Greetings: the last day I wrote the Bethany team was just arriving and today as I write to you again they have bade us farewell and are at this time safe and sound at home again with their families. I think it is safe to stay that it was a very touching and life alterating visit for each of these first time visitors. What a pleasure it was to introduce them to the delights and challenges of Haiti.

Today is a BANNER DAY for the Village of Hope....WHY you ask? The much dreamed of and long awaited Heath Center is finally underway! YAHOO!. The engineers have been at the site the last two days and today the bulldozer started moving the earth around to clear and level the land for the building. Bert was out their recording this momentous occassion while Roberta and I attended to affairs in town. I still felt a big THRILL even though I was not here to witness this special moment myself! The builders estimate 7 months for the project so please keep your prayers coming that elections run smoothly, the hurricane season passes over us without big distruption etc. to keep us on schedule.

March 16 ECSA begins excavating the ground for the Village of Hope Health Center.

that's it for today folks..I had hoped to get more pictures posted but it is a no go....will try again next time.

Cheers,

Debbie

The team from Bethany church arrived safe and sound and are adapting quickly to their many new experiences. All are first time visitors to Village of Hope and Haiti. Yesterday was a day of work around Hope House..some painting, others building benches while others cleaned and re-organized the "red door depot". I told everyone when it was done I just wanted to take a chair inside the room and sit there and admire how it looked...there is even space to spare now.

Today the team is out and about with Roberta to visit Food for the Poor and Little Children of Jesus. Bert and I stayed behind to meet with the Eng for the Health Center. What excitement as they will begin working at the site on Monday....yahoo!

Pictures to follow as right now they refuse to be uploaded.

Have a good day............Debbie

Hello folks: In my last report I mentioned that I couldn't believe how the week with the medical team had whizzed by.....now I am really scratching my head when I look and see that it has been three weeks since I last touched base with all of you. In the meantime we have had another team, I have spent a week in Canada, our Board met in Haiti and a photo team took pictures of all of the school kids. I think in order to catch up, I will "say it with photos" as I am sure you will find them more interesting than a long written diatribe.

Coming from Texas, Minnesota and Virginia the team led by Greer Putnam from St John's Lutheran Church in Alexandria worked as if they had known each other for years. Here they are getting supplies ready to repair a depot wall that was damaged during the earthquake.

Board members that were able to come to Haiti for the meetings, standing outside the Administration window at the school in Ganthier.
Fr Row: Pastor Ron (blue shirt) and Pastor Andy

Back Row (Lto R) : Tom (photo team member) , Dr Randy, Pastor Cheryl, Mme Marni, Darrell and special guest Rick.

Pastor's Andy and Ron, sharing a moment with Mr Robert Acra long time supporter and friend of Village of Hope. He is also President of the Haiti based board for the school. He worked closely with the School founders Carole and Jim Herget in the early days of the Project.

A thrilling moment as the dream starts to become a reality.....Engineer Delva signing the constrution contract for the Health Center with Pastor Ron while Pastor Andy and Engineer Moise look on. We expect to be digging up the ground within 2 weeks or so.

Lively discussion and debate took place as the Board members deliberated over the various agenda items. The Village of Hope is Blessed to have a group with such heart for the work they have volunteered to do. All enjoyed meeting outdoors....that is until dusk rolled around and the mosquitoes came out looking for dinner.......and what a smorgasboard they had!

What a photo team!....all of the kids at school that day (600+) had their photo taken before 2:00. They went home feeling a great sense of accomplishment....and a well deserved one too.

Visitors are always greeted by a very enthusiasitc group of student's and it was no different for Board members Pastor Cheryl and Pastor Andy.

Now Bert, Roberta and I enjoy several "quiet" days to catch up on various and sundry chores. Today and tomorrow many businesses are closed as Mardi Gras celebrations take place in various towns across the country. The festivities have caused a lot of chatter on the radio talk shows as people debated the pros and cons of continuing with the celebrations when so many are still living in temporary shelters and recovering from the Cholera epidemic. The powers that be have decided " the show must go on" and so the actities have begun. Normally the biggest celebrations have been in Jacmel and downtown PAP but this year they are trying to de-centralize them a bit more so other towns are also engaged.

Churches will be filled on Wednesday as the faithful attend Ash Wednesday services and then it will be back to "business as usual"....even for us as we prepare to greet a group from Bethany Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Virginia.

The two Presidential candidates Mme Manigat and Michel Martelly continue on the campaign trail. M Martelly visited the DR to meet with their President with the thought of improving the relations between the two countries if he is elected President. Mme Manigat reportedly travelled ot the US and Canada to attend fund raising activities for her campaign. Many Haitians "lot bo dlo" (across the ocean) are still very interested and active in Haitian politics and carry a loud voice.

Last week I made a quick trip to the Artibonite Valley to be with Wilner as he buried his father, who passed on unexpectedly. It was most interesting to see the changes taking place along the routes as we made the trip their and back. More and more temporary houses are popping up here and there and several new schools and training centers are underway...one of them just outside of St Marc in the Artibonite Valley. It is encouranging to see that in the future kids will have the chance to study in their home department (state) without everyone having to come to PAP for further education.

In the weeks and months ahead you may look forward to receiving news regarding changes being made as we implement decisions taken during the Board meetings. It is an exciting time for us as we look forward to our growth as an organization.

We thank you, our faithful supporters, new and old to the Village of Hope - Lazarus project for your prayers and generous contributions (that come in many different forms) to our success.

Until next time.....peace be with you.

The week has whizzed by...its amazing to me how the time flies. We have said a fond farewell to the "Happy Hearts" team from Sarasota and are now preparing for the arrival of a group from St John's LC in Alexandria Va. We are so thankful for the calm days we are having that permit these groups to travel as planned. The medical team saw over 400 people in the few days that they were here. Thanks to Dr Chris and his "have dental chair will travel", 78 people recieved care for their dental woes. The week was quite varied as we had clinics at the school, one for the Ganthier community, another for a small community in Croix des Bouquets and then we passed by Little Children of Jesus and Marie's to attend to folks there.....even Marie had her turn in the dental chair. I was pleased with the clinic Croix des Bouquets...Cotard 54 to be exact as I was not so certain that the health commity had done all it could to be prepared for us. It was a slow start but word quickly got out and before too long there was a good size line of folks waiting for the Dr and Nurse Practitioner. One of the highlights of the week was seeing some of the gals on the team singing "Jesus Loves Me" to a little baby upon whom Dr Steve performed a small surgical procedure. Being cradled by one of the staff members and hearing their singing settled her cries and soon she was sleeping away.

It rained a couple of evenings this past week and one night several of us decided to take advantage of the grand gush of water coming from the down spout to wash our hair. Even though it had rained for a bit of time before we undertook this activity and there had been plenty of time for the debris to be washed off the roof, just as we went to rinse our hair it was like a plug was pulled above us and the next thing you know we were covered in bits of leaves, sticks etc.. Each of us had to go to our rooms to have another shower to get all of the gunk off of us.....so much for our refreshing shower thanks to mother nature......at least our hair felt soft from the rain water!

Valentine's day took place during the team's visit. I took advantage of the team's presence to deliver some valentine cards that had been made by a preschool church class in Florida. They graced us with a song or two before we left them to their celebration of a little chocolate milk and goodies.

The election campaign for the second round of elections kicked off officially this week. It of course has caused a lot of chatter, especially as related to the planning for the elections to correct the imperfections of the round last November. Both candidates Mme Manigat, and Michel Martelly are very confident in their chances and are in the process of preparing list of names for the gov't officials they will put in place upon their "win" as president.

Wishing you all a pleasant weekend.

Debbie

Happy Sunday Evening:

The end of a busy and productive week. Thankfully things have stayed quiet enough that the Medical team from Sarasota area was able to come as planned last Thurs. They have hit the ground running and thus far have had two very good clinic days out at the school. This time around we have a dentist on the team and he has had a good work out pulling teeth. He trained three team members and they then went around giving the kids from Grade 1 to 6 a flouride treatment (thanks to Dr Laura). We fashioned this clinic after the one done by the Georgia group and it went so well, I even had time to do re file student charts and start the statitistical work before the clinic was even finished for the day. There are three more clinic days lined up for the week but each day will see us at a different location. We are keeping them on their toes!

Today Bert and I met with the Engineers for the Health Center and we are so thrilled that the end is in site as far as the planning goes and that we will be able to start digging in the very near future....yahoo!!

Of course as usual it doesn't rain but it pours....so just as we were getting ready for a busy week with this team, we got a call that a long awaited container of donated items had finally been delivered and could we pick it up as soon as possible because the folks recieving the goods for us had very little depot space. Bert handled that while Roberta and I were at the school. It took 2 days and three trips each day with two pick up trucks but he got it all delivered. Much of it is now under tarps in our yard until the next team arrives when we can start delivering some of it to the school. Thanks to the folks from Pennsylvania for making the donation possible. Everything arrived in pretty good shape...which is a miracle in itself.

I know it has been a bit of a "dry" spell without any photos, so here are one or two for your interest.

Dr Chris - Fluoride treatment for the grade 1 class














Dr Jouberth Helias (Clovis's niece) assisting at the clinic.














Mary and Lexie...our pharmacy technicians.

Beaux-arts at the Hope House compound. We call it "furniture under blue tarp"

Feb 7, 2011....the day President Preval was to step down as President but didn't. It seems his plan to stay until May 15 to see a new elected President take his place, may come to pass. There were demonstrations in downtown PAP, Cap Haitian and in the Artibonite Valley (between St Marc and Gonaives) but that didn't amount to as much as some people had hoped. Comments on the radio queried where were all the political leaders who had been calling for the annulation of the election and for Preval to leave today......their absence and lack of comment today was very apparent today. Some said they seem to have lost steam since the final election results were announced.....even though less than half of the CEP officers have agreed to sign off on the results. So things are still a little cloudy and will continue to curry our interest over the weeks to come, before March 20. Now the next big question is how to organize the next round of elections, to correct the faults of the first round and to ensure a more honest and correct election on the 20th.

The VOH school functioned today as normal but a number of schools in the city were closed as many were being cautious not knowing how big and/or unruly the demonstrations would be and not wanting to take any chances on student's being caught in the middle of things. It is amazing that the kids learn anything what with all of the disruptions to their school year and the stressful situations and challenges, that face each day.

We will see how things open tomorrow but it seems hopeful that we will be able to welcome, as planned, the medical team scheduled to arrive on Thurs. They are as anxious to come as we are to have them here with us for the week.

Keep your prayers coming for peace and calm to reign over Haiti and for safe travels for those who are planning to join us this week.

until next time.....Peace be with you.

Good Evening: Like many Haitians I stayed up late last night waiting to hear the final results of the Nov elections as the CEP was to make the announcement some time before midnight. Well that time came and went as did 1:30 AM without any news...that is when I said that was enough and headed to bed. Finally the results came at 7:30 AM. As many of you are probably aware the two candidates or the March 20 run off are Mme Manigat and Michelle Martelely (Sweet Mickey). Preval's favoured candidate from his party, Jude Celestin is no longer in the picture. Silence reigns from him, but both Mme Manigat and Martely gave press conferences today.

Thus far the reaction has been quiet with no demonstrations. In Aux Cayes where there was major violence in Nov, was a town celebrating today as Martely won the second place. Hopefully this is a good sign and the calls for maintaining order will be heeded by the various partisans.
Even though there have been no demonstrations there is great concern in the city as a number of police officers have been wounded or killed in actions carried out by unknown attackers over the past week or so. Despite their collective concern they have been out patroling and manning various strategic areas around town. Please keep the officers and their families in your prayers.

We are hoping that the calm we saw today bodes well for next week as well. I am starting to get a LITTLE hopeful that the medical team scheduled for next week will be able to come as scheduled. We will just have ot wait and see what happens on Feb 7 when President Preval is to step down as President. Monday will be an interesting day as well.

The Anderson's and I have taken advantage of the open days we had (since the Jan team did not come) to do other chores. For all of you construction types that will be coming on future Mission trips, you will be so pleasantly surprised at the order in which you will find the "hardware" section of the depot. Bert and Roberta did a GREAT job of sorting and organizing everything in that corner. You will want to give them a good pat on the back when you are here. I on the other hand have spent most of the time in front of my computer writing reports, doing payroll and various other admin type tasks.

We are also pleased as discussions with the construction firm and engineers are going well thus far and we are hoping that by end of Feb. we will actually be able to start clearing the ground to start the work. Clovis, the school director met with us last week and we sorted out a few issues to ensure security of the site and that kids are not having to cross the site to attend classes. We will move the card making class to the secondary building.

and there you have if for this day..the 2 of February.

Peace be with you............Debbie