Saw it on display today the mobile dental clinic in our adopted village of Chiraque. You can imagine that, right or wrong, teeth in parts of the world where the water doesn't contain flouride can be hard to maintain. . .in Haiti, add to that a crummy diet and not a lot of income to spend on luxuries, like brushing. . with toothpaste. . .regularly. There were some dandies today and our traveling dentist, Maria who had to set up outside to get enough light to work with, leaned her dental "chair" against a tree and pulled 35 bad teeth in 5 hours. . .but who's counting. She filled some cavities also. . .
I don't know about you but the dentist has never been my most favorite place to hang out, expecially with novocain needles the size of Atlas rockets try to land. . violently. .about 7 different places around a perfectly good tooth! But I digress. . .
Not a wimper, not a tear, not a flinch, not a request for a 15 minute timeout. . .now, starting over Pont du Hoc can give you one visual as to what defines courage, but these villagers are going to be alongside the next time I plung into the rasberry thicket!
Nancy, Daniel and I varnished about 300 kids' teeth while Maria was having all the fun, and gave them new toothbrushes when finished. We also distributed large tubes of toothpaste for the families to use.
The 3rd and final phase of the new, 2-room school is underway. As the pictures show, walls are up and plastered and the wood for the roof rafters was just brought up mountain. . .remember, everything gets walked up. . .and stored in the church. For the school, we brought the usual wheelbarrow-full of lesson books, pencils, chalk, etc, and gave them to Pastor Felix who this week is standing in for the school principal. . .who is afflicted with hypertension. . .who wouldn't be trying to teach 300 kids! But we also brought a Chromebook and mini-projector, the idea being that the teachers can access the internet and project what's on the screen onto a white-washed wall, for all to see.
The vision for Chiraque, and other remote villages in Haiti where the internet is available, is to create an internet resources package. . .Chromebooks (inexpensive), small projectors, wireless service and router, and a low-cost solar array that is big enough to power 8 PCs and 4 projectors 8 hours a day 5 days a week. The batteries would be in locked church storage next door, and on weekends the batteries can be used to power the church. As it so happens, or maybe it was meant to happen, Nancy and I met someone coming into Port au Prince whose speciality is installing low-cost solar arrays. He actually did some farmer math on system size while we were waiting for our respective puddle jumpers. . . and I have his card.
Personally, this isn't some pipe dream or a luxury. How will Haitians EVER did out unless the kids have access to and can use the same, vast resources available to every other kid on the planet? I asked two adorable kids today if they new what an elephant was. . .I was going to do my world famous impression. . .and the answer, both times, was "no" (personally, I think they were tipped off about my intentions and were going to have nothing of it!).
Okay, okay. . I'm off the soapbox, but we're gonna do this thing. . .and the villagers are SO excited. It's like somebody cares. . .
And when we're done with that, we're gonna get the village water. The nearest source, in the rainy season, is 30 minutes downhill. . .imagine how much fun it is carrying it back up the same hill, and it ani't 30 minutes either. Somehow, someway, we're gonna find a way to dig a well by the road, which is about a city block down the hill.
You can be a part of this. I mentioned the 501(c)3 that has been formed to collect tax deductible donations for Haiti projects like the ones mentioned above. . .you probably all will put me in your designated "Spam" folder.
I had Rubin visit the John Wesley School computer lab. . .good news is that 2 of 3 Chromebooks that were new last year seem to be operating normally. I'll bring the defective one home and make some Chromebook custormer service rep squirm. . .the bad news is that just about every Dell we originally populated the computer lab with is down, for one reason or another. . .some have bad hard drives (unrelenting heat, humidity and dust. . which is why we brought Chromebooks last year as they are basically solid-state devices), many have had Windows XP erased. . .meaning "well, hello there you @#$%% blue screen", some are missing batteries and others have batteries that have crapped out.
The kids also prefer Windows 7. . .the first sign that they are clued in, but can't see buying the software on top of all the hard parts that are required to fire the lab back up. Chromebooks are the answer and we'll be bringing more. . same time, same place. . .next year. Reserve early, it's gonna be a blast!
Oh, one last thing. Some of you might recall that we discovered last year that Pastor Felix lost his left leg below the knee. He lives above the road but below the village, and he just wasn't going to be allowed to navigate that terrain with one leg and crutches. . .FUMC swept into action, procured a suitable prosthetic, and arranged for Haiti's Albert Schweitzer Institute to fit the leg and train Pastor Felix to use it. There probably hasn't been a more emotional moment that to see him standing there, then walk over and embrace us. . .ALL OF US! Look closely, and you'll see a familiar cross now around his neck. . .a replica of the one hanging in the sanctuary at First United. I can only imagine his next sermon. . .
John and Nancy
I'm in tears as I read what you've been doing for the past few days! Bless you for the blessings you bring to Haiti!!
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