Days 67 - 70 (11/20 -23)

Sunday – Today was another slow day team wise. We had one small team from the Church of the Resurrection (COR) arrive in the afternoon. So – after attending church on the Frere campus I dug into a new book  -“Unshaken” by Dan Woolley. Dan was trapped in the collapsed Hotel Montana in Petionville for 65 hours before being rescued. What made it more interesting to me was that Jim Gulley (with me in photo) was also trapped in the Hotel Montana just a few feet from Dan and Dan recounts many of their shouted conversations as they awaited rescue. There also was a picture of Jim as he was pulled from the rubble on a stretcher. Parts of the book were not particularly interesting, but the recounting of the actual experience was. It was a quick read and I finished it in one sitting.

Monday – This morning we sent the COR team off to Petit Goave and said goodbye to Tom’s wife Wendy’s team heading home to New York and Connecticut. Then it was back to the computer and sifting through the emails coming and going with the different projects. What did we do before the internet and cell phones?

Tuesday – One team left for the airport this morning and we have 2 teams in the field. There will be no one at the Guest House but staff until Saturday. It’s very quiet around here.

EMH Engineer Roger LaPlanche came by with the drawings for the Guest House and Staff Housing addition, based on the sketches I sent him last week. EMH President, Gessner Paul and EMH Finance Director, Sylvio Rocourt came with him. Roger’s drawings were very good and everyone approved. Roger and I will do a final cost analysis and barring anything unforeseen we could be starting the first 8 units before Christmas.

Engineer Derly Charles the Haitian project manager for the EMH Housing Pilot Project sent me a couple of photos of the crew digging the footings for the first two houses in Mellier. We finally broke ground after 7 months of planning and red tape. It’s very exciting to finally see actual construction start on this much needed project. It’s been a GOOD day.

Wednesday – Today seems rather anticlimactic after all the excitement of yesterday. No teams, no project starts - just another day on the computer in the office. I put some estimated cost figures together for the Haiti Home Assistance Program and sent them on to a few key people for their input. I think we’re getting close to having something to submit to UMCOR for funding approval.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving not a Haitian holiday. After some discussion, Tom, John, Sarah and I decided that, since we have no teams to take care of, we will give the Haitian staff the day off and go off campus for the day and night – a mini-vacation.