Hi all:
As I write the team members are scurrying around to get last minute items and chores taken care of before they head out tomorrow AM. It was a very packed day. Jorel arrived at Hope House early and had the team enthralled as he shared thoughts about Haiti today, after the earthquake and what may come to pass in the future and all related to his faith. Then we headed out to Little Children of Jesus. Mme Passe standing in for Gladys gave us a wonderful and then the highlight of the day..joining Jorel for music hour. What a site it was to see these big "hulking" guys up singing and dancing with the kids! I know it was a very moving time for them as they interacted with the children.
Next stop was the craft shops in Croix des Bouquets to see the iron workers. One of the young fellows I see regulary latched on to me ....thankfully because he helped me find the owner of the one shop I needed access to so Andy could get the crosses he was looking for. He told me that all of the artisans faired okay during the earthquake...very little damage and no loss of life.
Returning home we wended our way through the inner streets of the Santo area, in order to take Dumas the tarp we had for him, since a miscount meant he missed out on Sunday when we took some to the staff at the school.
As I write the team members are scurrying around to get last minute items and chores taken care of before they head out tomorrow AM. It was a very packed day. Jorel arrived at Hope House early and had the team enthralled as he shared thoughts about Haiti today, after the earthquake and what may come to pass in the future and all related to his faith. Then we headed out to Little Children of Jesus. Mme Passe standing in for Gladys gave us a wonderful and then the highlight of the day..joining Jorel for music hour. What a site it was to see these big "hulking" guys up singing and dancing with the kids! I know it was a very moving time for them as they interacted with the children.
Next stop was the craft shops in Croix des Bouquets to see the iron workers. One of the young fellows I see regulary latched on to me ....thankfully because he helped me find the owner of the one shop I needed access to so Andy could get the crosses he was looking for. He told me that all of the artisans faired okay during the earthquake...very little damage and no loss of life.
Returning home we wended our way through the inner streets of the Santo area, in order to take Dumas the tarp we had for him, since a miscount meant he missed out on Sunday when we took some to the staff at the school.
Last stop was at Marie's for a 10 minute visit which lasted more than an hour as some of the fellows helped to rig up the new tarp we gave her along with one she had so that the girls would be better protected from the rain. They did a top notch job and Marie was quite pleased with the results. Since all of the guys couln't help with the "roofing" the others sang and played with the younger girls. Again it certainly touched their hearts in a much bigger way than they ever anticipated. It was quarter to five by time we rolled into Hope House and the fellows wolfed down the grilled cheese sandwiches that were prepared for them. It wasn't much but at least it filled the gap a bit before I served them dinner. I felt terrible because with everything going on I forgot to arrange for lunch for the house staff and no one called me to ask about it so they didn't get any lunch either. By time I realized what I had done, it was too late to cook anything so they too ate a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.
The highlight of my day was sharing devotional time with my "Men of Fire" team after dinner. To be with these 11 men as they lifted up their voices with a song of praise was very moving......I felt honoured and privileged to be a part of this special time they spent together. It was an evening I will not soon forget.
One story I forgot to relate the other day was in regards to a donation of $42.00 we recieved. The gift was handed to me by Rick and it was from two 11 girls, one of whom was the daughter of a team member who unfortunately at the last moment was unable to come. Gracie and her friend Skylar had a lemonade stand and their donation was the proceeds from that endeavor. Another donation of $47.00 was recieved from Matt and Alexis Hafer (11 & 7 respectively) who raided their piggie banks and passed another one around at several community events they attended. Donations of all sorts are without doubt VERY appreciated but recieving them from young children such as these is extra special.......thanks kids!!
We had two aftershocks today..one around 4:30 AM and the other around 8:30. I slept through the first one but it had Andy up and rushing to get his pants on to get outside. None of us felt the one at 8:30.
The following is news gathered by a friend of mine:
General news... Of course the biggest need right now is to provide protection from the rains. It has rained here almost every night this week. As one of our employees said, he had had to 'domi kanpe', meaning he had to find a way to sleep in his tent so as to minimize getting wet. The Shelter Cluster estimates that each family should have two tarps or a tent. They are still advocating for tarps over tents, though, they believe that they will serve the people better in the long term.
To date over 93,000 tarps have been distributed. If that is two per family, then about 232,000 people now have some rain protection. Also about 17,000 family-sized tents have been given out. As I go by the two main camps on my way to work, most do have tarps now. The goal is that every family will have sufficient coverage by 1 May. Also the Government of Haïti has made a plea for families to host others without shelter. Families continue to leave PAP for the provinces, and some have even left the camps--though they may just be migrating from one to another.
Sanitation at the camps is still a major issue. Slowly organizations are chipping away at the problem by providing more and more toilets; but at present only about 12% of the real need has been met.
The Shelter Cluster has also begun to propose designs for the temporary shelters that should last for up to 3 years. They expect that 120,000 shelter kits will be distributed. They are also hopeful to speed up debris removal so as to provide more room for displaced families and proper shelters.
I personally would like to see some areas receive needed materials to rebuild their homes instead; but that is adventuresome. The transitional homes are expected to cost $1,000-$1,500 each, compared to the price of a single home of somewhere between $4,000-$5,000. Again, there will be many land issues to settle before home reconstruction can begin.
The airport is now functioning fairly normally and commercial flights began this week! It appears that landing slots for humanitarian shipments are now readily available. Also, the floating docks at the port have begun to facilitate sea freight--now up to over 500 containers disembarked per day. That's an important and good development!
Food prices are high, some items as high as 50% more than before the earthquake. But with the food distributions the last few weeks and the continued opening of the airport and sea deliveries, some have begun to drop slightly. Over 3 million persons have received at least one food ration.
The Haitian Government has officially begun a Post Disaster Needs Assessment of the earthquake affected areas to look at sanitation, food security, water, debris management and removal and transitional shelters. This will form the basis of the early recovery phase activities. They hope to have results in time for the large donor's conference at the end of March.
UNICEF and other groups are providing some tents where children can gather and perhaps will return to school. They are looking at an accelerated program to permit children to finish classes at the same time as their peers in other areas of the country. Hopefully their analyses will show a way to do this for many of the children. They really, really need to get back to a routine, it will help them to feel more secure.
Finally: we unfortunately have had to change our idea about opening school on March 1. Clovis was all set to do it, and had psyched up the teachers and notified the students. However, after hearing reports from the Ministry of Ed'n on the radio forbidding any school director from opening his/her school, Clovis did a little more checking around and regretabbly had to change his decision. One school up in the Kenscoff region that did not recieve any damage decided to open up but were immediately shut down by inspectors from the Ministry...so now we sit and wait for the proper authorization.
Photos: Paul and the roof in progress
The "roofing team" and Marie under the finished product.
I can't believe it is after midnight as I close this off....where did the day go??
good night all
Debbie
The highlight of my day was sharing devotional time with my "Men of Fire" team after dinner. To be with these 11 men as they lifted up their voices with a song of praise was very moving......I felt honoured and privileged to be a part of this special time they spent together. It was an evening I will not soon forget.
One story I forgot to relate the other day was in regards to a donation of $42.00 we recieved. The gift was handed to me by Rick and it was from two 11 girls, one of whom was the daughter of a team member who unfortunately at the last moment was unable to come. Gracie and her friend Skylar had a lemonade stand and their donation was the proceeds from that endeavor. Another donation of $47.00 was recieved from Matt and Alexis Hafer (11 & 7 respectively) who raided their piggie banks and passed another one around at several community events they attended. Donations of all sorts are without doubt VERY appreciated but recieving them from young children such as these is extra special.......thanks kids!!
We had two aftershocks today..one around 4:30 AM and the other around 8:30. I slept through the first one but it had Andy up and rushing to get his pants on to get outside. None of us felt the one at 8:30.
The following is news gathered by a friend of mine:
General news... Of course the biggest need right now is to provide protection from the rains. It has rained here almost every night this week. As one of our employees said, he had had to 'domi kanpe', meaning he had to find a way to sleep in his tent so as to minimize getting wet. The Shelter Cluster estimates that each family should have two tarps or a tent. They are still advocating for tarps over tents, though, they believe that they will serve the people better in the long term.
To date over 93,000 tarps have been distributed. If that is two per family, then about 232,000 people now have some rain protection. Also about 17,000 family-sized tents have been given out. As I go by the two main camps on my way to work, most do have tarps now. The goal is that every family will have sufficient coverage by 1 May. Also the Government of Haïti has made a plea for families to host others without shelter. Families continue to leave PAP for the provinces, and some have even left the camps--though they may just be migrating from one to another.
Sanitation at the camps is still a major issue. Slowly organizations are chipping away at the problem by providing more and more toilets; but at present only about 12% of the real need has been met.
The Shelter Cluster has also begun to propose designs for the temporary shelters that should last for up to 3 years. They expect that 120,000 shelter kits will be distributed. They are also hopeful to speed up debris removal so as to provide more room for displaced families and proper shelters.
I personally would like to see some areas receive needed materials to rebuild their homes instead; but that is adventuresome. The transitional homes are expected to cost $1,000-$1,500 each, compared to the price of a single home of somewhere between $4,000-$5,000. Again, there will be many land issues to settle before home reconstruction can begin.
The airport is now functioning fairly normally and commercial flights began this week! It appears that landing slots for humanitarian shipments are now readily available. Also, the floating docks at the port have begun to facilitate sea freight--now up to over 500 containers disembarked per day. That's an important and good development!
Food prices are high, some items as high as 50% more than before the earthquake. But with the food distributions the last few weeks and the continued opening of the airport and sea deliveries, some have begun to drop slightly. Over 3 million persons have received at least one food ration.
The Haitian Government has officially begun a Post Disaster Needs Assessment of the earthquake affected areas to look at sanitation, food security, water, debris management and removal and transitional shelters. This will form the basis of the early recovery phase activities. They hope to have results in time for the large donor's conference at the end of March.
UNICEF and other groups are providing some tents where children can gather and perhaps will return to school. They are looking at an accelerated program to permit children to finish classes at the same time as their peers in other areas of the country. Hopefully their analyses will show a way to do this for many of the children. They really, really need to get back to a routine, it will help them to feel more secure.
Finally: we unfortunately have had to change our idea about opening school on March 1. Clovis was all set to do it, and had psyched up the teachers and notified the students. However, after hearing reports from the Ministry of Ed'n on the radio forbidding any school director from opening his/her school, Clovis did a little more checking around and regretabbly had to change his decision. One school up in the Kenscoff region that did not recieve any damage decided to open up but were immediately shut down by inspectors from the Ministry...so now we sit and wait for the proper authorization.
Photos: Paul and the roof in progress
The "roofing team" and Marie under the finished product.
I can't believe it is after midnight as I close this off....where did the day go??
good night all
Debbie
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