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.

New Tool for Eye Clinic

Two weeks ago, Saturday February 6th, I was privileged to spend part of the morning with the eye surgery team from Des Moines Iowa who were working at the Pignon hospital. They had graciously allowed me to refer about 40 people to them for cataract surgery and other consultation and treatment that is beyond me. And now they had offered to train me to use a Tono-pen – a portable, simple-to-use instrument for measuring intra-ocular pressure to see if someone might possibly have glaucoma.
Virgil and Linda were my teachers and explained the care and use of the Tono-pen and showed how to use it

and then coached me as I learned. They were kind enough to say that I did a very good job. If they were not being just kind, it is as simple to use as was advertised.

One of the most poignant parts of the morning was that I got to test a young woman who had lost part of her left arm in the earthquake. She needed help walking to the place we were working and her face had a very frozen aspect the whole time we worked with her. After I checked her pressure, I asked if I could pray with her. After she was seen at the next exam station, they called us over to pray with her again. It was good to see her later in the snack bar after she had gotten a pair of glasses. She had an energy drink mixed with evaporated milk and was talking and smiling and animated. Please keep Carline Pierre and other earthquake victims in your prayers.

The team was working with 2 Tono-pens and when they left they gave HAFF one of them as well as a supply of glaucoma medication. So now Becky and I will be able to offer another service to the people coming to the HAFF eye clinic. Please pray that I would use the instrument properly, that I interpret the results wisely and that it would be a blessing to the folks who come.

School is Back in Session

Monday school opened. While the students did not come in uniform, and there were only about a third of the them at devotions, school has started. Met Phanes said in devotions that morning that the next day the students could come in uniform – always a good thing since it lends official authorization to the opening and lets everyone know that things are getting back to normal.

Please continue to pray for the schools throughout Haiti, including HAFF's Bohoc Training Institute. The Ministry of Eduction has yet to determine how to help those students whose schools have been destroyed by the quake. The local inspector for this area seems to think that our headmaster will be able to submit a form for those students transferring into our school. Pray that it is so. Also there are still questions about how the national exams will be done, if the school year will be extended, and, if so, will the time be taken from the Easter break, other national holidays or added on in June and July or some of each.

Continue to pray also for those people who were in Port-au-Prince during the earthquake. Many of them still have the tendency to run when they hear sudden noises and they are still having trouble sleeping. Pray that the Lord, the Father of all comfort, would lay His healing hand on each of these people.

A Busy Week

Well, it has over a week since I have posted anything! I am so sorry. But it has been a week busy with meetings and details. I spent 2 days getting letters out to 41 people as “passports” to see the Des Moines eye surgery team that is coming to Pignon Thursday. And, since last night, I have had a struggle to get photos to up load to the blog site, so, I will only be able to post two of the photos!


There were also many meetings during the week with the CRC – Community Leaders' Committee – and the young people. The CRC provided 133 families with a box, tote, bucket or bag of clothing, toiletries and other items yesterday from 6 locations. The distribution was very well organized. The committee had lists of families for each location and a representative of each family was invited to be present at a certain time. Each family had a card, and as their names were called, they came, presented their card and received their box.

The young people's meetings have been about mobilizing the youth of the area to help those around them. In the second meeting, there were over 120 youth present. There was a very moving moment when all the young people were asked to stand up who were in Port-au-Prince at the time of the earthquake. As you can see in the upper right part of the collage, it was about half the group of young people. The two photos of the young men, Pastor Jean Claude and Louine, are just 2 of those spared to us. At the third meeting, the youth committed to inviting people to a 3 day evangelistic crusade and to planning a VBS for the children. Some also volunteered to visit homes with refugees to pray with them. And they organized themselves by areas to motivate the young people in their area to become involved in the community activities to help others.

Met Claude, HAFF's Project Healthy Family coordinator has also been busy. Each time the HAFF generator is running, he gets out his wonderful machine, mixes salt and water and pours the salt water through the machine 7 times for the electrical charge to convert the salt water to a chlorine solution suitable for purifying water. He is making more of the solution than usual these days to provide for the increased needs of local families for clean drinking water for the additional people at their home. Met Claude said that a regular sized box of salt will make one gallon of solution which will be able to treat many many gallons of water.

And finally, on a light note, you have heard of farm fresh eggs, but have you ever heard of office fresh eggs? A couple of weeks ago, Colin walked into the office and found things on the desk to be in a bit of disarray. Then, as he was straightening things up, he discovered an egg on the desk! He brought it home for breakfast. A few days later, he was rummaging in the trash can looking for something he had mistakenly thrown away and found 3 eggs! I am not sure how many eggs the office chicken has laid at this point, but right now, she is sitting on 2 in the trash basket. Friday Colin and Greg and Met Telius and I were all working in the office and she was sitting on her eggs. Each time someone moved, or someone new walked in or Greg's dog got too close, she would squawk! We have had a good time and some lightened days with the office chicken.

Cape Coral Florida Shipments

There's been a whole lot of sorting going on at HAFF. And more will be done!

This photo collage shows three boxes of medical supplies being sent to doctors in Hinche and many boxes of clothing, shoes, toiletries and other items being readied by Gabi, Barb, Mme Destorel, Carla and Rachel with two of Rachel's friends. There were 41 boxes and counting when I was last at the depot! These supplies were sent in by small private plane yesterday directly to Pignon from Cape Coral Florida. They are the gift of at least 2 of HAFF's supporting churches in the area. And this was only half the shipment! The other half was given to Jean Jean and Kristie at UCI. The boxes will be made available to the families who have received refugees.


But wait! There's more! Another plane came in today. And another will come tomorrow. Colin was sorting boxes in the back of the truck while Carla and Rachel's friends Evens and Wilnot start sorting more medical supplies and toiletries.

These items will be a huge blessing to the refugees who have often come with a small back pack or even just the clothes on their back. This is the start of normalcy for so many. Thank you all who helped and thank you all who are helping in similar ways in other areas.

In the mean time I have been working on getting over 30 letters out to the people that we are sending to see the eye surgery team at the Pignon hospital in February. The letters will single out the people we have made prior arrangements for from the people who have just walked in that day. This is a great privilege the Des Moines eye team has given us and a great blessing to the people in the communities we serve.

Money for Market

Thank you everyone for your generosity. It is being put to good use and this is just the beginning!

Exciting things are again happening in Bohoc area. With the trucks that we have reports on, there are now over 1000 people who have been brought back from Port-au-Prince to the area. This morning and afternoon the 67 members of the HAFF ministry team each received 1000 gourdes ($28.57 US) as a small gift to give them a bit of money to take to market tomorrow to help their families. Two of the folks who received the money made a special effort to ask me to tell everyone who had helped, thank you. They are grateful. Their thanks were all out of proportion to the amount they received. For some people that 1000 gourdes was about the same as 2 weeks salary for them. For other people, it was 3 times their 2 weeks salary and for some of our teachers it was just about a quarter or fifth of their half month salaries. But they are thankful for the gesture. And Haitians can make 1000 gourdes go farther than we can!

Also, as of 5:30 this evening, cash is being distributed directly to the homes of those 263 families who have the 887 refugees staying with them. The community leaders themselves are taking the money to the homes. The money will be given directly to the woman of the house before all the members of the household, so that all is done with complete transparency. The families are receiving anywhere from 200 – 2500 gourdes ($5.00 – $71.00 US) depending on the number of people who have been received into the home. Pignon market will be busy tomorrow!

It's a Big Job

Yesterday I had 5 meetings. Barb had 6! So there was no time for blogging and precious little for email. But a lot of planning got done.

The results of the survey the young people did is in. As of Wednesday evening or Thursday morning, there were 887 people who had returned from Port-au-Prince to 263 households. Those households are in several communities from Grand Latanier 3 or 4 miles south of HAFF to LaPila about 2 or 3 miles north of HAFF. I don't know how far off National Route 3 the survey takers went. Of those communities, Bohoc had the largest influx with 320 people. And those numbers were not including the people coming in on the 5 trucks that were in Port-au-Prince picking people up yesterday.

Those trucks needed lots of prayer. I don't know the details, but our management team meeting was interrupted several times yesterday morning by Met Gabriel's voice sounding very stressed as he talked by cell phone to the men with the trucks in Port. Barb got a call from one of the men in charge of the truck we sent and he sounded pretty stressed too. But we did get a report last night that the truck we sent arrived safely with 61 people. That puts the number received in the area over 900. And that doesn't even count the other 4 trucks.

So, we are realizing we are facing a huge refugee population and many families who will be needing help, as they were already struggling to make ends meet even before this. When the community leaders' finance commission met yesterday to talk about distributing the cash already received at that time (not the pledges, just the actual cash on hand), it quickly became apparent that there was nowhere near enough to make any kind of a difference. And this is just the beginning.

Another area of need is the emotional and spiritual well being of the folks returning and of the people receiving them. Several of the survivors have mentioned that they still see the bodies they had to climb over to get out of their buildings and that they still hear the noise of the quake and the buildings falling. Some can't sleep unless they are between 3 or 4 other people. And others still start and want to run each time the wind shakes the metal roofing on the house.

The young people's meeting yesterday brought out an idea of possibly having a week long evangelistic crusade combined with a Vacation Bible School for the younger children. And this morning, the students and teachers of BTI gathered for a service of prayer and worship and then divided into 3 groups to go visit and encourage the families of our 3 former students lost in the quake. All these activities bring healing and comfort in these uncertain and difficult times.

We are excited about how the communities and missions are working together. Keep us all in prayer for unity and wisdom and transparency and that we would do what is best.

Good things are happening in the greater Bohoc LaJeune area. The photo below is of the group of young people who met at HAFF yesterday.



But community leaders have met and the heads of missions have met and folks from the rural areas have met with the folks from the town of Pignon. And we are working together hand in hand, Haitian with American, town with country to meet this crisis together.

The following things are being accomplished as I write this:

• The equivalent of 7 trucks are being sent to Port-au-Prince to get more people out of the city.
• Surveys are being done of each house in various areas to see what the needs are – how many people used to live there, how many more have come, what is needed in the way of food and medical care. (Just a note – HAFF's Young Leaders for God are heading up the survey teams!)
• Committees and commissions have been set up to compile the information and get the money or food or clothing out to the various families according to their needs.
  Funds and food have been pledged and will start being distributed tomorrow and Friday. An effort is being made to get money into the hands of the families so they can go to market on Saturday.
• All the other local missions are supporting Dr Germinal in the clinic at LaJeune with medicines on hand and making contacts for him for more meds. The community leaders' committee will make funds available to cover his costs for treating victims of the quake, even if they are not able to pay.