Days 250 – 254 (7/07 – 11)

Saturday - This morning we got 1 team off to the airport for their return home and got our new team on the road to Arcahaie where they are going to spend their week distributing bio-sand water filters.

I forgot to mention in my last blog that I received word from UMCOR that the second draw of my HHAP grant was finally approved and the funds will be transferred Monday. So – I spent most of my day working with Mario in getting the 2^nd draw checks cut for the housing beneficiaries. This includes verifying that all receipts for the first draw are in and the inspections have been made. Then making sure all of the information is properly recorded, because I’m going to have to go through the same process for the last funding draw. With the length of time it takes to get everything approved, I’m going to start the request now.

Sunday – No teams today. So, after a partial church service at the Freres campus (I say partial because I generally only stay for about the 1^st hour) I came back to the office to take care of my personal bill paying via the internet. After spending all of my money, I watched a little golf on the internet and then went to my room to read one of the new books that I had just downloaded on my Kindle. It’s nice to have a quiet day.

Monday – No teams again today. Eng. Roger Laplanche came by the Guest House to pick me up at 7:00 AM to head for Petit Goave. We wanted to check out the 2^nd story addition on the auditorium building at Brakeman College. This project is being funded by COR (Church of the Resurrection) in Kansas City. It is not a VIM team project, but Pastor Paul has asked me if I would help Roger manage it. So, we try to get down there every couple of weeks to check on the progress. It’s about a 5 hour round trip. We picked up Engineer Abicher, the site engineer,  in Carrefour on the way down and met Pastor Dorceley, the EMH Circuit Superintendent at the school. The project is coming along nicely and the walls are about ½ way up – to the first bond beam level. And except for a couple of minor masonry issues that Eng. Abicher said he would address, the quality looks good. I will recommend to COR to send the next funding advance so that the work can continue.

Pastor Dorcely then wanted us to stop by the church in Petit Goave and look at the security wall that we built around the book store and check out a couple of other projects that he would like to see put on the to do list. The Circuit Superintendents never run out of projects. Our last stop was at the Petit Goave Guest House where a COR team was doing some IT upgrades to the internet service. Then it was another energy bar lunch in the car on the return trip to Petionville. Back at the Guest House at 3:00 PM – hot and tired. However, I got an urgent email from Lauren James, UMCOR/EMH Liason, for some assistance on preparing the grant proposal for the finish work at the St. Martin church. It ended up being a long day.

Tuesday – Still no teams, but the day started out with a meeting of the Guest House Committee. I’ve lost track of how many committees I’m on – they call – I show up. This committee consists of Pastor Paul, EMH President; Pastor Depestre, EMH Secretary; Madam Depestre, Guest House Manager, Madam Vivian, EMH Business Manager; Sylvio Rococourt, EMH Relief and Development Manager; Roger Laplanche, EMH Head Engineer; and Tom and me. This was actually an important meeting because, among other things, it was the kick-off of my Guest House Renovation Project. The funding is finally in place and we are ready to start renovating. With very few teams here in July and only 1 in August, it is the ideal time to be doing this work. Madam Ruth, Roger and I agreed to meet tomorrow morning to go over the specific room by room details and agree on a schedule of work.

The afternoon was an email marathon with Lauren on the St. Martin church grant and Eng. Derly and Doug Ahfield of Homes for Haitians on some issues with the EMH houses in Mellier. I think I need more hats.

Wednesday  –  Another day with no teams and no meetings this morning. I finally have some time to catch up on some of my other jobs before an afternoon trip with Pastor Paul, Roger and Tom to visit Pastor Paul’s proposed site for his “Methodist Village” in La Tremble. We’ve been talking for a long time about the need to provide housing solutions for people who were renting homes that were destroyed. In reality the non-land owner population is the largest segment of the homeless population. We know that the Methodist church owns land all over the country and have been asking if there wasn’t some land that could be used to build housing for these people. This idea has geminated long enough that it has become his idea and vision and he wanted to show us the parcel he proposes for the “Methodist Village”. It’s a very nice piece of agricultural land, about ¾ of an acre, right across the road from the new La Tremble church. I’m very excited about the possibility of seeing this being developed.