Days 122 & 123 (2/15 & 16)

Wednesday – After yesterday’s marathon, today was a welcome respite. No teams in or out this morning and only one team returning from Petit Goave this afternoon. We spent most of the day meeting with Una and bringing her up to date with the current status of the Haiti Response Plan from the perspective of the front line staff.

We are almost exactly half way through the 3 year Haiti Response Plan. It is scheduled to end at the end of October 2013. The Plan was set up by the UMVIM Jurisdictional Coordinators in the U.S. after the earthquake in 2010. Because of the urgency of the need, it was set up on the fly. The Coordinators had mission and disaster experience, but no one had had experience in this type of catastrophic disaster. And very few had experience in Haiti. Consequently, many things have worked well and many have not. We are constantly trying to improve and adjust, but are faced with resistance many times from either GBGM in New York or the Haitians and sometimes both. The prevailing argument being “But this is the way it has always been”. Yea – but it’s not working and needs to be fixed. So – our meetings with Una have been, I think, very productive. We outlined some needed changes which will significantly change how we conduct business. We also talked about whether or not the program should be extended beyond 10/13. And - if it were extended, what should it look like - very thought provoking.

Thursday – On her way over to Pastor Paul’s office for a meeting yesterday, Una slipped and fell and came up with some scrapes and a twisted leg. The leg is still bothering her this morning so Sarah will take her to the hospital for an xray. Tom and I had to make an early morning departure to pick up Pastor Paul and Engineer LaPlanche  in Paco at 7:00 and head south for some site visits. Traffic was a bear and Laplanche was about 30 minutes late getting to Pastor Paul’s house, which didn’t please Pastor Paul. Traffic was heavy from Paco through Carre Four. But once we got through Carre Four, it opened up and we made it to Olivier in about 2 hours. They have a very busy clinic and church in Olivier and the EMH wants to do a major expansion of the church. We met with the site engineer and went over his plans for the expansion. Roger and I had some concerns over the design and both wondered if the plan was feasible. The engineer said he would redo the design and we will look at it again.

We reversed direction and went next to the new church in Fond Deux. It is in a very rural setting and is a small but very nice church. It is almost finished but the cost overruns were over 50%. It was designed and supervised by the same Olivier engineer.  I think a pattern is starting to emerge. The next stop was Vialet. Vialet used to be a thriving agricultural training center. It sits on about 40 acres and has about 20 buildings on it. It was built and run by Methodist missionaries in the 40s and 50s. But, like so many missionary projects around the world, when the missionaries left in the late 70s, the project ceased to function and the property was left to fall into disrepair. It is really sad to see such a beautiful property with so much potential going to waste. I would love the challenge of turning this one around. But, I’ve got enough on my plate as it is.

From Vialet we went to Petit Goave where we are building a new library. They are planning a big dedication ceremony March 3^rd with donors coming down from states. There was a big question in our minds as to whether or not it was going to be finished in time. It’s going to be very close, but they might make it. When you travel with Pastor Paul, you hardly ever miss a meal. We went to the Petit Goave EMH Guest House complex and Pastor Maude fixed us a big delicious lunch. Traveling with the President does have certain perks.

Our last stop on the way back was Mellier. We wanted to see the new houses that Doug Ahfeld and his Homes for Haitians team were putting up for our EMH Pilot Project. What a thrill it was to see the first homes nearing completion. Doug says he will have the first 10 competed by the end of March. And based on what we saw today, I believe him. We were back in Petionville by about 3:30 – just in time to greet 2 teams coming in from the states. These travel days are always very interesting and informative, but they wear you out. Sarah called from the hospital – Una has a spiral fracture of the lower tibia. They are putting on a cast and a walking boot.