Hi there: where does the time go? ...yesterday it was Saturday wasn't it?...how can today already be Wednesday....but Wednesday it is so I must fill you in on the past few days. Monday was an office day catching up on a myriad of items. I met with Clovis for a short period before he headed off to a meeting at the Ministry of Ed'n. After that one of the items I got under my belt was a revised job description and contracts for the teachers....yes those discussions will soon be upon me. I felt like I got something accomplished getting those done...now I just have all of the others depts/sections to do but they will be easier. Tuesday was a run around day..changing money, grocery shopping and getting food stuffs to hand out to the kids at the end of this week. This is part of the project from the church in Juno Beach that I have written of severa times. As a result on top of the rice and beans we will be giving, each child will recieve a package of spaghetti, a can of fish in tomato sauce and some vienna sausage. It won't go very far for a family but I also know for some it will seem like manna from heaven!!

Jumping ahead a bit, I picked up a team coming from Fond du Lac, WI this afternoon and they are the lucky ones that get to bag all of the items and then distribute it to the students on Friday.

I am glad as I will be emptying the depot of the rice meals from Stop Hunger Now just in time to make place for more coming from Feed My Starving Children. It is a lot of work hauling those boxes back and forth but it is more than worth the effort knowing what those rice meals mean to so many that are on the recieving end.

Yesterday as we were driving around, I was able to get my hands on the latest edition of "le Nouveliste" a local newspaper. I hadn't seen one in a long time so it was a treat to get my hands on it. Interestingly enough there was a large issue in it about Ganthier....although not on the positive side as it was talking about a big land dispute going on and demonstrations in the town in front of the police station. It seems to be a very "hot" subject ...in more ways than one as sadly the protesters burned several tractors. It seems a large landowner is trying to sell off his land to some gov't officials and in doing so long term squatters would have to move.....you can imagine how that went over! Anyways it was interesting to read, because if I had not seen it in the paper one would never know that just a short distance from the school such issues were taking place. It is not surprising to me as the results of disputes over land issues are a major cause of seeing people in the hospital!

Four or five pages were taken up with a tribute to Marc Bazin who was buried last Friday after loosing a long time battle with cancer. Mr Bazin was a very well known top level political figure in Haiti for many years, holding a variety of offices and duties. He was even a presidential candidate at one time.

Today was a nice cool day as it was overcast and rainy most of the day......when we have days like this it many times indicates that there is a tropical storm going on somewhere in the Caribbean area.

The World Cup Soccer is still very much on everyone's minds. As we drove down Delmas street yesterday we came across one block that was totally decorated in green and yellow (Brazil's team colours) and then right beside it another section blue and white (for Argentina).....those are the two teams that the majority of Haitians support over and above their own team.. Odney told me that on Sunday after Brazil won its match, the whole block on Delmas was packed with people and not a car could get through.

So there you have it from Port au Prince on this Wed June 23......two days after the official beginning of summer......for those of you not having perpetual summer I hope it is a good one for you.

cheerio,
Debbie