Promise for Haiti

February 3, 2012

Bonswa…Greetings from the north central plateau.

The last team from Hope arrived Thursday afternoon.
They got settled and started in on the school bench project.
There was a possibility they would have to move to the dorm at
the hospital because of the lack of water in the compound.
The workers were having a difficult time finding the leak in t
he water system. They moved their bags into the MN dorm but
didn’t unpack until they knew where they would be staying.
Later in the afternoon they found a broken water pipe next to the
water heaters (they don’t actually work). They replaced some
piping and the tank appears to be holding water. The hospital
generator has been running quite a bit trying to keep us in water.
This is an added expense for the hospital but very much
appreciated. The tank on the roof on our house is again
full so we have better water pressure.

Friday we again worked on the bench project.
The Hope team worked really hard and got a lot done
! We have cut out and varnished the parts for 60 benches.
We plan to finish the assembly tomorrow and deliver some to
Guimby next week. I also worked with an organization out of
Port au Prince today that is coordinating the delivery of 44,000 p
ounds of packaged meals from Food from the Heartland. This will be
divided between four organizations in the area. UCI, HAFF, Haiti House o
f Hope and Promise for Haiti. This will get us started feeding the kids at our
elementary schools five meals a week. We are currently doing three
meals a week. This will be a great nutritional boost for our kids.
I have also been doing some coordination of the shipment of boxes
for the eye team that will arrive the day we leave.

My last construction project that I plan to start tomorrow
is building some kitchen cabinets for the prosthesis dorm.
They plan to open that later this month. Doctors and technicians
will come to teach and train others how to fit and build prosthetics.
There is quite a demand for this after the earthquake.

Jesula called from PAP today that she passed her last exam
for her nursing license. Quite an accomplishment! We are very
happy or her. She is coming to Pignon tonight with Thompson
her boyfriend. I think we will go out and celebrate tomorrow. Rice/Beans etc.

At noon we have rice with beans on the left side of the plate
and in the evening we put the beans on the right. Once in a while
the cooks mess with us and put the beans in the rice! I’m pretty much
off the rice/bean diet. Sometimes they have a side dish of potatoes, s
quash or macaroni with mystery meat that is very good. Paula’s down
to coleslaw, bread with peanut butter and instant soup. We’ve both had
some gastro issues but are on the mend.

Things with the zoo are pretty much the same. The dogs
are getting friendlier but Paula insists that I don’t feed them
no matter how sad they look at us. They stopped by tonight
for a longer visit before they headed out to forage.

Until next time…..Bondye Beni Ou

Dean