Daze 1/2
Greetings from Jeremie. We have had a busy day. . .departed Port au Prince at 8:00 am and arrived Jeremie around 8:45 am. Our 6 pax manifest was outweighed by all the duffels filled with meds and other leave-behinds. . .and, still, the hearty puddle-jumping Caravan shrugged the lot of us off.
We have a large, growing and loyal ground crew in Jeremie, which help us tackle ever-bigger work lists. We pay them, of course, but try not to foul up the local wage scale. . .best to think Henry Ford’s rates when in Haiti. We also prepare and share lunch every working day. We’d be lost without them. Before this week’s blog is finished, I promised to share a picture of THE team.
We spent the entire day creating thousands of pill bags across 50 different medicines and vitamins the Haitian Docs will prescribe in the mobile medical clinics we have planned for Chiraque and Testas this week. Tomorrow, we’re at church in the morning and then off to the Good Samaritan Elder Care facility and the Jeremie Jail. Some might wonder about the latter. . .one of our Haitian friends simply described it as Hell, and there are many waiting 2-3 years for their first hearing. . .young and old alike. We’ve conducted a mobile medical there before, and helped the Warden change his facility to allow the inmates more outdoor time. And we’ve engaged local counsel on behalf of young inmates accused of incredibly small offenses, successfully.
Before the week is out, we’ll be in Roseaux helping put the finishing touches on a boys’ dormitory building at an orphanage (did the same on another dormitory last year), and visit the village of David. This is a village far enough off the beaten track that is gets no medical visits, and has terrible infrastructure. . .there is an “open air” church building that wouldn’t survive a serious blow, and isn’t suitable to host school classes during the week. We have the seed money now to begin construction of a proper church, and will kick this project off on Thursday morning.
I will say now that this new church can be built for $30k, and that the villagers are contributing their labors to the effort. We have seed money enough to complete the church foundation. We would be grateful for contributions to fully fund this project. Nancy and I will tonight fund 25% of the remainder. Who might come along? For those thinking about it, I can only say seeing the faces of the villagers of Chiraque after their church - destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 - rebuilt in 6 months, well, it is “hope and faith” rewarded.
When we are here, sharing what we have is so very easy to do.
P.S. I should mention that, on our take-off from Atlanta, we were halfway down the runway when the pilot slammed on the brakes. . .one of those darn “telltale” lights in the cockpit apparently told him “uh, not today”. 4 hours later, we resumed our trip to Port au Prince, uneventfully. Another small tale for “Life in the Lastlane”!!
We have a large, growing and loyal ground crew in Jeremie, which help us tackle ever-bigger work lists. We pay them, of course, but try not to foul up the local wage scale. . .best to think Henry Ford’s rates when in Haiti. We also prepare and share lunch every working day. We’d be lost without them. Before this week’s blog is finished, I promised to share a picture of THE team.
We spent the entire day creating thousands of pill bags across 50 different medicines and vitamins the Haitian Docs will prescribe in the mobile medical clinics we have planned for Chiraque and Testas this week. Tomorrow, we’re at church in the morning and then off to the Good Samaritan Elder Care facility and the Jeremie Jail. Some might wonder about the latter. . .one of our Haitian friends simply described it as Hell, and there are many waiting 2-3 years for their first hearing. . .young and old alike. We’ve conducted a mobile medical there before, and helped the Warden change his facility to allow the inmates more outdoor time. And we’ve engaged local counsel on behalf of young inmates accused of incredibly small offenses, successfully.
Before the week is out, we’ll be in Roseaux helping put the finishing touches on a boys’ dormitory building at an orphanage (did the same on another dormitory last year), and visit the village of David. This is a village far enough off the beaten track that is gets no medical visits, and has terrible infrastructure. . .there is an “open air” church building that wouldn’t survive a serious blow, and isn’t suitable to host school classes during the week. We have the seed money now to begin construction of a proper church, and will kick this project off on Thursday morning.
I will say now that this new church can be built for $30k, and that the villagers are contributing their labors to the effort. We have seed money enough to complete the church foundation. We would be grateful for contributions to fully fund this project. Nancy and I will tonight fund 25% of the remainder. Who might come along? For those thinking about it, I can only say seeing the faces of the villagers of Chiraque after their church - destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 - rebuilt in 6 months, well, it is “hope and faith” rewarded.
When we are here, sharing what we have is so very easy to do.
P.S. I should mention that, on our take-off from Atlanta, we were halfway down the runway when the pilot slammed on the brakes. . .one of those darn “telltale” lights in the cockpit apparently told him “uh, not today”. 4 hours later, we resumed our trip to Port au Prince, uneventfully. Another small tale for “Life in the Lastlane”!!
Comments
Post a Comment