Days 19 & 20 (10/03 – 04)

Monday – Another road trip today. We (Tom, Oge, Ysemeus – one of the Guest House staff, and I) went north, first to Thomas and then on to St. Marcs (about 100 km). We stopped in Thomas to talk with Director Lazarre and see the work site at the Thomas church and school where my Sacramento team will be working in 2 weeks. We also wanted to see and assess some of the damage caused by the flood last week.

The work site has changed considerably since I was there in February. The first floor of the kitchen/depot building has been finished and is awaiting the second floor – which we will probably be starting in 2 weeks. There are several other projects that need attention such as enlarging the cistern and repairing the entry walk way damaged in the flood. I was surprised by the extent of the flood damage and also by the fact that it was in the area immediately in front of the church and also just across the road. You can see by the pictures in Slideshow #6 that the water level on the side of the houses was 3 or 4 feet high. The 4 or 5 houses that we looked at had only been mildly damaged in the earthquake but the force of the flood waters had created further damage to a couple of them to the point of being unsafe. The families lost almost all of their belongings. Clothing and bedding and mattresses were strewn about everywhere. It was sad to see. Director Lazarre gave us a list of 18 church families that suffered flood damage. District Superintendent, Pastor Claude, returns from vacation tomorrow and we will meet with him to determine what the proper response should be.

We went to St. Marcs to look at Ysemeus’s house. Ysemeus works at the Guest House washing the vehicles and cleaning-up around the grounds. His house is on a small family farm (corn) a couple of miles out of St. Marcs off of a 4 wheel drive road. There are about 10 family homes on the farm. The house that he and his wife and 4 of his 6 children live in is very small - about 10’ x 16’. It has 2 rooms and is very primitively built. The walls are made of tree branches and stacked rocks covered on the interior and exterior by plaster. They cook outside under a tarp and use a community latrine. Needless to say, the cracks caused by the earthquake are not repairable and the house will have to come down. Yesemus will be one of the first recipients of a new home under the Haiti Home Assistance Program. I love my job.

Tuesday – Today is my son’s birthday. He can’t be as old as he claims to be because I’m not that old. Happy Birthday Bill, Jr.

Today is a day of catch-up in the office – writing up the reports of the site visits and scheduling more visits for the end of the week. We also welcomed our first team in more than a week, arriving from the Pacific Northwest (boy, are they in for a weather shock). We’ll have a total of 4 arriving this week. So – there will once again be lots of people coming and going at the Guest House.