food depot got started...which it didn't for one reaon or another..until late this afternoon.

Clovis also told me of an interview he heard from the Director General of Schools regarding the opening. It seems he gave very wishy washy information and further confused the whole thing instead of giving clear information and details about the opening of school and the conditions under which each one can open. We strategized a bit so that we will be giving the same message to the teachers and students who may be leery to come to school and be in the classrooms. We will just have to take it one day at a time!

On the way home, I stopped by the grocery store and then headed to the hospital to check in on Vionnie. Her big sister Waldine was with her when I arrived. She is doing better and was pretty alert and bright eyed. I think however she will be there yet for another couple of days. Christophe joined me for this part of the trip too as his son Mark, was getting treated for a cut to the forehead he recieved a day or two ago, when a thug attacked him on the street. He had to have his dressing changed and to see the Doctor. I dropped off drugs for Hopital Eben-Ezer and last stop was to Marie's to deliver letters and bracelets mailed to her and the girls via my Agape address. A class from Port St Lucie Fl was sending cards of greeting, prayers and support and friendship bracelets for the girls.

..and the rest of the afternoon doing correspondence/paper work brings me to the current time of 5:30. I promised to finish early today as Marni, the one who has been assisting me get these reports to the website, will be leaving early to get to the airport fas she is part of the Mission trip to Hope House tomorrow. Now I will leave you with a short Irish Blessing. ......Debbie

May God give you...
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.

Good evening one and all:

A quiet weekend but a productive one. Saturday I shopped for groceries and cement....as I said to someone else..that is quite a combination. Never fear for all who may eat here, I will not get the two mixed up! Then it was on to mail pick up and at the same time recieved some more medical donations. Slowly I am being able to replace a lot of items we had given away to help others for emergency care. The afternoon was spent doing correspondence and sorting through the supplies.

Joel and I watched a movie in the evening and then it was time for some shut eye.

Today I putzed about doing some preparation in the kitchen for the team arriving on Thurs. and then spent the rest of the afternoon in front of the computer completing some assignments. It was nice to have the peace and quiet and not a lot of interruptions.

I had a call this afternoon from one of the kitchen staff (Modelene) who's daughter Vionie is in the hospital with apparent appendicitis. I will stop by at the hospital tomorrow to see them. Modelene said she may be operated on tomorrow or Tues.

This report seems a little drab but in a way its nice, knowing things are slowly down a bit so that we can get to the everyday work at hand.

Wishing you all a pleasant evening.

I will close with a short quote from Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy "Life isn't a matter of milestones but of moments"!......how true that seems to me.

Debbie

Good evening:
A very productive day is about to come to a conclusion, once I finish typing this brief update. Most of it has been spent in discussions with Ron covering all aspects of the Lazarus Project/Village of Hope Inc.We feel good about the items we have tackled and know that the next two Board meetings with be full and very interesting. I took a two hur break to attend the partner coord. meeting with the Dr in charge of our UCS (unite communautaire de sante). Although we are not actively doing anything since the school is closed and we do not yet have the health center it is good to attend to keep abreast of what is going on and it also helps with networking. Today a fellow came representinga an org'n called Mipros who are working in Ganthier in community health.. One of their projects are building communal latrines. They will be workingin the areas that a lot of our students comes from. I said we would be happy to collaborate in any way we can, and would welcome any health teaching for our students etc. You never know where some of these brief contacts can take you. I have made some donations of drugs and supplies I managed to get my hands on, to the coord. office for their maternity center and other sites. It is good PR for us and shows we are ready to work in collaboration with the Ministry which will stand us in good stead as we move ahead with the health center.
Clovis joined us for lunch and following that had discussions with him about the school..where we are today and future activities. No official word yet on when school will start...still rumored to be April 5.
Faithful readers, that is it for the day..I'm keeping it short and sweet.
Have a good night,
Debbie

Hello all: It has been another gray and overcast day and for some of us with tropical blood..even a little chilly. It also has been a relatively quiet one since seeing The 'D" team (les disributeurs extraordinaires) off at the airport mid morning. Wilner arrived just before they were leaving so at least he got to see everyone and they him. I got last minute information from some of the gents about tools, breaker panels and even a quick lesson on power point.

The team did not let down at all the name of the church they represented.which was Joyful Spirit Lutheran Church. For the returning members of the group, they sure demonstrated their joy of returning to Haiti and the people they have come to know love. The newcomers showed it in the manner they took to everything here and especially the bonds they made with the children at Little Children of Jesus. To me it was simply a "joy" to be with them for the week.

The afternoon was spent getting the depot straightened out, watching as the two vets that came to see Hopie did their work and making sure the dump truck put his load in the right spot of the yard. A load of rocks arrived today as a beginning step to getting work started on completing the new depot which has been on standstill since November. Back to Hopie for a minute as I know so will be wondering.....she is the Hope House dog and we called my friendly vet Dr Keith to come and have a look at her as she has been coughing, off her food and lost some weight. Keith was busy so sent two lovely ladies in his stead to take care of her. Luckily it is nothing serious..a mild cold and have some medicines I have to give her over the next few days.

For the last hour and a half I have actually been stretched out on the couch getting my nose into one of the books that the team so graciously provided for me. Wilner is snoozing away and Joel in his room listening to music.

I am going to take tomorrow "off" from reporting so my next communique will come Monday evening after I pick up Pastor Ron at the airport. I look forward to my meetings and time with him. We both made up "to talk about" lists and it was pretty amazing the number of items we have in common on our lists.

Wishing you all a good weekend.

Hello all.....welcome to March 3 the second time around....it seems I got dates mixed up and gave yesterday's report as March 3 instead of the 2. ....kinda like ground hog day except my activities for March 3 the second, are different than March 3 the first.....are you totally confused??

Highlights of the day for the newcomers on the team was their visit to Food for the Poor. Despite all of the inconveniences the staff are facing due to repair work going on they have still been gracious and welcoming. The wharehouse is full and getting fuller...normally they empty about 40 - 40' containers a week but this week they are expecting approx. 66 containers to come.....but still as fast as it comes in a lot of it goes out just as quickly. Those fellows sure have their work cut out for them. We had a quick visit to the medical clinic and then we went to the feeding center. They continue to provide meals for approx 1,200 families ( average 5 people) that means 6,000 people per day. They were just getting started to serve as we were going through, so Rebecca, Cheryl and Eric jumped in and helped to serve for a while. Rebecca and Cheryl couldn't believe how tiring it was on their arm muscle scooping the rice. Today they got beans sauce with the rice.

I asked it they had more people coming as a result of the earthquake. Mme Daudier said it was up and down...as people hear about dry food distributions going on they will run to take advantage of those but when that food runs out they come back. Some have migrated out of the city or to areas further away that make it difficult for them to come by. Never the less there are still plenty waiting to be served.

While we did that the others got to work at Hope House and at the orphanage....the peach coloured dining room at the LCJ is now a vibrant like neon pink.....and the even had the original can of paint with them when they went to purchase it. However the folks at the orphanage are happy and it sure brightens up the place. The crew at Hope House led by Christophe is making good progress with the wall or at least with getting the new base made for it. The poles are already installed...thanks to the assembly line they got going to prepare the re-bar.

Rebecca joined me for the rest of the morning after we dropped folks off at Little Children of Jesus after our tour of FFTP. We delivered some rice, and plastic sheeting to the Mayor in Ganthier, well actually to his asst. He had an "emergency" and couldn't wait for the appointed time for my arrival....that was a bit of a frustration. So back I go tomorrow morning to hopefully get the letter signed. We passed by the Ministry health center so I could show Rebecca and I learned that the nurse I had worked so well with is no longer working there...apparently some money they recieved for her salary was no longer available. I met the new nurse today. I'll be anxious to see how it goes with her once we get going again with our services at the school.

We dropped by the school to pick up some vitamins for the Randy Smith crew. They were still as busy as ever when we stopped by to drop off the pills. They are pleased with how the week has gone thus far......that's a relief for me as it was a bit of an experiment setting them up at Hospital Eben Ezer. Tomorrow I will pick them up and take them to LCJ and to Marie's. We'll have fun juggling vehicles and chaufffeurs but it should all work out.

Didn't hear much on the news today other than AA airlines celebrating 30 years of flying to Haiti and that the airport is supposedly back to normal operations...I guess I 'll see when I take the crew there on Sat. Air France is now flying in and Air Canada is supposed to start next week.

Pictrures of the day:
Food in preparation to be served to the 1200 families
Rebecca and Cheryl serving up for the grateful recipients.

and there you have it for March the 3rd #2.

have a restful night all
Debbie

Howdy:

It has been a whirlwind day for me and felt my head spinning by the end of it. I was happy to be able to come and "hide out" in the office and enjoy a few minutes of peace and quiet. Today was pay day and distribution of the tarps and other supplies for the staff. I was busy to medical calls while Helene handed out the pays and the team passed out the other items. They said the staff seemed pleased with their goodie bags...especially the tarps. We had a very brief meeting before hand. The teachers are still very concerned about going back into the buildings if school opens. One suggested that we look at adding a second staircase to faciliate quick exit from the second floor if necessary....I thought it was a rather reasonable request and will add it to items to discuss with Ron next week. Another was for psychological preparation for both the teachers and the students. I responded that we were trying to find resources and also share the observation that the kids at the school did not seem to be as traumatized as kids in PAP seem to be or maybe in a different way. We will also have to plan for "safety/evacuation lessons for staff and students....something to discuss with Clovis.

The men "saved me" this AM. I walked into the small depot and heard water running where it wasn't supposed to be. I quickly called one of the gents to come have a look see and I ran and turned off the generator as it has the pump going full force. They also turned off the valve to the main water pipe. After the goodies were handed out they fixed the pvc pipe which had broken in two spots...maybe hit by one of the boxes that was being stored in the shower stall. Of course this caused more work because all of the soaking wet cartons had to be removed and the rice packets put into new boxes...of which we had plenty from handing out the gallons of water that had been boxed.

Then is was more plumbing duty fixing a clogged toilet bowl and checking out others that had shifed with the earth tremors. The ladies re-organized the depot as once again it was in dissarray after things were moved to take down the damaged wall.

All of this......before lunch. Needless to say my morning flew by as I was called in many different directions. This afternoon we visited Little Children of Jesue andMaire\s. A number of duffel bags containing supplies for LCJ were dropped off and the team will unpack them tomorrow. The "returnees" were so impressed with the compound as they were seeing the new orphange for the first time. It really is a step or two above the house they used to rent. I was impressed by seeing the reaction of the kids to seeing Julie and her team mates arrive. They are obviously well remembered and loved. The radiant smiles and beaming faces of the kids was so heartwarming. They may be handicapped and not able to express themselves as we do but they sure were able to share their message of happiness at seeing Julie and the others in their own way.

We got the work plan for tomorrow organized at LCJ and then headed off for a visit to Marie's. She met us on the road so we pulled into the church yard and she showed us the work going on there...new latrines and showers built, removal of the old building continuing and preparation of the temporary sleeping quarters for the girls...former depot/sewing room and kindergarden classroom. Then we walked over to the house and had a wee visit with the girls.

Back at Hope House the team was anxious to "get to work" so I had them clean up the rubble from our downed wall from our next door neighbour's bean field. All of the potholes within one or two city blocks distance from Hope House are now filled.

For several fellows on the team this is their 9 year visiting VOH and they have been the handymen doing many tasks around the House and at the school. I am like a sponge soaking up all of what they are telling me....about plumbing, water heaters and all sorts of other little details that are good to know.

Pictures: Marie France Elien and Jn Robert Gossin both primary school teachers receiving their donation of water.
The last remnants of Grace Mission Church

with that I will bid you goodnight.
Debbie

Greetings on this fine Sunday evening:

Prayers went up today at church, for all the people around the world who are being affected as well by damaging earthquakes.....what a world we are living in! Rumors were about that one of the US States would disappear under water.....we think that has something to do with the Tsunami warning for Hawaii. The sun finally shone today so people could start drying out from all of the rain. As I typed last night I said we hadn't had rain here, but when I left the office it was to discover it was pouring rain. I am sure the tarps we will hand out tomorrow will be well received.

One other duty at church today was to hand out Valentine cards that I received in the mail yesterday. They were made by a group of Kindergarten children in Belle Grade Florida. Two of Julie's team are kindergarten teachers so they did the honours in handing out the cards. The kids all clapped and cheered when I made the comment that the Valentine cards came late but that we could still hand them out because it was never to late to show the love we have for one another.

Following church it was payday for the support staff and the team helped to hand out our second "relief packet" which consisted of rice, beans, cornmeal, soap, new shirts and a plastic water jug with a spout and handle to keep drinking water. KPS and Michelet the guards at the school each received a package of diapers and some baby food for their infant son and daughter respectively. We also gave out crayons and some colouring books to a little distraction for the younger kids. Tomorrow will be much the same for the teachers except they will be getting their tarps this week (the support staff got theirs last weekend). Everyone seemed pleased with the efforts.

We enjoyed a nice meal at the Visa Lodge and then it was back to Hope House to WORK. The rest of the afternoon flew by as we prepared the articles for distribution tomorrow...we have set up a sort of "buffet" table and the team will help distribute the items tomorrow. I've attached a photo fo the items lined up ready to hand out.

The team also unloaded their suitcases....they are a well "oiled" group as all the bags were labeled and inventoried so they knew what items to find in what bags. Unfortunately the two that were left behind with Brien, who took ill, contained more water jugs, so we will not be able to give those out to the teaching staff until we get the rest of the stock here. By the way Brien is on the road to recovery....he is in hospital in Ft Lauderdale. His fiancé was able to join him so at least he is not all on his lonesome down there. We /I am truly spoiled with all of the wonderful gifts they brought not only for Hope House/VOH but also for Little Children of Jesus...even Hopie and Opie got dog and cat treats....now that is spoiled ! Thanks to all who contributed so much to help them fill those suitcases.

Before closing all I want to say is GO CANADA EH....what about that hockey team!!!!!! What a thriller that game must have been. I am waving my flag around tonight!!.

take care one and all ...have a good week.

Sorry folks...no pictures tonight....they are jinxed for some reason I cannot get them attached.....maybe it was too much gloating over that win....Debbie

Hi Folks: A full and productive day today: changing money, grocery shopping, dropping of medications at FFTP and checking on Jean D's FFTP house to be built, making lunch reservations for the upcoming Mission team, visit to the MSPP office, stop at LCJ to finalize mission team work and back to HH for paper and finance work and OF COURSE correspondence!

Each day I go out I see signs of progress being made with the relief efforts.....another camp of ramshackle lodgings has been switched to proper tents (the one by the airport), land is being cleared at Santo 17 for another camp or parc communautaire as they are being called here. There is a private boys school with a large piece of property that has been turned into a parc comm. Joseph was telling me that the Minister of Ed'n is planning to put 160 large tents on the grounds and it will be used as a central school to send kids to. The only problem now is that according to what Joseph has heard all of the people who have settled on those grounds refuse to leave unless the city hall folks find them a piece of property that is just as nice as this one for their lodgings.....and the fun begins!

The team that was just here brought one tent with them and I think I mentioned already that it was given to Joseph since he was driving them around and I knew for sure he was living on the streets with little protection. He was telling me today that the neighbours in his area are giving him a hard time because he has a tent and they don't. They felt that whoever gave him a tent must have more and that he should have fought harder to get more for to give to them. With the nice tarp he got as well..they really were at him. He said some people were even refusing to talk to him! ....can you imagine? Here you are thinking you are doing something nice for someone and sadly at the same time it turns out to cause them grief! He did appease sevearl folks as he made them a gift of the large piece of plastic sheeting that he had first recieved. Sadly it ust goes to show once again how careful one has to be when handing out gifts of any kind.

That is pretty much it for today...wishing you all a pleasant evening.
Debbie

Hello all:
Peace and quiet reign! The team should have arrived at their homes by now and I am sure they are already sharing stories of their adventures in Haiti. Probably one of the first stories will be about the after shocks they experienced last night....2 around 1:30 AM. Me....I was sleeping like a log and didn't feel a thing. Andy even came knocking on my door to see if I was all right. He must have knocked very lightly as I didn't hear a thing either. This AM when he was telling me all of this he said it was probably just as well as all of the fellows had scurried out of their rooms in their skivvies..what a site that must have made!!!

Sadly these rather large tremblings (4.7) caused a lot of panic among folks around PAP. Some people had decided to enter their houses for sleeping and they raced outside with great fear. It was quite the talk with everyone today and the radio stations had call in shows asking people about their experiences. Jean told me one of his friends called him just after the action took place and said he had had it and was heading to his hometown of Jeremie. I imagine there will be others like that too.

Things were relatively calm as we dropped the gang off at the airport. The airport admin. had already made some changes with the logistics and it helped out with the traffic circulation around the airport...still a little slow but nothing like the othe day. They left with a bit more luggage than they anticipated as they helped to get luggage left behind by the "earthquake team" one step closer to home. Andy's folks go back and forth to Pennsylvania so for a while they will play mules carting the pieces of luggage back to their owners. They also took items that were for Larry and Margaret.

I did some banking business on my way home from the airport and then headed back to Hope House. Since then I have alternated between sitting at the computer and doing odd jobs with the staff. Tomorrow we will start preparing for the team from Joyfull Spirit Lutheran Church who will arrive on Saturday from Bollingbrook, Ill, as well as start getting is materials to fix the next portion of the wall. Jorel will start next week with getting the next stage of the work on the new depot underway.

Photos:
AH....my nice neat and tidy depot work area...just one of the "miracles" the Men of Fire worked.

What a shock I just got when I looked at the wall clock and saw it was already going on for 7 PM.....I think it is time for a new watch....mine reads 5:25.

tira for now......Debbie

Hi folks: I am getting a late start to this days report due to continuing Internet challenges caused by all of the extra gadgets and computer wear being used by my guests. I am feeling lucky that I have this little reprieve in order to get the message to you.

Pancakes got the fellows stoked up for their days activities..the first one of them being loading up the truck with the tarps and plastic sheeting we were handing out to the school support staff after church today. We were all loaded up and on the road by just after 8:30....a little early for church but we had filming to do and orientation to give as all of the members of the team, except one are newcomers to Haiti. Joseph was zipping along but I asked him to slow down a little so that pictures and filming along the route could take place. He slowed down all right....we then crawled the rest of the way to the school.

The church service for the fellows was as touching for them as it had been for Nick and John two weeks ago. I also was very moved as I listened to their version of Amazing Grace.....it gave me goosebumps....they didn't tell me they had some singers in the group.

The staff were so appreciative of the tarps and sheeting that they distributed. To all who participated in making this gift possible I send a great BIG thank you! Knowing the comfort that those tarps will bring to they and their families is also a comfort to me.

After church we did a little circuit tour of a section of PAP. I know the team was anxious to see some of the ravages of the earthquake but I was also wanting to be sensitive to our Haitian brothers and sisters and not just have us traveling around as a bunch of blanc tourists. I am pleased with how the day went and everyone was quite respectful of the situation. Seeing the real thing with your own eyes, does make the reality of it all sink in a bit deeper and I know all of them were very affected by what they saw today. Jorel and Elysee two of the church school leaders joined us for lunch at Epi Dor a local bakery and fast food restaurant.

The Scouts from Todd's church donated a tent and it was decided to give it to Joseph as a "tip" for the driving he has been doing for the team. He and his family have been living under a tree and have only been able to recuperate very limited items from the rooms they rented. I think he was nearly in tears as he was recieving the gift and saying his thanks to Todd. He left one VERY HAPPY man knowing that he would be better able to provide for his family having this tent in hand.

I will have a picture of that presentation for you tomorrow. Tonight you get a picture of me happy as a clam, BBQing our dinner hot dogs on the newly fixed up and repaired BBQ. The second picture is of the fellows singing Amazing Grace at the chapel.


and there you have it for another day.

Debbie

Hello all: Has this team only been here 1 day!!!......with the amt they have achieved it feels like it could be a week or more. It is incredible what they have achieved: ceiling lights working and tiles replaced, hardware supplies and tools all sorted out and organized, my office cleaned up, shelves repaired, new shelves set up, the damaged wall to the depot taken down..so it wouldn't fall down and hurt anyone; my toilet fixed, the BBQ fixed (yahoo 'BBQ hot dogs for dinner tomorow). The biggest part though was taking down the damaged part of the roof and shoring up the part that is still standing. They worked HARD. I was so busy answering to calls of "Debbie" from various directions and doing some housekeeping myself that I didn't get to take any pictures today of the busy beaves, except one. They say too many cooks spoil the broth but the fellows all helping with the roof, seemed to make it work....as you will see with my one loan picture. I asked Christophe to come today and he was also a big help to the team.

Paul had the most frustrating day as he tried to deal with the Internet service which came to a halt last night and wasn't working today. Finally after a call to Ron in Washington, to get Darrell's phone number in Florida we were able to make progress. Paul called Darrell and I managed to find a phone number for Hope House ( which I accidently came across two days ago). That information helped out when Darrell managed to set up a three way conversation between Paul on his fancy cell phone, himself and a Hughesnet Tech support person in India......isn't that just inredeible when you think about it!!!....modern technology does reduce the size of this world that is for sure.
At any rate they found out the problem was these guys coming with all of their fancy phones, computers, skype etc ended up exceeding our 24 limit of gigabytes and we were "cut off". Luckily we get one free reset every month, so that is why I am now able to send this message out to you.

Andy's big experience was going "shopping" with Jean for hardware supplies, soft drinks and other refreshments and changing money to boot. He got to see how the system works and the many different stops that one has to make to get everything you want.

All in all it was a very productive day....I think the fellow are pleased with the accomplishments...I can tell you I DEFINATELY am!

and that my friends is it for this fine Saturday evening....wishing you all blessings for the day.

Greetings to all on this Ash Wednesday:

Today was spent on the road taking care of various and sundry errands. I took an hour or so of private time to meet with Mme Nazaire the Dir of the School of Nursing in PAP. I am trying to assist a group of nurses and medical professionals from Hamilton who wish to see how they can help with rebuilding of the nursing school and aid in the advancement of nursing as a profession in Haiti. I have known Mme Nazaire for some time and I could see the weight she is carrying on her shoulders. Her own hom was ruined as well and she had to deal with the great loss of life and all other issues surrounding the total destrcution of the school. Her office is presently on the street across from the school where she has three chairs set up to recieve people coming to speak with her about the school and/or students. She still does not have an official count of which students are alive. She is slowly getting information but as people have spread far and wide it is a challenge for her.

This was my first trip downtown since the earthquake and I still cannot seem to really take in what I am seeing. I know most of you have probably already had your fill of the scenes on TV. The mass destruction is so overwhelming......one street we went down, I don't think had one building left standing on it.....there was just rubble on both sides. The clean up job itself is a humungous work, clearing all of that concrete block away. Business is sure not what it used to be in the downtown area. I think it was the first time in all of my years in Haiti that I drove along the grand boulevard Jn Jacques Dessalines in downtown PAP and wasn't caught in a huge traffic jam.

Another errand was on Delmas and I took the opportunity to stop at Mr Accra's store or at least what was left of it. I learned from the guard that he is in the US recovering from his experience of being buried in the building. He did suffer some injuries but not major ones. The guard confirmed that his son was okay but that they did loose several employees. He had no idea when M Accra would be back in Haiti. I have had no response either from the email I sent he and his son.

After that there were stops to drop off drugs as Food for the Poor clinic, purchase diesel fuel for the generators, get prices for some construction supplies, meal planning with the gals at Hope House and all sorts of other little chores that fill the day.

Joseph told me that his area of town had a big rain last night (we were dry as a bone in our area) and it was the piece of Plastic sheeting I had given him to take home that "saved" he and a number of his neighbours from a soaking as they all stood under it taking refuge from the rain. It will be a bonus when the Tarps arrive with Andy's team on Friday.

Speaking of that team, AA had a press release today confirming they would restart flying on Friday.....that is good news for us.


On the news today:
A lot of discussion regarding the historical visit of President of France to Haiti and on top of that the fact that their was a demonstration against Preval timed to co-incide with the visit. To make matters worse it was headed up by one of Preval's council members.
Reports of the demonstrations which took place in Cite Soleil as some protested the lack of tents,food and water.


Photos:
1 & 2 a new camp settlement now set up in front of the cathedral. A lot of work had been done on this camp as it had been smoothed over and levelled with large rocks and sand and as you can see everyone had proper tents.
3 remains of M Accra's store

until tomorrow...take care one and all.
Debbie

Hello all: GREAT NEWS....as I type this I am enjoying a bit of air conditioning in the office...yes that means we have EDH (Haiti Hydro) running. It was with great surprise and delight that Joel and I noted the EDH light coming on last evening. It lasted maybe 40 minutes or so but it was a good omen. Today it came on at 5:00 was on for 10 minutes, off for 5 and now back on for nearly an hour. It will be interesting to see how it goes over the next few days. Now that it is coming on and charging up the batteries we will be able to give the generators a little rest.

Today was a quiet day around here as everyone had the day off for the Holiday.....which I learned from Wilner this AM, was not..it seems another announcement was given that it was not a National holiday...what a place!

I spent the day alternating between working in what I call the cave (AKA the office) because of the poor lighting and no window to the outside world and doing odd jobs about the compound so that I had a taste of the sunlight and fresh air. My office work consisted of setting up a spreadsheet to keep track of expenses and other items. That was a big accomplishment and I even managed to get the month of Feb entered to date and also some of January. Catching up with correspondence was next on the list and I made a good dint in that too.

Joel packaged milk powder this AM and then we put those sachets in the goodie bags we started to prepare to distribute to the staff at the end of Feb. along with a candle, lighter, small bar of soap and several packages of fortified rice. We will add other items before the month is out, but that is at least our start.

So all in all a good day.

Since my report is so short for the day I am including a link to the latest press release from Food for the Poor detailing their activities since the earthquake. Having visited their office several times over the past weeks I can testify to the energies the staff have put into their work and under somewhat challenging circumstances. I think you will find it interesting reading.

http://www.foodforthepoor.org/newsroom/news/food-for-the-poor-one-month.html


cheerio....a demain.
Debbie

Good afternoon one and all:

We survived the food distribution in very good order. I think the presence of two police officers at the gate was a big help. People were already lined up at the gate when Dumas, Joseph and I arrived at 7:30. Clovis was already at work getting last minute things organized. I got a team together to finish packing the vitamins. We ran out of snack and medecine bags and so we ended up putting them in an exam glove...one must use what one has available.. I thought it was a brilliant idea!

The university students were assigned to get the signatures of receipt for the food and give each person a piece of paper which they had to give to Clovis or Dumas to get their goods. The distribution consisted of 5 marmites of rice, one of beans, 2 measures of oil..the measure being an empty Barbancourt rum bottle and 1 can of sardines. A marmite is a local measure and it is the size of a 112 ounce can. Each parent that came got a ration for each of the children he/she had at school. Some people were picking up for for themselves and others as well. As a consequence some folks were carting away up to 6 sacks in which they put all of their items. They were quite a weight to carry but away they went, some carrying one or two sacks on their head and another in their hands. I actually weighed one of the bags after I tried to help a women lift it onto her head.....that was a joke. I couldn't get it up past my waste...some help I was !!! One bag weighed 19 kg or approx. 40 pounds. One 10 year old girl put me to shame as she sauntered off home after her father helped her get the sack on her head (he was carrying another one). As each person went by my door on the way out, I handed them vitamins for their child/children....enough for a month.

People I have learned are the same the world over. You think you are doing a good thing and still some people complain. There were a number not happy with what they recieved, thinking they should have recieved more. Several others disruntled that they didn't get VIP treatment because the person helping at the gate did not recognize them.
However the good far outweighed the negative and all in all it was a god day.

The BND inspector arrived a little late to supervise the distribution but he was happy with what he saw. We had enought left over that we were able to give a portion to each of the university students and to the all of the staff. We will have to organize another day to hand it out to the teachers, but the local and Hope House staff recieved their's today.

That pretty much took up most of the day. I delivered some medical goods to Hopital Eben-Ezer and finalized some details for Dr Randy Smith's team who will work at his hospital when they come at the end of the month. Little Children of Jesus was the last stop. Mme Passe is holding the fort while Gladys is away. She had heard from Gladys and she is doing wel...enjoying her time with her children.

Tomorrow is another official Holiday...despite the fact that the three days of prayer were to replace the Mardi Gras Holidays, the gov't decided yesterday to grant Tues as a National Holiday as well.....I guess out of respect for those of another belief and to give them time for their celebrations too. It kind of threw my plans for the week out of the window but that is par for the course and have got things reorganized.

On the news today:
report of Stephen Harper's visit to Haiti
expected visit of the President of France....don't remember how to spell his name...the first time a President of France has visited Haiti
announcement of a "grand spectacle" to take place at Champ Mars on Wed.
discussion regarding payment of employees not working during month of Feb, reduction in salaries of employees and ther general of business closures due to damages that makes it impossible for the owners to continue. On the one hand people will be out of work but on the other NGO's and other organizations are looking for staff at all levels.

Pictures:
Darline packaging vitamins into the exam gloves
University students registering the parents
Parents crowded at the gate, waiting (not too patiently) to get in

more pictures to follow in second mail....I still haven't had time to experiment with Marni's instructions. I am hoping instead for a lesson from one of Andy's team who are scheduled to arrive this Friday.......that is if AA keeps its restart date on the 19th.

Let me leave you here so I can get the next set of pictures sent.

Have a good evening.....and Happy Birthday to my brother Brad.

Debbie

Now I can officially wish all of you a Happy Valentine's Day to start of my missive for today. My day started with a phone call at 6:30 from Wilner wishing me a Happy Valentine's Day. I even forgave him for getting me out of bed or should I say off the couch to answer the phone. I was supposed to "sleep in" today but it was well worth it to get up to have a little chat with him. He was getting ready to head to the Lodge and I then prepared to head to the school for church. I went early in order to give the fellows a ride as there was very little public transport the last three days. While they had Sunday school, I counted out more vitamins to give out tomorrow with the food. On the way home Jorel, Elysee and Dumas told me of their days yesterday in their individual churches. Jorel attended services in his from 6 AM to 6 PM.

I went and had a quick visit with Marie after church. She was resting between services at her church. I guess this AM was quite the revival as she was talking about how she had been jumping up and down in adoration of God. It has been like that in churches all over. Again today they were packed and even more so. The evangelical services continued at Champ Mars today and have been going non stop since Friday. When I turned on the television to watch some of the service, I could not help but think of the Mall in Washington on Obama's inauguration day. Haiti's "mall" Champ Mars was packed in much the same way...people EVERYWHERE, sitting on the statues, standing on cars and containers. Even during past years when Mardi Gras took place in the same area, I never witnessed so many people congregated at one time. I cannot even describe the feelings I had as I watched the memorable event. So many praising Jesus, Bon Dye, in one place at one time and in Peace after such devestation....amazing!!! The service still goes on as I type my report to you. Joseph our driver came to spend the night as he will leave early with me to help at the school tomorrow. He had just come from Champ Mars. In describing the goings on it was clear he was deeply affected by what he saw and his participation in the event. He said it took him an hour and a half to wend his way out of the crowd in order to get a tap tap to come here. He said a lot of people were fainting from the heat and emotion. There was a first aid station set up as on the radio I heard them calling for extra help to take care of the people that were arrviving at the tent for care. Unfortunately children were getting separated from their parents in the crowds. Some were up on the state waiting to be claimed by their parents.

Another event was that a number of people were circling the palace

There was more discussion of the phenomen with the sun. Some people described a huge mist descending over the palace for a period of time which made it impossible to see the palace. Then it disapated and people are saying it was the devil going out of Haiti. More people saw signs in the sun....an eagle, a hand in the air with a cross and other signs. It was also reported that only those who were "believers" were able to see these signs.

I pray that all of this energy will be used for the good of Haiti and for a future of positive change.

These three days of prayer have replaced the three days of Mardi Gras that were to take place Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. For many it is the first time in their memory that there will be no Mardi Gras festivities. The believers in the crowd claim it as a victory as only Bon Dieu could make such a thing happen.

As I said above, describing my feelings as I witnessed events over the last there days and especially today is difficult but I can say that it has only deepened my respect and admiration and affection for the Haitian people!.

Wishing you all a pleasant evening and hope your day was filled with love for those who are close to you in heart.

Hello all: What a day it has been....a good one full of unexpected things.

My day started early. I was out the gate at 6:00 AM to get to the bank and hopefully a good place in line. What a thrill it was to see that I was going to be the 6th one in lplace. Joseph parked the car and I took my place. I took along my Suduko book to entertain myself until the bank opened (at 9). However I found myself well entertained just by watching the goings on in the street. The bank is very close to a busy intersection and market and today was a market day, so there was lots of action. I was wishing my eyes could be a camcorder in order to be able play back for you what I observed of the vibrant, lively every changing activities and LIFE! For example there were the 4 men who made a business with their wheelbarrows as they carted goods from the taps taps from which the market ladies descended with their sacks and bags to their places in the market area. I saw, coconuts, chaddek (grapefruit), onions, bananas, spinach, other greens and much more pass in front of me. I never fail to marvel at the graceful movements of the women as they load big bundles on their head and then not dropping a thing stoop down to pick up a smaller bag to be carried in their hand. They put me to shame that is for sure! As for the barrow men, they were often trotting along with loads of at least 100 lbs or more......their calf and arm muscles sure were well defined.

It was also interesting seeing how the folks in line with me handled those who came later and tried to butt in. One lady was inching her way to me and bumped into my back so I just tapped her on the shoulder and asked her to move forward and to be careful. A few minutes later the felllows behind me said something and soon she was sidling her way to the back of the line.

Before I knew it the doors opened (surprisingly at 8:30) and we were ushered in by the security person. By 9:00 AM I had the money I had changed in hand and was standing in front of the reception desk getting my US and Gourdes chequing accounts opened up (more detail in another mail). That process took a little longer but I was pleasantly surprised to be getting it done period, so the wait was a delight. Now I just have to wait 2 weeks to a month f(delay due to the earthquake) for my cheques and then I will be one step closer to making my tasks easier.

From their I planned to change more money by the aiport and then head out to the school on an errand. However on the way I decided to take a detour by Food for the Poor to check in with Dr Laurent about a couple of items and then I took the opportunity to see Mme Calixte about the distribution of donations. Talk about good timing! Today they were processing donations for a number of people and they agreed to do one for us after Mme Calixte got confirmation of the email I had sent to the Director. Mind you it took nearly 2 hours before I had the paper in hand but heh it was worth it. Tomorrow now we will have to take two trips to pick up the rice, beans, milk powder, canned beans and veggies, running shoes and more. This means we will be able to prepare another goodie bag for the staff members for February and probably March too.

In the meantime I heard from Clovis. Remember the other day when I mentioned things can change from moment to moment. Well BND did it again....changed their mind and said it wasn't possible to give us the kits they had promised to deliver today. This was a disaster for us as we had already sent word around to the parents of the school kids to come tomorrow for the boxes. After some, lets say heated, discussion, BND fiinally agreed to give us dry rations to hand out. However instead of using the school stock we had to organize transport to get a new supply from their depot. By this time, we had met up with Clovis and Dumas at BND so I could hand over funds to pay for the men who would load and unload the truck and also for the truck itself. Since as often the case, It doesn't rain but it pours....we had to get another truck because ours was now scheduled for the trips (at least 2) to FFTP and there wouldn't be time to do both. So then we had to go to the truck rental area......to see if we could find a fellow that had told Clovis he would be available. It was not to be....but luck was with us as Joseph had a friend with a truck . A quick phone call and a little negotiating sealed the deal for the use of the truck. Hallelujah!! .Trucks are at a premium these days too what with carting goods from the DR and back and working for various AID organizations, so I was glad that we were able to get Joseph's friend.

Finally about 4 hours after it had been originally planned we changed money by the airport and headed to Ganthier.......oh I forgot ..there was one stop to buy plastic bags...remember the ones I started to purchase several days ago?! This time I did the smart thing and bought 600 of them from a street vendor.....much cheaper and it helped her out...she was happy with her sale.

One of my tasks at the school was to once again try to locate Pastor Phil's little church in Galette Chambon. This time around I had a name to go by and we found the small church nestled in a small "suburb" of Galette Chambon. The folks were very friendly and helpful. They were happy to have news of their US friends.

Shortly after we stopped off at the school so I could get some more vitamins to pack for our Distribution....now scheduled for Monday (si Dye vle...God willing). Michelet had just returned from letting people know that the plans had been changed.

So all and all is was a fruitful day despite the little hiccups here and there.

More and more camps are appearing everyday and you can find them just about anywhere.- parks, roadside areas, gas stations, industrial yards..anywhere there is a flat space available.....attached a couple of pictures.....

For the past several days, I have felt a little shaking but it is so slight I was asking myself if it was just me or was it really a tremor...well as I typed this we had one big enough that I knew it was not me......Mother Nature is incredible!

on that profound note, I will say tira for today.
Debbie

Hello all:

It's been a relatively quiet day for me today...even managed to read for 1/2 hour and close my eyes for an 1 hour.....what a treat it was! Wilner was off early to get his transport back to Deschapelles. Sundays can take a little time because there are less vehicles running. After dropping him off at a spot where he could get a tap tap to the meeting point for the Artibonite buses I got breakfast for John and Nick. Then they started their TV work with me, setting up an interview in the office and then some shots around the yard. As I was afraid I would I did start blubbering at one point during the interview. I kept telling myself to "steel" myself so I wouldn't do it, but it just came out. I was so mad at myself! ... but those who know me will not be too surprised.....I do take after my mother after all!!

We went out to the school and they did some shooting around there. They were both quite taken and touched by the simple yet heartfelt service put on by the kids. Before arriving back at Hope House, I took them to have a quick look at Marie's and to meet both she and the girls. We didn't have time to make it into Little Children of Jesus. Jean was waiting for them when got back and following a quick lunch they headed downtown to the Plaza hotel where they are using CNN's set up there to send their reports back to Hamilton for the 6:00 news.

I talked to a friend (Jan Flanagan) today and asked how her week went. With Keith's conncections to the US military, Jan is now overseeing the washing of the clothes for about 700 US personal. She cracked me up when she told me they could scrimp from a daily fee they get to pay for the ladies to wash their clothes but they didn't have any money in the budget to buy soap to do the washing! However they were happen anyway not having had anyone to do laundry since landing in Haiti. One doesn't think of these everyday practicalities does one? They have various and sundry ladies they know helping out.....its great that they are able to get a little money for their pockets.

On that note I will close for today. We'll see tomorrow what the week will hold.

here's a little thought to close the day from Frederick Buechner " You can kiss your family and friends goodbye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach because you do not just live in a rld but a world lives in you" Thank you ALL for being in the world within me.

Good evening one and all:

I got Jim off at 6:15 to the airport with Marie and her crew and then rousted the Hamilton TV guys out of bed at 7:45. In between time I welcomed Wilner...yeehaw! and we had a little visit. He got the bus at 3:00 AM in Deschapelles and was at our door by 6:30.......the driver must have flown. Wilner knew nothing of it as he slept all of the way.

By 8:30 having fed all the men we were on the road to Agape. Naturally this time I left extra early (last week I was late) and traffic was not as bad and we arrived early. Not to waste time we went to the grocery store, changed money and got a few more provisions.

Agape was PACKED with donated goods...medical supplies, tinned food, water, baby food and more. We who were working could hardly move. Once the folks started coming to get their mail what a zoo!!! I tell you we all worked up a good sweat. I was in the peanut butter, soup, water and hygiene corner. Wilner had one foot in that area but another in flashlight, batteries, candles, books etc corner. We had to keep unpacking boxes and making sure those taking the donations, remembered to leave some for folks coming after them. There was still plenty left we when closed up shop at 12:00 or so. People will be able to help themselves next week..for those who didn't make it this week. It is a godsend for so many people run orphanges, help their neighbourhood people etc. I managed to get some more articles to give to the staff in Feb.

Epi Dor was open so I grabbed us each a hamburger and a coke while Wilner watched over the car which was loaded to the hilt. We ate our lunch on the steps of the Agape office. Then we proceeded down Delmas as Wilner wanted to see (but at the same time didn't want to) some of the damage caused by the earthquake. It sure made it all that more real to him and I know it was not an easy drive for him. We went by the school where Darline and Phailande, our two university students studying nursing, had been attending. I am attaching two pictures for you to see. You will see that indeed the Lord was looking over them to allow them to leave that buildig in good health. I learned the Director Mme Bruyn whom I had met, survived and is now in the US recovering from injuries she sustained.

Still heading toward home we detoured into the Visa Lodge to see how it fared after passing by Jack Walls Guest house a landmark for many visitors. It is now a flattened pancake. The hotel and restaurant was hopping..not a space to be had in the parking lot. I jumped out quickly to run in to give my greetings to the staff that I know well...having been there with so many team members over the past year and also while I was at HAS. Happily all of their staff survived but again like everyone..they lost family members and property. That reminds me several folks have asked about the Historic Park Canne a Sucre restaurant across from the Embassy. I haven't been inside but I see from the road that the water wheel was severely damaged and the stage area was also ruined. I noticed they had workers in there taking down the rubble and cleaning up. The family that owns that also owns the big furniture store next door and it suffered pretty heavy damages..although didn't collapse so they may have been able to save a lot of their stock.

Two more stops for money changing and a fill up and then we were home and unloading the car. Once that was done Wilner had a little siesta and I caught up on some bookwork.

I will leave you now as I promised myself I would not get trapped into a lot of correspondence and instead would spend some "quality" time with Wilner....I am sure you will all understand this desire.

Have a good weekend all......continue to thank everyone for their prayers and messages of concern.

Good Evening: I am getting a late start to my day's report and hope it is not inconveniencing anyone. I rolled in from the school at 6:30 and then spent the next half hour looking for the key to the food cupboard as that is where the clam chowder we were having for dinner was hidden away. After retracing my steps about 3 times, I finally found it......another proof that I have a lot going on in my head at one time....I seem to start one thing and then go off in two other directions as I remember various things I have to do. My biggest boo boo so far was turning the generator on but forgetting to change the breaker over so it was really firing up the batteries.....at least it wasn't a total waste as I got several loads of laundry done...good thing Joel and Fleury are at my side to help keep me on track.

The early morning was spent with paper work and the computer. At 9:00 I headed out to Little Children of Jesus to pick up the person that was taking me to the orphange where Whitney and Philip were moved to. I was following up on them for a couple in the US who is in the process of trying to get their adoption on the move. For those who don't know the two young children were found in the streets of Gonaive after the hurricanes. There were taken in by Food for the Poor and until two months ago or so had been at the Little Children of Jesus orphange for handicapped children. They have since been moved to La Maison d'Amour (house of love) orphange also run by FFTP for children who are not handicapped. It has been a good move for the two of them. I noticed they were much more lively and interacted with the other children, laughing and smiling away. One of the Sister's was telling me how much Philip enjoys soccer. Luckily the orphanage suffered only minor damage as they currently house 117 children (and are expecting more). As expected they could not give me any further information about the two children without some formal notification from the head office in PAP.

Once back at Hope House I got Jean organized to go out and get the empty jerry cans filled with diesel...I am keeping on top of this ...yesterday Clovis told me he had a hard time getting fuel. Today though I filled out my car with no problem but it can change from day to day, so I want to keep things as full as possible. In between these errands he is working on fixing up our second vehicle. Tomorrow we will chase down some propane gas as I found a place that has some.

By then it was time to head to the grocery store to buy plastic bags in order to prepare the food for distribution on Wed and finally to the school to meet Clovis and the engineer. They were late...no surprising, but I filled the time by preparing some of the small bags of vitamins we will give each child next week.

The engineer did a pretty thorough job..we were even up on the roof...me too ( I was glad I had worn my culotte skirt). He found lots of things we had missed. We now have a list of repairs to make but bottom line was that he felt we could go ahead and use the school while we made the various repairs. I felt he really knew what he was doing and am comfortable with his recommendations. He was even pointing out other aspects of the building which we should attend to to make it safer. Before leaving, we learned from KPS that the inspector from the Ministry of Ed'n and their engineer had been by to look over the property. KPS showed them around and pointed out various things he had noticed. We don't have any idea of the results of their visit but Clovis will follow up.

Did I mentione that things are changing constantly?.....well Clovis informed me that BND has cancelled the food distribution for next week...so much for the 500 plastic bags I already purchased. It seems most likely that school will be scheduled to start at the beginning of March and they felt we should keep our stock of food to be able to feed the kids when they get back to school. We only have about a month and a bit worth of food and it is unclear what WFP (world food program) will have for BND and their school canteen program. On the positive side of things BND is going to give us 700 or so kits to hand out to the kids and the leftovers we can give to the staff. They will deliver the kits on Tues and we will hand them out Wed. We still plan to ask the University students to help with that. ...as long as things don't change again between now and then.

Chatter on the radio:
. a call to NGO partners to attend meetings called at the various city halls around town in order to coordinate the food distribution....some areas are getting 2 or 3 distributions per day and others are getting none......the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing....not surprising when so many hands are in the pie. I think it is slowly getting better, although true that some areas still need help. Sad to say everyone is getting on the bandwagon and even those who are not in real need are chasing after the aid....some then turn around and sell what they get...at escalated prices. Gladys told me that a tarp on the black market was going for $100.00 US.!!! This is not a phenomen for Haiti only....I have seen that happening in Somalia and Burundi as well and think it even happens at home.
. asking that those sending AID do so keeping in mind the dignity of the Haitian people and even in crisis treat them with respect.....do not send "junk" to Haiti with the thought that "well someone could use it" . Sad to say this happens.
.health discussions re: waste management, use of clean water, hand washing, sexual violence, care for People living with AIDS.
. discussions about post traumatic stress syndrome, how to relieve stress etc
. the possibility of another big earthquake hitting Haiti.....many people are panicked about this. Clovis told me today that a team of people from Perdue Universtiy had come to Haiti and from their evaluation people are understanding their will be another big earthquake in the not too distanct future. I don't know how much is truth or fiction.

I think I have filled you full of enough information for today. Until tomorrow

Three weeks post earthquake.......it seems like an instant ago and yet it also feels like it was years ago.....I guess because the days have been so packed since then.

As usual I started the day sipping my coffee and getting to the first few email messages of the day....ones I wake up in the night thinking..oops I forgot about writing to so and so. Then I was on the road heading to the school as today was tour day of staff member's houses. I couldn't believe it when I got to Karfou Marasa and there was no traffic jam. I breezed right on through. I was thanking my lucky stars because just a bit further down the road here comes this LONG convoy guarded by US military vehicles, heading into PAP.

At the school I took another walk around to check again for cracks or problems since seeing the ones in the chapel. I noticed two more in the dining area....I may have missed them the first time around or they have appeared since. Clovis has arranged for a gov't certified engineer to come and inspect tomorrow....this will be unofficial as we have to wait for the Scholastic engineers to come but I am glad to have a second opinion. This fellow is going around checking gov't income tax offices (DGI) and since he was in our area agreed to help Clovis. We will meet him at 3:00 PM.

Then I was off with LouLou, Dor and Sylvern to see the staff houses. First stop though was to give my condolences to Maxi Charles president of the school parents committee. He lost a huge house in PAP, his mother in law and a granddaughter. I also passed on the prayers and the concern of the Board members to him.
My visits to the staff houses and surrounding neighbourhoods was quite interesting. I have wanted to get to some of the local communities since starting at VOH but was also caught up doing other things. The conditions I saw were like so many areas in rural Haiti and up in the mountains. Houses are still made with sticks and mud and with thatched rooves. Electricity is rare, wells great distances from the houses, very few latrines. Seeing these areas, where so many of the VOH students comes from, makes one appreciate all that much more what opportunities the VOH school and support bring to them. For sure there are other little school dotted here and there in the various areas, but very few if any, offer the same benefits that VOH does. It is no wonder that so many people line up in Sept to try to get their child registered at the school.
I am attaching two pictures taken from Mme Beauge. They are pretty typical views of the houses in the areas I visited and of the houses that a lot of our school kids live in. There are some concrete block houses with tin rooves but not a lot. I saw a number of the school kids as I drove around and they were all out playing around.

As I visited the various family clusters of house, the thought did go through my head that I would have to verify that what I was being shown really belonged to that particular staff member and not to maybe a different member of his /her family. People are so desparate for aid and help that they often go to any lengths to get it.....including telling little white lies...a sad but true reality. Walking in their shoes though, I may have been guilty of doing the same thing. It makes assisting people a little more challenging but it is worth it when so many are in such great need.

I went from terrain that was green and lush with big banana plants and other vegetation growing to areas where I half expected to see a giraffe sticking its head up from the thorn trees, it so reminded me of the dry scrubby lands of thorn trees and cactus I have visited in parts of Africa.

On the way back we stopped to visit Wadson (one of the university students) who is still recovering from injuries to his leg following the earthquake. He was running down some stairs from a 3rd floor balcony when some debris fell on him and trapped him in the building. Fortunately the fellow student who had been with him escaped unharmed and came back to look for Wadson. After about an hour he was freed from the debris, but only after someone took a hammer to the large block of concrete that was trapping his foot. No wonder his leg was swollen for some days afterward. He seemed to be doing okay and was getting ready to head out for a follow up visit at the clinic in Fond Parisien.

My last exploration was driving up a rocky road to Galette Chambon which is the area up behind the school. I recieved an email from a Pastor who is involved with a Baptist church in the area and he hadn't had any word so I told him I would see what I could find out. Again it was good to see as a number of our kids are also from this area. I found a church but since I had very little information to go on am not 100% it is the right one...although the fellow in charge assured me it was......he and several others were so hopeful that I would be bringing them something. The fellows including Pastor Claude (another member of the parents committee) who had joined us for this part of the trip, assured them I was just checking it out for someone else.

I made a quick visit to Marie's on my way back to see the progress being made on taking the church /orphanage down. I will include a picture of it....you won't recognize it from the pictures I first took...and think of the effort it took to take it down...all of it was done by fellow wielding large sledgehammers and regular hammers....a mighty feat for sure!

The day ended with a meeting with Clovis who had good news...BND has agreed for us to distribute the food in the depot to the students from K1 to grade 9. That is the policy for BND. We will start dividing up the food on Friday/Saturday and will do the distribution on Wed. We plan to get several police officers for security and will have plenty of people to help. The University students had called earlier in the day wondering it I had any projects for them....so now they are set to come and help bag the food and distribute it. Clovis is looking after all of the details and I will go and help as I can. Other good news is that we are 99% sure that we will get some relief kits from BND that we can give to the staff. I got that tip while listening into a conversation at Agape on Sat and called Clovis and asked him to check into it while he was asking about the school food.
I will also prepare a month or two of vitamins for each child to take home too.

The last bit of news was that the Ministry of Ed'n has decided that children at least in the West and Southwest depts when they will go back to school will be sitting in tents instead of the standing schools....even if they are checked out as being okay. The Ministry is to provide tents for the schools. No date is set for the beginning of school for us. Part of the reason for the use of tents is for psychological reasons. People are pretty panicked here about the possibilities of another huge earthquake....

and those folks are the highlights for today.

Debbie

Hello all:

As planned I made it to the university students housing today with 3 of them tagging along with us and three others arrived via tap tap as they were too late to get to us. I was expecting to see a lot more damage in the area as first reports said all of the surrounding houses collapsed, when actually most of them are standing...although with what damage inside who knows. They have pretty much cleared out their personal belongings. I left with a few items that we had there such as the small fridge, the propane burners and tank, several chairs and some dirty dishes. The smell in the kitchen which I attended to was pretty "high" ...food was still sitting on the dishes from the 12th. The cockroaches...(YUCH!) were having a field day. I will have to go another day to get the bunk beds and mattresses. The house was locked up quite well and I think they will be okay there for a little while longer. We would really need to take the big truck but with people camping in the streets it is difficult reconnoitering with a pick up let alone a big truck. Octere showed me where he and several of the other students had been studying in the house when the earthquake started. They were actually up on the roof balcony. Two of the others told me of their run from the Internet service they were at which was located quite close to the main Cathedral. None of them are sleeping too well and often wake up from bad dreams. Despite all of that there are signs of some good spirit as I heard them joking and laughing as we drove to the house.

Fighting traffic all the way we then headed to Petionville so I could get to Access Haiti to cancel the Internet service at my apt and also for the one we had at the student's house. It was my first time up and over that way and got to see first hand the destruction in that area. Some places just slid off the side of the mountains....to be truthful I was expecting to see more houses down than where....it's a miracle really considering how they are built so helter skelter on the sides of the hills.

The public park across from the Kinam Hotel is now turned into a campsite of a sorts (picture attached), and that is how it is in any of the public squares and parks. One of them that is down by the airport which last week was like a shanty town with all of the stick and sheet shelters is now organized into a nice orderly camp with big white tents furnished by the Taiwanese....or at least that is my presumption seeing the flag flying in the middle of the camp....picture attached. I imagine that we will see more of these types of camps as the IDP (internally displaced persons) camps get established.

People are busy taking down their ruined houses..with hammers, sledgehammers and their own brute strenght. It is tiring just watching them go at those big chunks of cement to break them up. Bulldozers and dump trucks are also busy with the clean up. Each time I see all of this I just keep shaking my head in disbelief....all of this as a result of 35 seconds of shaking!!! I just can't imagine what the sound of all that concrete crashing to the ground must have sounded like.

On the way home, we started the process of changing some money again and I also stopped to purchase some high blood pressure pills I neeed for several of our staff members.

other tidbits from the day:
Schools will reopen Monday in 8 out of the 10 departments (states/provinces)..the one's in the West and Southwest dept will remain closed. That will include VOH as we are in the West dept....which is the largest one of them all.
Gov't workers are scheduled to return back to work in two weeks.......I was going to say gov't offices will open in two weeks but that is difficult to say with so many of them destroyed
There is a lot of chatter on the radio about the rebuilding of Haiti......particularly looking at more decentralization of services, schools etc to other areas of the country. It will be interesting to see how things move along over the coming months and over the next year or two to come.
Digicel the big cell phone company here is giving away free phones and new numbers to all of those who lost their phones.....you can well imagine the lineup outside each of the Digicel offices...they are just about as long as the ones at the banks.
Shawn headed back to the States today. Jim dropped him at the airport and he was assured that yes he could get out today on one of the planes carrying AID in....he didn't know when he would leave or where he would end up but he got a ride out of Haiti....just had to show his American passport. Somone mentioned to Jim they are really trying to get organized so that the commercial flights can start again.


Photo 1: across the street from the student's house
Photo 2: campsite across from the Kinam Hotel at Place St Pierre in Petionville
Photo 3: upgraded campsite thanks to the Taiwanese

wow...it is already 6:30.....I must go and fire up the generator to boost up the invertor batteries and get our leftover pumpkin soup heated up for Jim and I.

until tomorrow.......we keep you in our prayers with thanks for all of your concern and efforts on our behalf.

Debbie

Hello all: Here I am back again..feeling somewhat refreshed from a little catnap I was able to take this afternoon, since my night "off" was not as restful as I had hoped. I have dinner in the oven cooking and have just cleaned up a big spill of sugar.....as if I needed to add that to my list of tasks......and now have a few minutes to send off my missive for the day.

I owe you for yesterday so lets start there. I headed out to Agape in what I thought was plenty of time but ended up arriving 1/2 hour late because the traffic was so horrendous..there were bottlenecks everywhere. The main bridge at Croix des Missions (right near us) is opened again and I would have thought it would help but no luck. I took a chance on heading up a back road I know and luckily there was little damage in that area so the road was relatively clear and I bypassed a big long line up on Dlelmas
It was good so see so many familiar faces at the office and to know so many survived...however like everywhere else, staff members or their families perished and many lost buildings or had a lot of damage. There were boxes of canned goods and other items that folks in the US had donated and we were each allowed to take a few items for our missions...I stalked up on Vienna sausage and a few other items. For all who mailed birthday wishes..thanks for the beautiful cards.

From their I proceeded to CARITAS which is a Catholic NGO. A friend, Katja, that I worked with at HAS came from Germany to work with them. She is residing at Delmas 65 and going out to Leogane (southwest of PAP ) each day. She said that the town is about 80% destroyed. There are a number of AID agencies setting up medical services.....MSF, CARITAS another German organization and a Cdn one. She thinks soon they will be tripping over each other. We had a short but nice visit and then I dropped off mail for some other friends and headed home. As I drove along I was thinking about a life worth living as a result of a comment my sister in law made. It was reassuring to see signs of life going on in Haiti and that for many it still is a life worth living. I passed a car that was getting loaded up with a bride in all her fine bridal regalia and her "marin" /maid of honour making sure the gown didn't touch the dirty ground. Another fellow I took note of was strolling along with his dry cleaning slung over his shoulder, heading for home. The streets are busy with vendors selling their everyday whares.......Katja's comment was if you didn't see all of the crushed buildings you would not get the impression that anything happened. For sure there are and will be many challenges to face but seeing these signs of "life" keeps one from throwing their hands up in total despair but instead urges you to keep on fighting the good fight.

Today as planned we headed out to church with Dumas, Jorel and Elysee...our discussion being whether to have church in the chapel or under the trees since people are encouraged not to meet in buildings. After some careful thought we decided to use the chapel but sat in the last pews where the flooring was over solid ground, instead of at the front where it was over two other classrooms. Everyone felt comfortable with this....we adults were more concerned than the kids. I am attaching a picture of one of the girls who got up and sang...at the point in the service where anyone who wishes to sing can. Her comment before singing was that she had no riches or "things" to offer to the Lord but that she could offer up her voice by singing a song of praise and adoration for Him. I was quite touched by her comments.

Followig the church service I met with the University students whom I hadn't seen since the earthquake although I have talked to several on the phone. It was good to see them but I also came away with a heavy heart feeling so badly for them. Here are a bunch of shining young people who had so much going for them and a bright future ahead of them. ..now the rug has literally been pulled from under them. I think you can imagine how discouraged and disheartened they are feeling....not only are the dealing with the trauma suffered during the earthquake but also dealing with the realities of a very different future than they had envisioned. Post secondary schooling has been pretty much wiped out as the majority it was based in PAP. There are a few in Cap Haitian and in the south at Les Cayes....but nothing that would be able to cope with setting up a whole new post secondary education system. Many of the school owners, directors, deans etc were killed in their buildings. So the ramifications are immense and one wonders how many months/years it will take to get things going again. It was hard to try to give them words of support and encouragement when I can understand perfecty their concerns.

The only student not to attend was Wadson who is still having problems with his injured foot, suffered as he was running to get out of this classroom. I am going to try to go by his house on Tues when I am out in Ganthier.

Afterward while talking to Jorel and Elysee I noticed a crack in the wall of the chapel and then they pointed out a second one in the same area on the other side. They have appeared since after the earthquake because they weren't there when I first checked. There is a crack in the floor but it has been there for awhile but we all think it looks a bit bigger than it was. It doesn't appear that it is major damage but will definately keep an eye on it.. I remembered that one of our high school teachers is an engineer so I am going to ask Clovis to ask him to come for a first "official" inspection....hopefully sometime during the week.

I passed by my house today and found that my Dominican neighbours had returned. There generator is a blessing for them since there is not other source of electricity. For now they are getting water from the reserve tank in the yard.......no electricity..no motor to run the well pump to get water into our rooftop holding tanks. They were happy to see me and had even watered my plants for me. They said 5 out of 6 of the industrial buildings where they work are still standing, only the one collapsed and very few lost their lives there. The work is starting up again which is a great thing for so many who count on the pay envelopes from those jobs.....let alone all of the street vendors that also "live" off of them.

Now the day is done and another week about to start. I already have a number of chores lined up so know it will also be a busy one.

take care.....until tomorrow
Debbie

Yahoo....hallelujah....break out the champagne.....the payroll for January by hook or by crook is done. Everyone got all of their salary in gourdes excpet for Clovis who has a portion of each..doing that I was able to reserve some gourdes for me for operating expenses. Now I will start to work to gather the gourdes necessary for Feb.....I figure it will be more of the same process. I tried one bank today...closed. The other I tried the drive through teller (yes we have them in Haiti) but the line up was long. We sat for 1/2 hour and didn't move. Finally they allowed two more cars into the line inside the bank area and then locked the gate once again. At this point I knew I would never reach the teller and get to my meeting on time. The pedestrian line up was even longer. I will try one day next week when I can get their early!

On the way to the meeting I stopped at the office of our Internet provider....first of all I was happy to see it standing and second that it was functional. I spoke with the manager as I had to see about changing our billing procedure. I learned that the banking/credit card system is not functional at all right now so it is impossible to make any changes. He said it was no use even trying the automatic tellers as they just spit the cards back out. I asked him how he fared following the earthquake. His house was okay but his parents were not so lucky...he lost his dad but managed to rescue his mother from the rubble after three days...such indredible stories.!! Speaking of which, I wonder if you heard back home that they pulled a teenage girl alive, from some wreckage late yesterday afternoon. It was reported she said she survived due to a bottle of coke that she had to sip on during the 15 days she was buried......how can I even think about moaning and groaning over a cracked rib!

Nest stop was Hopital Espoir which is an area inside of Delmas 75. The neighbourhood there seemed to have relatively little damage.The hospital had a few cracks but several different teams of engineers deemed it okay to use. They were packed and had people laying on mattresses or some sort of bed out in the parking...covered with various bit of tarp, sheets..whatever could be used. One of the patients I noted was on a wooden pallet resting on 4 concrete blocks. All seemed to be in order and Gladys had lots of help from various teams. Each day she was sending out a mobile team to various areas in the city. By the sounds of it the hospital and clinics are getting more organized and coordinated...sharing resources and getting a good network going so they could know where to send folks for follow up care. Not to many members of the Association turned up but those that were there had good information to share. One of the topics discussed was the need for care for the common everyday health needs of the people. as they have been getting "lost" with all of the efforts geared toward the emergency relief.....now the need is turning from surgeons and such teams to general medecine doctors and care givers to tend to all of the other problems. They also spoke of the need for follow up care, rehabillitation and psychological support for those so traumatized by the earthquake. So the need will go on for extra medical assistance for some weeks to come. We also spoke about the challenges of medical waste management, and the lack of hygiene due to the lack of toilet facilities. Some reported having built small incinerators out of drums and having mobile toilets set up. As you can guess the challengs are many!

Coming home it was a repeat of the last few days..stopping at various places to see about changing money and also looking for unleaded fuel to fill the car......I managed to get both done...so it was a bonus day for me today!

Jim and Shawn report that Marie has a crew starting to demolish the church/orphanage. Shawn said it was just incredible watching the fellows work hour after hour in the hot sun, wielding the sledge hammers breaking up the chunks of block/concrete.....all with no safety helmets, gloves, shoes etc..he said several of the fellows just wore rubber thongs.....can you imagine how the Occupational Health and Safety experts would shudder at this.

I think this is all I have to report for today......

domi byen (sleep well)
Debbie

Hello again:

There is not a whole lot to report on today......just another day "in paradise"..at least for Jim and Shawn who heard it was minus some degrees back home with the wind chill factor.

Jean worked his miracles again finding parts to fix up the pick up truck. He also used his battery booster and my car to charge up the battereis in Marie's car. The fellows went to leave this AM and got stuck when the engine wouldn't turn over. I benefitted as they helped me with the final additions to the staff relief packages. I think they should be pretty pleased with them...(to my earthquake team your left behind clothes - nicely laundered- are now distributed between all of the bags along with a few items I found. Pictures are attached...as you will see Opie, the Hope House cat took full advantage of the bags.....that cat will sleep anywhere!

The bags are a hefty weight now with all of the goodies in them and I was moaning and groaning away as we lifted them out and into the depot...why was I groaning you ask. Well due to a stupid move on my part yesterday as I was putting items away in the freezer, I heard this popping sound and then a take away your breath pain on the rigth side of my chest.......I think I did heavy damage to one of my ribs. Shawn asked what one does for a broken rib and I said grin and bear it and suffer in silence...but what fun is that....so I groaned away!!!

Worked on the payroll .....making good progress but had to go on the prowl once again to change funds...it is now down to changing the dollars by the 100;s instead of the 1,000's. I lucked out at the two places I hit and my trusty helper also found some. Joel did a great job this AM hitting to local market lady stands to get me small change. So it really is a team effort getting the pay envelopes prepared for this month.

We now have our reserve of 50-60 gallons of diesel fuel...that is a nice cushion to have.

I stopped at Little Children of Jesus, dropping off a few more supplies for Gladys. As I was heading down the road three of the US Army soldier transport vehicles (low and WIDE) were heading out. I learned just afterward from Gladys that they had been to visit her as they were wanting to use some of the property to set up some sort of camp. She was getting ready to leave so I didn't get all of the details..but she was very hesitant about having all of the activity around the kids. I'll keep you posted as to what takes place.

The Agape office will be open for mail this Sat AM and they will have relief supplies. They asked for volunteers so I quickly let them know I would be there......maybe I will get some of the supplies...whatever they may be. Plus it will be nice to get mail...I just hope I have some! I'll take advantage of being over on Delmas to check out what stoers may be open again, see if the offices for our Internet provider are still standing etc etc.

Tomorrow I will attend a meeting of the Association of Christian Medical care providers in Haiti. They are meeting to see how as a group we can get some relief supplies to help each of us with our work.

.and that folks is the news for today.

Photos: Shawn putting a pair of socks in each of the bags......heh Pennsylvania team if you have any odd socks at home chances are I have the partner here..how I emded up with so many singles is beyone me!!!
Debbie preparing small bottles of Chlorox for staff to have to put drops into drinking water if they can't get Culligan or some other brand of filtered water
Opie taking it easy ......ah wouldn't I like the life of that cat right now....

pleasant dreams
Debbie

Howdy one and all: The day is quickly drawing to an end. This will be my last "official" duty for the day. The early AM was spent getting the household staff organized and speaking with the wall repair people complimenting them on their fine work but also asking that they put a little more energy into it so we can get the job done. It is about halfway (picture included to show you the progress) . Delivered Shawn and Jim down to Marie's and returned for my meeting with Clovis.

It was very productive. He was at a meeting with the Minister of Ed'n yesterday. According to his report 95% of the schools in PAP and area are completely destroyed. or had such extensive damage that they will have to be demolished..this includes the universities as well. The gov't stance for now is that all schools will remain closed until further notice. They don't want students, teachers or other groups to meeting under any roofed in areas. The Inspectors are to work in their areas and with engineers to have the schools in the area inspected. Once the Minister has those reports a decision will be made as to when schools may open. Clovis estimates that we won't know anything more until sometime in March or beginning of April. We talked about enrichment, feeding program etc at the school but for now we feel it is best that we hold off for now and there are a number of reasons for that....no propane to cook food, lack of supervision (teachers are spread far and wide...some have reached family as far away as Cap Haitian, Gonaives, Mirabelais and other parts of the country). Now that he knows the Ministers stance he is heading to BND tomorrow to request that we be able to give out dry rations for the students. We think this would be better because then whatever they get can be shared with their families. He will call me tomorrow or give me an update Fri when we distribute the pays and relief packages we made up.

Oh before I forget for those of you who were wondering Clovis bumped into Jorel and Madelaine Renee and learned they were OK as is their house.

He also told me the gov't announcements are encouraging people not to sleep in their houses...one of the reasons so many little tent cities are popping up and that no meeting should be held inside buildings. I passed one church yesterday that had all its benches in an empty yard and the minister standing at the pulpit preaching to anyone walking by who was listening.

Going to the bank is practically impossible unless you want to be on the road before 5 AM to get to the bank to be in line by 5AM. He was all prepared to go with his bank book in hand and then just said forget it! I read in one report the banks are even low on money, so how long they function is another question. Before opening they informed everyone that transactions would be limited to 2,500 USD or 100,000 HTG. Clovis gave me another contact where he thought I could change money but when I got there the fellow who owns one of the small market stores was unable to give me anything. However I did take advantage then of having that money in hand and did some grocery shopping.......the place was busy and shelves emptying quicky......except for the cleaning supplies and hardware aisles. Several of the bakeries are functioning as a new delivery of bread was being put on the shelves as we shopped. I picked up dog food......felt a little funny about that in light of the situation but Hopie is a GREAT guard dog.. so we have to take care of her. We are all set now, especially with emergency supply that Jim brought......little did I think I would find it here. I was happy to find the special water for the invertor batteries and picked up several gallons of that for Jean.

On the way home, we passed a group handing out water from the back of a large truck. Three US army fellows were there overseeing the distribution. It was heartwarming to see the orderly fashion that everyone was standing in line waiting their turn. This is a big change....normally something like this would cause utter bedlam with people pushing and shoving to get theri bit of the action. Maybe because so many people are in the same boat, there is more comraderie and willingness to help each other....people share what little they have with everyone.

Learned today from several folks trying to get to Haiti that American Airlines commercial flights are pushed back now to Feb 19 and may even be pushed back again into March. I am keeping close tabs as several Mission teams are scheduled to come during Feb/Mar. We will keep our fingers crossed.

I see that I have sort of gone off on one tangeant to another...not surprising because that is how my days seems to go.

To finish off today I will share a story about one of our teachers and another friend. I asked Clovis about her today as I knew she was ready to deliver her child sometime in January. Sure enough she did and was discharged from the hospital where she delivered the baby, on Jan 11........Jan 12 came with the earthquake and now that hospital is just a pile of rubble.....can you imagine what must have gone through her mind?!

I have been working with Mme Nazaire the Director of Nursing at the National School of Nursing. I was dreading the worst when I learned the building had collapsed. Last week I called her and nothing. This week I tried again and with what delight I heard her voice. She was at home on sick leave when the earthquake struck. Her house is damaged but still standing with two other houses leaning on it. She is now living out of her car and on the street with her neighbours. She was heartsick to learn that only 27 people escaped the wreckage at the school and over 60 nursing students, a doctor and one of her teachers were killed. The loss is just so overwhelming....and it hits home all that much more when it is related to people you know personally.

It is rather a disheartening way to end, but this is the reality of Haiti these days.

Keep the prayers coming.

until tomorrow....Debbie

Hi all: Surprise...I am unexpectedly able to get the daily message to you. Things went quicker than expected and I am already back at Hope House with Jim and Shawn our two friends from Naperville, Ill who came to be with Marie and to bring some much needed supplies for each of us. Now I wil be able to sleep easier knowing for sure I can meet our payroll on time. I know our employees will be very relieved to get their pays. Joseph and I got to the border around 1:30 or so...wanted to be there in plenty of time just in case Jim and Shawn got there quicker than expected. As it was they arrived around 4:00. I was so relieved to see Shawn walking toward me in his bright orange t-shirt. No longer did I have to be pondering over how long we would wait if they didn't get there by nightfall. We quickly transferred their bags and were on our way back to Santo 3. Time at the border was not boring as we watched the various and sundry vehicles go by..the AIDE vehicle were driving right through...no passport check at all. We heard a tirade from two Haitian "business ladies" protesting over the exhorbitant fees the customs fellows wanted to charge them to bring their truck load of goods into Haiti....truly highway robbery and we know where the cash was going...certainly not into gov't coffers. I also took advantage of the time to work on payroll slips and envelopes. We also lucked out due to Joseph's hawk eye. He caught site of something going on and ran to check it out. Turns out a large truck carrying bags of bottled water had a flat tire and had to offload the water, so whoever had the truck was giving it away. Joseph scored a bag for his family and then I asked him to run back and he managed to get three more bags that we will distribute to the staff.

I took the two gents down for a quick visit to Marie and the girls before they joined me for dinner. They will bed down here for the night and get themselves organized in the AM. Both were pretty beat from their long journey to get here....they have been on the road since 2:30 yesterday afternoon. The drive from the DR airport to the border alone took about 5 hours or so.

Before heading to the border I was handing out kob ($$$) of varying amts.left and right.....Christophe needed more cement, Jean needed to buy car parts as the pick up truck would not start this AM, Joel was getting me phone cards, Joseph filled my car with gasoline (Jean took him to meet our "friendly gas station people" . Jean and I also decided to buy a drum so we could fill it with reserve diesel so he got funds for that. We want to be prepared for a few weeks down the road..just in case new tankers of fuel are unable to unload at the port. More and more stations are open but when the present stock runs out then what....so we are taking action and hope we don't need it..... it was a flurry of activity that is for sure.

I also got through more of the back log of correspondence. For all of you who have sent messages and have yet to recieved a response....please forgive me. I could be sitting at the computer non stop if I wanted to, but other duties call. Please know your messages of concern, prayers etc are very much appreciated. It is they that give me energy at times to "keep on keeping on".

I will attach a couple of more pictures.....a sample of the road that all of the supply/AIDE vehicles must pass along to get to PAP (not far from the border by Lake Azuie) , My bankers (the men in orange) greeting Marie and Joseph happy with his "catch" of the day.

that's it for today...wishing you a restful night.