Haiti missions
Tortug Air strikes again! Tortug overbooked the flight for Team Three. Fortunately the plane Wade is using to shuttle medical supplies to Jeremie was in town. The team hitches a ride back to Port au Prince even though the seats had been removed to accommodate freight. They made it back on time for the connecting flight to Miami, Chicago, and Indianapolis.
As Team 3 left the work site, here are the latest pictures.
The water treating system is finished and
David sampled the water and lived.
The septic tank including the new drain field is finished.
Debi and her crew got the garden/atrium cleaned and ready for plants. She also got the front yard cleaned and used the scrap concrete to pave the driveway. In addition, they cleared an area for the kitchen garden. The electrical room to house the generator and batteries is almost finished.
The doors and windows are finished.
The kitchen countertops are almost done, the tile in the bathroom including the counter tops is almost finished, the painting of the interior is almost finished.
In spite of all the almosts, the orphanage is beginning to look like a house.
David, Bill, Elisabeth, Jackie, Carla, Pat, and Bob finally made it home on Monday. We had to upgradse everyone to First Class tickets in order to get out of Port au Prince. Apparently TortugAir is not the only airline that has overbooked flights in Haiti. American Airlines said they were overbooked for the next two weeks. The team decided that as nice as the cookies were in First Class they really were not worth the price we paid but coming home was priceless.
First let me apologize for the lack of blogs. We have been stuck in Port au Prince since Saturday and internet, although available is so slow that it is imposible to get anything done.
Saturday, Tortug overbooked the flight from Jeremie to Port au Prince and by the time we negotiated a second plane and it arrived we were 2 1/2 hours late getting to Port au Prince. A/A had closed the ticket counter and we missed the plane. We were on standby for the 4:00pm flight and did not get on. We were on standby for all the flights on Sunday and did not get on. Finally on Monday we upgraded everyone to First Class and we have tickets in hand. It is now 5:30am and we plan to leave soon for the airport for our noon flight.
Say a prayer that the team may safely depart and return home.
The guesthouse here in PaP ia jnned packed with teams, mostly non Methodist medical teams. We had 47 last night with thirty five beds and standing room only for meals. Donette is doing a wonderful job of accomodating everyone including putting up a half dozen at her home.
Port au Prince is functioning but things are difficult. Many gas stations are not operating and the price of gas is out of sight. In Jeremie we were paying nearly $0 per gallon and many people were buying from street vendors who had horded gas in soda pop bottles.
Team two is still in Jeremie and will continue the work on Monday.
The nurses went to Rouseux on a mobile medical mission. They saw about 50 or 80 patients.
The construction team painted and worked on the drain field for the septic system David trained Peter, Marc and Mode on the operation of the water treating system.
The second team arrived safely, on time and with all their luggage. Jeannie, Mom and Dad are safely in Jeremie. The team spent a good day working in spite of running out of materials. Elisabeth helped David with banking and shopping duties. Bill learned the fine art of stucco application. Bob & Bob, Janet, and Elisabeth helped sand and paint. The weather is hot 32C as we left for work at 8:00am. The UN broke the afternoon boredom by air dropping food and clothing with no on the ground supervision.
Pastor Dorcely went to Diri (3/12 hours) David, Cassie, Pastor Jackie, and Ephesian Le Pierre went to Bernard (1 1/2 hours) Carla, Jackie, and Pat went with Mode to the downtown church. The Bernard church is past Chiraque and the road deteriorates the further you go. The church building is in poor condition and needs to be replaced. The church was packed with about 50 people. Could this be a future project?
Gail, Jenifer and Charlotte left this morning for Port au Prince, Miami, Chicago and Indianapolis. Bon Voyage!
Carla, Pat, Jackie spent the day resting, knitting and reading. David pidlled the morning away doing plumbing repairs at the guesthouse. After lunch we walked down to the local convenience store for a resupply of snacks.
David met Alexander and went for a tour of Jeremie by motorbike. David went to visit Goblet’s house and met with his “Uncle”, who turns out to be a legitimate cousin. We then went to see a house that Alexander has arranged for some earthquake victims from Port au Prince. It was destitute, only a very small tin shanty with holes in the roof that you could stick your hand through. There were two “houses” with seven people in each from a four different families. The people were a mix of elderly and very young children who had lost all their remaining relatives. We then went to visit Marc’s house. Marc is a long time friend and worker on many projects. In spite of other reports, he says that his house was damaged during the earthquake. In any case one wall of his very small home has a 1″ crack in the wall and the wall is not plumb. He has asked for assistance in fixing the house. The front wall is block and in good shape. the side and the back walls are wooden posts (half eaten by termites) with stone and concrete filler between the posts. The onloy remedy is to tear it down and start over. All in all a very depressing afternoon.
The work continues. The water system is basically complete with one minor problem. The new power supply will not supply enough amps. We were able to run then unit powered from a motorcycle so we will purchase a 12 volt battery and charger and go back to the original design. This only proves that sometimes the more sophisticated design is NOT BETTER. Painting continues with two bedrooms complete and a good start on the third.
The team knocked off early and went to the beach at Bon Bon. Choosing the beach at Bon Bon instead of the regular beach at Azure must of been a God thing because on the way home they stopped to watch a charter plane with a US flag painted on the tail land at Jeremie International. As it turned out, the pilot was delivering the new generator for the orphanage. It was nearly dark and he had to get it unloaded and so he could take off before dark (there are no light on the runway). Mode was on her way with the pickup but stuck in traffic behind a stalled truck. So the team, and several hired Haitians unloaded the very heavy generator and put it in the back of the Landcruiser.
Jenifer was excited to swim in the ocean for the first time.
Poulle arrivee!
THE CHICKS HAVE ARRIVED!
We took delivery of 500 two-day old chicks. They will provide eggs for the orphanage, eggs for sale, and when the population grows, meat for the table. Pictures of the chicks to follow.
