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.