Sun. Jan 24
In the morning we went to Patty and John's church: Christ the Rock Community Church. It was a great time of fellowship and worship with wonderful music. During the service they said that four members of the church were going with a medical team to Haiti, so we went to a meeting of the whole team at another church. It was so encouraging – there were 23 doctors and nurses in all who were going to a small hospital just in Haiti close to the Dominican border. They were very organized and well prepared, so we just shared a few suggestions with them.
Later in the afternoon, John and I went to an auto parts store to get an oil filter for my Toyota diesel truck. They do not sell this model in the US, so I was afraid about not being able to find the right one, but when I asked the salesman he said he was Jamaican and that his father had the same truck. He called a friend and looked it up on the internet and gave me the right filter!
The other salesperson at the store turned out to be Haitian and she asked me to help her get money to her relatives who live in Petionville which is only about ½ hour from where I live.
I finally got a nap on Sunday afternoon and woke up in time to see the Jets and Vikings loose their playoff bids.
In the evening we had a delightful time with Carol's cousins: Patsy and her husband, John; her daughter Jennifer and her husband Derek; and Jerry, Patricia brother and his wife, Bev.
Both Jennifer and Mike expressed interest in helping us find some things I wanted to take back to Haiti. Jerry owns a motorcycle parts business and gave me some battery chargers, tools and gloves. Jennier works at a school and sent around an e-mail asking for donations. She also went to her mother who works in the medical field and got a bunch of things like children's Tylenol, etc.
It is amazing how God has blessed us with such a wonderful family there for us when we needed them most.
Monday, Jan 25
Carol left for PA to fly to Philadelphia to be with Ricky in the morning. Because Carol's cousin Patricia is retired, she had time to help me visit lots of businesses and ask for donations for Haiti. So after we dropped Carol off, I went home and wrote a letter asking for donations and attached a list of items we needed the most.
Patsy was not shy about asking for the store managers at many different stores, and Office Max gave us a donation of pens and scissors while we waited. The other store managers were very nice, but said they would have to check with their corporate office before they could donate.
That evening I called some of my family and supporters and we watched the Miami Heat loose to LeBron James by 1 point.
I also tried to contact MFI to see when I could get back to Haiti and was notified that my best chance was Wednesday because a big team had canceled their reservation.
Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010
Since I only had one day left before I was to leave, we had to set some priorities. I wanted to get some parts for my truck & generator, and also get some items I thought most relief organizations would not think of.
High on my list was Walkie-Talkies because cell phone did not work well in Haiti even 10 days after the event, and I really needed reliable communication with other missionaries and my Haitian co-workers.
Also, I wanted to try and set up security teams in the refugee camps that I knew of because there have been reports of robbers coming at night and not only stealing money, but small children as well.
So after we got the parts, we went to Jerry's motorcycle parts store and picked up what he was donating. Then we stopped in a uniform store to see if they had any security uniforms and how much they would cost. The clerk said they had no uniforms there, but directed us to their main store and warehouse about 40 minutes from there.
So we took the time to drive there, and we were very glad we did! After waiting for the manager to come back from lunch, we told him what we were trying to do and he talked to the owner who gave us everything we wanted at wholesale! We got a complete uniform with pants, shirts with patches and a cap for under $15 each! He also told us where we could get some pepper spray so that our security personnel could defend themselves if needed.
After waiting an hour for them to sew the patches on, we headed back home and then went out to dinner at a fast-food place before starting to pack for Haiti.
Next to the fast-food place was a “Play-it-again-Sports” store so I went in and asked if they could give me any equipment. They gave me a pair of goalie gloves, and said they would look for more.
Later that night as we were packing, Jennifer and Derek came by with all kinds of great medical supplies from Derek's Mom. In all we packed four 50 Lb. Suitcases with stuff, not knowing how much MFI would allow us to take.
It was almost 11 PM by the time we finished packing and by that time I was so awake, I could not sleep. I tried to close my eyes, but did not sleep soundly.
Wednesday, Jan 26
Patricia woke me up at 3:45AM so we could get up to Ft. Pierce by 6 AM for the flight. John drove me up in his pickup because the four big suitcases were too big for their car.
When we got to MFI, they said the plane was not full, so they allowed me to take all my suitcases for free! This was a tremendous blessing.
As I boarded the Hendrick Motorsport plane once again there was Laura the stewardess to greet me!
During the flight I helped a medical team learn some basic Creole, and got caught up writing this journal.
On the plane I met two medical teams. One of Podiatrists and the other had a hand surgeon among them. I helped one of the nurses learn some creole, and spoke to her about some of the cultural nuances I've learned. For instance, when talking with a child, in US culture, you want them to look you in the eyes so you are sure you have their attention. But in Haitian culture it is disrespectful for a child to look an adult directly in the eyes.
After we landed I lent my phone to one of the teams so they could hook up with their ride, but ironically had trouble connecting with my ride. Finally I got someone on the phone and found out that they did not have me marked down for a ride, so I sat at the airport for an hour and 30 minutes waiting in the dust.
There's lots of activity at the airport – helicopters flying overhead, fork lifts moving supplies around, planes landing and taking off. But I was too tired to enjoy all the excitement.
Unfortunately, I had to wait 3 hours before my ride from the airport showed up. However, during that time I meet a group of men from a NY church that was installing water systems so I made an appointment with them for the next day to go and see some of the refugee camps I was working with.
I also looked around at the shipments that came in and found a large generator that was sent to my Crossworld colleagues. I called them and they knew nothing about it, so they asked me to put it on the truck that came to pick me up and take it to QCS.
The free Hendrick Motorsports flights end on Saturday, Jan 30 so we are trying to find another way for Carol to get into Haiti on February 4th.
Thursday, Jan 28
Since I got very little sleep the night before I returned to Haiti, I slept “Late” and got up about 8 AM.
I went over to the QCS control center and a team begged to use my truck. So I let them use it and borrowed another friend's truck to go and get the water team I had met the previous day. Our first stop was Ronald William's camp. It turned out that they had a huge source of water, but that it was controlled by the State water company, CAMEP. The French and Canadians had already come and inquired about filtering the water, so it didn't seem like the ideal place to install one of my friend's systems. Then we went to see my other friend's neighborhood: Pierre Belgarde. He did not have a good source of water, so their system would not work their either. Later I talked with them and they might have smaller systems we could use in these places.
That night, Kim Hargrove, a former teacher at QCS and her fiance John stayed over at our house.
Another young Haitian man named Ti Frere also stayed over at our house that night because he had to leave very early in the morning to catch a bus to Cap Haitian. Ecde's brother, Jean, and cousin, Paules, were going to go with him.
Friday, Jan 29
We got up at 4:30 AM and packed up Jean, Ti Frere and Paules to go to Cap Haitian. Then we picked up an 87 year old woman named Virginie from a local hospital and drove her across town to the Coast Guard station so she could catch a helicopter to Cap Haitian to fix her broken hip. It turned out the US had sent an aircraft carrier with lots of helicopters to help with the relief efforts and they were using many of them to transport patients. My young friend Ecdes went with me.
Since there was some time between when we arrived and the helicopter came, I took the opportunity to share the Gospel with her and her nephew. There were several interruptions, but it seemed like they were really understanding what I was saying and the Bible verses I was showing them. When I asked them it they would like to trust in Christ, they both said yes!
After this exciting time, I explained to them that they would be flying to Cap Haitian, a town on the north coast where Virginie would be operated on. I also gave them some money for food and transportation if they needed it.
On our way home we dropped off a large tarp & 2 beds at Bolosse for the Vaillant family and visited his restaurant and house. Both were badly damaged and could not be used. For now the restaurant is closed, but we are trying to find a place to prepare food so he can keep his catering business going.
We also stopped to buy phone cards and found out the man selling the cards had a sick son at home. He went and got his son and we took him to a clinic and got him treated. He was so cute and said “MESI” after the nurse treated him. While there we found out that robbers had tried to break into the clinic twice in the past week. I had purchased some security uniforms in Florida and offered to give them 5 sets and some tear gas spray so they could defend themselves. They were very appreciative and felt like God had answered their prayers.
That afternoon, both Ecdes and I took a nap. After the nap we woke up and went to QCS to pick up the president of our AIS regional committee in Gonaives. He wanted to come to PAP to see the damage and encourage us, and also to plan how our AIS leaders in Gonaives could help the refugees there. Later we went to an orphanage to play some soccer. They asked me to referee a match and after wards, we got to play a little until it got dark. Afterwards we picked up Kim & John at QCS and went home and collapsed.
Saturday, June 30
Today we went to Leogane, another town outside of Port-au-Prince that had been badly damaged by the earthquake. Last year we started and AIS ministry there and set up a regional committee of 5 leaders. Nesly, Ronald William, Jimmy and his cousin went with me. When we got there we were very saddened to hear all our leaders there had suffered. One leader's house collapsed on his wife and she died. They were married for 15 years, and had no children.
Another leader's house was full of friends and family. They heard the house start to crack ran out before it totally collapsed.
But the most touching story was of the young lady who is the treasurer of our regional committee. She was at work when the earthquake hit and escaped unhurt. But when she got home, she found her house totally collapsed. Her husband told her that he had their 3-month old baby in his arms when the earthquake hit. Their house totally collapsed and he hit the floor with the baby underneath him in his arms. He yelled to let people know that he was not killed and they ran and got a car jack to jack up the cement roof so they could get him and the baby out! (See picture).
We helped them make a plan to organize the tent communities they were living in and also told them we would try and come with a team of young people to help them sift through the rubble for their belongings.
We also gave them a love gift and asked them to do a survey of needs in the communities where they lived to see how we could help.
While visiting their houses, we came upon one of their neighbor who had an badly swelled foot. He said it had been like this since the earthquake! So we went around looking or a clinic to take him to. We finally found a Canadian military field hospital that would help him.
On our way home, we stopped at the Bolosse campus and talked to Elysee Vaillant about the idea of putting together a team of youth to help our friends in Leogane. We set it up for next Wednesday, Lord Willing.
Then I took everyone who had helped me out to eat at Epi d'or, a bakery near us.
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