Haiti By The Numbers

This has been a remarkable and rewarding week and, while we have a few light-duty visits tomorrow morning, most of the FUMC crew returns to Port au Prince tomorrow afternoon, then on to Detroit the following day.  Summarizing the last few days by way of numbers risks leaving all of your blog followers with a mechanical, perhaps detached feel of it all. . .and I dearly would like to have your senses assaulted as completely as occurs here.  Maybe the pictures partly accomplish that, and it would be great if I knew how to upload some video as we some touching bits of film.  I'll work on that.

845, the number of medical, dental and eye patients seen and treated in 3 1/2 days.

347, the number of prisoners in the Jeremie jail to whom we provided a meal Sunday after church.

200, a WAG about the number of dresses distributed to young girls in 3 villages.

100, a WAG about the number of children receiving tooth varnish in the village of T-Madeline.

9, the front-line crew from First United Church of Birmingham, Michigan who led the effort.

21, our Haitian support crew without whom none of the above would have happened.

1, our Haitian program manager, Axary Augustin, without whom this trip could not have been undertaken.

A word about the FUMC team. . .OK, more than a word.  Paul and Jackie Keller, Mick and Sarah McClelland, Scott and Jill Wilkinson and their daughter Elle were great people to be with and work with, showed compassion, resourcefulness and grit, dealt with occasional. . .er, frequent adversity with composure (lubricated liberally with humor!), and would bring any John Wooden basketball team to its knees. 

A word about Nancy. . .many of you know, and some have openly expressed the view, that I married up!  While I've known that for a long time, I'm also pretty sure I don't own up to that often enough.  So, it must be said that her deep and abiding love for the people of Haiti is THE fuel rod for our work. . .certainly planning and organizing a week like this one but as well throughout the year as we lend support from afar.

A word about Axary.  He calls Nancy "mom" and me "dad".  His folks are alive and well but we chose to lend him a hand a few years' back.  He had initiative, ideas and a big heart but like so many in Haiti lacked resources.  He's taken the opportunity and begun to build a decidedly better life for himself.  He is indispensable to us on the ever-larger projects we attempt in Haiti, like bringing solar power to Chiraque.  Those kids would forever lag behind their peers were it not for Axary's help getting things lined up for months before we arrived with the panels.  Gaelle, Axary's wife, was his delightful "wingman". . .doing triage, shopping for the team's lunch stuff (did I mention our team's love of mamba. . .), you name it she did it. . .and with a killer smile.

A word about the rest of the Haitian support team. . .none of the numbers posted above would have been achieved without them. . .Dr. Marx; Dr. Rosemond; Stephanie the Dentist; Maria the Dental Assistant; Serge and Daniel, translators but highly skilled in the Haitian medical scene. . .Daniel a recently graduated nurse and Serge the "go to" guy in Jeremie for visiting medical teams; nurses Rose, Flore and Modeline; Carlo, James, Judeson, Goblet, and Wodzi who just kind of volunteered from Day 1 but helped in so many ways its likely that the numbers posted above would certainly have been lower without them; Nissage the painter, Marc the carpenter, Papooch the plumber; Dave Bucklin from Good Samaritan to install the solar panels, and his two sons John and Val who came along and worked every bit as hard as their dad; Eli Jean, one of our three drivers. . .and I regret not having the other two names handy as I write this as we kept them hopping.

A word about all of you.  Thanks for the prayers, expressions of support, contributions, dresses, Costco-side bottles of this or that.  Most of all thanks for the love you channeled through us this last week.  While we can never know how long lasting the good things that we were able to bring to the Haitian men, women and children we met over the last 6 days will be. . .we do know they appreciated the help and the fact that someone out there cares. . . .

. . .like the ten little girls who yesterday received hand-made dresses from first-time, middle school seamstresses from Detroit Country Day. . .each with a handwritten letter which were read to them in Creole. I don't know which the girls yesterday treasured more but they held those folded letters awfully tight as they made their way home.

Until next year, John Smith