Tuesday April 13 I flew back to Haiti on Missionary Flights International (MFI). It was not one of the days that MFI was flying into Pignon, so HAFF driver, Elizert met me at the Cap Haitien airport. Barb and Gabi Van Schoyck and Gabriel Mompremier had come to town as well to start the process of working a shipping container through customs. More on that later. Elizert and I met them in town, finshed up the errands and had a late lunch then drove the 44 miles back to Bohoc -- about a 3 1/2 hour trip -- arriving about 7 pm. We were all pretty tired.
The next few days were very busy. Wednesday morning I was in the eyeglass clinic by myself for most of the morning, since Becky was helping Barb with a milk baby weigh-in. That kept me busy till lunch. Right after lunch was the Wednesday afternoon staff prayer time. And then for the rest of the afternoon, I helped Barb with some budget calculations to help her get ready for the HAFF board meeting. That evening the American staff met for Bible Study.
The rest of the week centered around the shipping container in Cap Haitien. The kind folks in Rome, Georgia had put together a 40 foot container filled head high with donated items for people in the area. They sent clothing, shoes, toiletries, soup, snacks, water and other items for distribution. Colin and Elizert and Gabriel spent Wednesday and a good bit of Thursday finally getting the contents of the container released. They came home with the Mitsubishi Canter and Elizert's full size Ford dump truck full of about half the container load. They got in to Bohoc just after dark Thursday evening and we unloaded the trucks in about an hour or so.
The guys started out Friday before day to go back down to Cap Haitien for the rest of the load. The rest of the American staff started sorting what had already arrived and packed over 90 boxes to be distributed. Those boxes were moved to a second depot to make room for the second half of the load. I did not spend as much time sorting as the rest, since I spent the morning going to the bank and then getting payroll ready for the end of the week workers' pay. The men arrived again just after dark with trucks, if anything, even more heavily laden than Thursday. The boxes were unloaded, the depot secured and thanks returned for everyone's safe arrival.
Saturday Barb and Gabi spent some time working on the new boxes that had come in while I spent some time getting the dorm porch ready for the Pignon Area Missionary Ladies gathering at noon. There were about 25 women and children (plus Colin) at lunch on the porch. It was a good time of catching up with everyone and a chance to get to know a new Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) staffer who is spending time in Pignon learning Creole.
And that was the last productive time I had till now! By the late afternoon Saturday, I had a deep cough -- my allergies caught up with me. I did not sleep much Saturday night due to the coughing and woke Sunday with a headache. And I didn't leave the house again till last evening. The allergies tried to become pneumonia, I and Mme Telius, the HAFF nurse and Mme Niclaude, my cook fought tooth and nail with antibiotics and a local herbal tea, to stay ahead of the cough and the fever. Today, finally, I feel like I am on the mend and I finally slept well for a good part of last night -- the first time in a week.
In the mean time, Barb went to the States for today's board meeting and the rest of the staff went about their normal work and continued to sort the contents of the container. There are another 130 boxes packed in addition to the original 90. The boxes will be distributed starting Friday. There was also a meeting with community leaders about a cash for work project to fix the road -- another big rain or two and Bohoc/LaJeune and points south will be cut off from Pignon and points north. Hopefully I will be able to be back to my normal activities and participate in the community projects during the next week.
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