A Morning Call

My phone rang at 7:00 this morning. It was my former student, Jean Robert Joseph, on the right in the photo at the left. He is now attending university in Limbe, near Cap Haitien in the north of Haiti with a partial scholarship from HAFF. He was calling to let me know that he and our other former students at the university in Limbe are all well and hadn't felt the earthquake that hit Cap Haitien last night.

I have only been able to find one small story on the internet about the supposed earthquake that brought down a house in Cap Haitian overnight. Apparently geophysicists did not register any quake, but might not have if it was less than 4.5 on the Richter Scale. I was not 100% clear if the building that came down in Cap had people from our area living in it. I think, from what Jean Robert said, that it might have, but it wasn't clear. The story on the Washington Post website said that 2 were killed, and that they were still looking for survivors.

This morning in church Jean Jean Mompremier, the pastor, spoke about the earthquake and said that the only people who survived were those on the top floor of the 3 story building. He also warned that the people need to be ready to receive more refugees, this time fleeing the perceived threat of buildings collapsing in Cap Haitien. Please pray for this country. People all over the nation are living in fear of buildings falling on them. And the rainy season is getting ready to start and many many people still do not even have the shelter of a tent. There is still a great need in this country.

I talked on the phone to a woman yesterday in Port-au-Prince who just recently got a tarp to cover them since their house collapsed in the 12 January quake. When I asked why her family didn't just come back to this area to their family that wants them to come home, she answered that they would lose everything if they left. She said if they want to be able to hold on to their property so they can rebuild later, they have to stay there or someone else will just move in and start building.

And yet this morning, in the midst of all the questions of how much more these folks can handle, there was great encouragement in church. A woman got up to speak about her experience in the earthquake in Port. She shared a story we have heard many other share. She said she cried out, "Jesus save me" as the building started to shake, and the next thing she knew, she was outside in the street and the house was collapsed behind her. She was thanking and praising the Lord that she had kept her life clean and that her family was all saved from the quake and they were all back home in the area where she had been raised and back at the church where she first learned to know Jesus. She encouraged all the young people to guard their reputations and to be proud of the place they were raised. And above all, to trust in Christ.

The Fashionista Syndrome

It is everywhere! Everyone likes to look nice, sometimes even more than they want to see well.
We have been noticing a trend in the eyeglass clinic. There are certain people -- you can often tell who they will be by how they are dressed and the accessories they carry -- who will be able to see just fine with a prescription in the trial lens frame, but when you bring that prescription in a pair of glasses which are maybe a bit out of style, "I can't see anything" or "I see all black," they say! What they are actually saying is that they don't like the style of those glasses!

Today a woman came to me who had broken her glasses in the earthquake. She had come early in February to replace her glasses. She barely needs glasses -- her prescription is quite low and we don't have many glasses in her strength that don't also have a fairly strong bifocal or astigmatism that she did not need. Thankfully I was able to find her a pair of glasses that she could see well with and that were small and fashionable. But they weren't perfect so, she came back today to exchange them. I had no more glasses in that prescription and so I showed her selection of glasses that were very close. Again, I don't have a large variety of glasses in that strength, so her choices were limited. She wasn't impressed with what I had to offer.

It took a while to convince her that the glasses I had out were really the only ones I had. I did have others, but they had not been stylish since the 1980's (she agreed that she didn't want them) or they had bifocals (after insisting that she could manage with the cute pair with bifocals, she realized she couldn't) or an astigmatism. So, she finally found a pair of the ones I had out for her that she thought she could wear.

The classic comment that she made towards the end of the process was, "But I have seen so many pairs of pretty glasses that have come from this eyeglass clinic!" I have heard that before. Two people come to the clinic together and one just needs reading glasses in a strength that I have lots of styles available. The friend needs bifocals or has different prescriptions for each eye and has a limited selection of what will work for him or her and they don't like the style of any of them. But they will say, "can't you just give me a pair like my friend's?" And it is so hard to say no! One girl brought a pair of glasses back (the only one I had that was even close to what she needed) saying that her mother had told her not to like them! And she wanted me to give her something more fashionable, even though I had already explained to her that I only had the one pair in her prescription. Thankfully she did not need glasses badly, because she left without glasses. Even in fitting people with eyeglasses, I am still teaching science -- both physics and biology some days!

Not every person who comes to the clinic has the fashionista syndrome. I have had some folks who, when presented with the choice of reading glass styles will say, "I'll take whatever you give me. It doesn't matter what they look like, as long as I can see!" It is hard to convince those people that they can see well and look nice at the same time! But the greatest joy is when someone comes in with a real need for glasses and we find just what they need in a style they like and that suits their face. That is satisfaction.

Since the earthquake the clinic has been even busier. Becky and I see a minimum of 5 people each Wednesday. This last Wednesday we saw 8 and sometimes, like today, I make extra appointments for people. Each week there is at least one person who has come back to the area from Port-au-Prince. This Wednesday, a former student, Mimose came to replace the glasses lost in the quake and for her and her son to be treated for dry eyes irritated by the dry weather and the dust in Port. She had injured her right hand in the quake -- I didn't ask if it was broken or just badly bruised or what. But Wednesday, her hand was still swollen and the skin peeling.

The eyeglass clinic has become a real joy for me. I enjoy seeing people from all over the area and I believe we are providing a needed service. I find satisfaction in learning to do it well. I am grateful for the tools and glasses that have been donated by so many and for the knowledge that has been passed on so freely. Thank you for your prayers for Becky and me for wisdom, patience and compassion as we strive to help people see with their physical eyes. And help us also to shine the light of Christ in all we do, so that people's spiritual eyes can see Him as well.

It's Not Easy to Write about Meetings

And that is what I have been spending a lot of time in. Since the last post, I have attended at least 16 meetings! Barb, seen below with the Community Relief Committee (CRC), has been in even more than I have.
There is on-going revison of the refugee censuses as more people come in to the area from Port-au-Prince, others return to Port and as people move within the area. Some folks are staying with several people -- a few days at Aunt So-and-So's house and then some at their brother's house and finally some at their parents' home. Some folks have made the decision to remain in the area and are looking into renting locally. All of that needs to be figured out as we do our best to get the relief items to the people who need them.

Wednesday I had the fun of spending the afternoon photographing the distribution of the food that came in from World Food Program. I went with the loaded UCI school bus to LaJeune and LaPila -- sitting on top of the bags in the seats was a challenge as the bus lumbered from side to side down the road. But seeing the folks receive a good sized gift of food was the fun. There were many who asked us to send their thanks to the people "on the other side" (of the ocean) who had made the gift possible.

Earlier that morning, I had been grateful for the gift of the Tono-Pen. In the eyeglass clinic, a gentleman from Coupeal (about an hour or so walk from HAFF) had a very high intra-occular pressure and I was able to start him on glaucoma medication. I have him down on the list for the next Pignon eye team as well to be evaluated for any damage to his optic nerve from the high pressure. But I think he came in in time. His distance vision was fine and he just needed the normal strength reading glasses for someone his age. What a blessing!

But the most time consuming meetings this past couple of weeks have been the meetings to calculate salaries using the new minimum wage set by the Haitian government. The calculations and issues weren't straight-forward, and in the process of confirming details for one aspect of the change, we learned about another change. And each time we thought we had figured out how to do it, we would look at it again and realize that we had done something wrong. Finally, thankfully, Friday we had it all figured out, met with the employees and got the changes made. Now we still have to meet with the teachers and others who were not covered by the minimum wage hike -- that will be hard. Please keep us in your prayers for that.