There were several projects we planned to address this year: funding and helping with the last phase of the 2-room school building construction in Chiraque, which includes installing a water-collecting cistern for the villages solitary flush toilet; delivering and distributing medicines, typically in short supply and/or prohibitively expensive in Haiti, to our local partners providing care to their fellow Haitians; visiting the Good Sam assisted living facility to conduct a mobile medical clinic, to understand what plumbing changes are necessary to improve water availability for toilets, sinks and showers, and to provide new sandals and some blouses/shirts to the residents; assisting two Haitian friends (Serge and Daniel) in their support of certain indigent patients at St. Antoine. . .Jeremie's only hospital. . .who required meds, specialized care (colostomy, 3rd degree burns), and/or food; conducting mobile dental and mobile medical clinics in Chiraque, including applying varnish to the village's children; distributing 450 dresses/skirts/boy shorts/baby blankets/beaded bracelets that were either handmade (dresses and baby blankets, beaded bracelets) or collected (skirts/boyshorts) for the youth of Chiraque; inspecting the condition of the John Wesley High School "Computer Lab" that we outfitted 3 years ago with donated laptops; and, lastly, delivering to the village school at Chiraque it's first laptop (Acer Chromebook) and compact project (about the size of the movie theatre-size box of Dots!) so that the world might finally be invited in to their classrooms!
Alll of the above was accomplished, and the prior posts contain many photographs for these activities. Additionally, Nancy conducted training sessions for nurses at St. Antoine in the use of defibrilators (they have them but had never been trained), proper use of colostomy care items, and proper use of burn creams and medications. Serge had asked for any of the colostomy and burn treatment items we could find stateside as they are hard if not impossible to find in Jeremie. Nancy and I also had the privilege of meeting Reverend Gesener Paul, the President of the Haitian Methodist Church, on our last night in Haiti, to discuss next steps in stabilizing the Gebeau Clinic, an important facility for health of Jeremie residents.
Much of our work took place in Chiraque, and the local lay pastor, Pastor Felix, expressed his heartfelt gratitude for the thoughtfulness and generosity behind all of the different expressions of support. Pastor Chrisnel, our host and partner in our relief work in Jeremie the past 4 years, was also pleased with the various outcomes.
All of the outcomes, big or small, reflect contributions from many, many people, so we pass along the "thanks" from our Haitian friends to. . .First Church, and its many members who support Missions generally, and Haiti specifically; First Church's exquisite seamstresses, who sewed dresses and baby blankets with much love and attention to detail; First Church's UMW, whose contributed proceeds from their twice-annual Rummage Sales to support various of the aforementioned projects; Erica Schwegman, the daughter of a family friend, who singlehandedly collected nearly 150 articles of clothing for the older kids at Chiraque, and made 125 beautifully-beaded bracelets as well (following in her talented mother's footsteps, Lorry); St. John's-Providence Hospital, for their donation of medicines; friends and family members who contributed old cellphones, (most of) which find new life in Haiti!; Dr. John Toupin, DDS, for his contribution of tooth varnish; and our Haitian friends who formed up around us while there. . .Pastor Chrisnel, lay Pastor Felix, Serge and Daniel, Nisage and John (our driver), Dr. Maria Lubin (dentist from Gebeau Clinic), Dr. Marx (MD, formerly of Gebeau Clinic), Rose and Modeline (nurses from Gebeau Clinic), Rubin Dijon, Jacqui Labrom (local travel expert), Nadar (expert at navigating Port au Prince), Cassy (the ONLY reliable way of getting 400#s of stuff from Port au Prince to Jeremie), and MAF (the ONLY reliable way of getting people, safely in my view from Port au Prince to Jeremie).
Two people taking a "trip" sounds, well, easy. . .but important questions like to where, doing what, how long, etc., really determine the effort. Several months of preparation are involved, and require putting the arm on any number of the folks noted above to get things organizing, flowing to our basement in time to be packed up. Once there, stuff happens and whatever "plan" we had in mind gets re-racked, more than once. But for the helpfulness and goodwill of our various Haitian friends noted above, we couldn't have done what we had set out to do. .and then some.
Thanks for following along this year.
John and Nancy
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