Days 210 -214 (05/27 – 31)

Sunday – Today is Haiti’s Mothers’ Day. Mario took it upon himself to organize a Mothers’ Day celebration for all of the Guest House staff. We weren’t quite sure what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised at what he put together. He scrounged up a bar-b-que grill and put a makeshift grill on a charcoal cooker; enlisted Ysmeus, Nicola and a couple of Haitian neighbors as cooks; and had them cook chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs. He had potato chips, drinks and all the trimmings. Several of the staff brought their children and we had a pretty good crowd. Mario had a DJ set up a “jury rigged” sound system by the pool and he provided Haitian music the way they like it – LOUD. There was lots of dancing and then everybody went swimming. Some of the staff said that they had worked here for years and this was the first time they had ever been in the pool. Mama Bruno was the queen of the event and she was decked out in her Sunday best – hat included. She lives here at the Guest House and 2 of her sons, Eric and Nicola, work here. She told me that she had had 15 children but 8 of them had died in infancy. One of her daughters who lives nearby also joined the celebration. It was very fun to see the staff who work so hard have a day off and really enjoy themselves.

Monday – Today is Memorial Day in the States, but not a holiday in Haiti, so it’s work as usual. We had no teams to send out, but Tom and I had an 8:00 AM meeting of the EMH Housing Committee. This committee consists of Lauren James and Jim Gulley from UMCOR; Roger Laplanche and Charles Derly the EMH engineers; representatives from World Hand Alliance and Hands for Haitians the 2 Pilot Project contractors; and Tom and I. The purpose of the monthly meetings is to get progress reports on all of the houses; discuss current problems and issues and get updated schedules on the 40 houses in Mellier and Carrefour. The good news is that the 20 houses in Mellier should be finished by mid-July and construction has started on the 20 houses in Carrefour.

Tom, Jim, Lauren and I had just enough time to walk from the Housing meeting at the Guest House to the meeting of the IDT (Inter-Disciplinary Team) at the EMH Resource and Development offices on the other end of the campus. This team consists of the Haitian leaders and technicians of UMCOR’s Water, Agriculture, Livelihood, Community Garden and Health programs and also includes Pastor Edzair Paul the head of EMH Education. These are the people that go out into the communities and help organize development projects in their areas of expertise. It was an interesting meeting in that we discussed possible ways to integrate VIM teams into this development process.

We had two teams come in from the States late in the afternoon.

Tuesday – We sent one new team off to their work site in Cabaret. This may be the last team to go there as it is nearing completion. The second team is a medical team made up of a dentist and his assistant, several nurses, a couple of medical assistants, an EMT and a couple of “civilians” who came along to help support the team. They are going to our site in Torbeck which is just outside of Les Cayes.

I spent most of my day working on the HHAP (Haiti Home Assistance Program). I have 3 recipients that still need help getting all of their documentation together – 3 out of 15 is not too bad.

Late in the afternoon the California/Nevada team from Placerville returned from their week of working in Hinche. It was nice to visit with folks from home.

Wednesday – We got our Cal/Nev team off to the airport to catch their early morning flight home. It was another paperwork marathon for the rest of my day.

This afternoon Jeff Baker’s team returned from Arcahaie where they have been distributing bio-sand water filters. To date his teams have distributed over 200 filters to households in the Arcahaie area. Besides providing the filters, they are training the people how to use them properly and are also setting up a follow-up program to monitor the use of the filters. There is a great need for this type of program.

Thursday – This morning we said goodbye to Jeff and his team. Then Tom, Lauren and I left in a couple of vehicles with the entire IDT team for a meeting in Cabaret. We had a meeting with leading  members of the communities of Cababret, Thomas, Leveque and Moire to discuss their community development needs; find out what programs they may already have in place; and introduce them to the IDT. It was an informative meeting for everyone and will help accelerate all of the community development programs in these communities.

This afternoon we had 1 team return from Mellier.