Haiti Day 8

nurse: we have a conference call with an organization tonight, is that ok for you to talk to them tonight?
pastor: i still have my mouth, so i will talk to them.

aid worker: what if we built the new houses with wood?
pastor: wood houses eat trees, we will build them with stronger cement and we could use machines to clear them if you wanted, but the the Haitians will die, they need to work.

Today was a bit slower of a day.  We went and dropped off the food from Brazil at a storage place to get divided up into bags.  Then we got dropped off at the airport again to see what other kind of connections we could build.  The main connection we made was with the UN Communications Organizer and he got us a driver and took us to find the chief of staff for the Canadian Military.  This was kinda cool and was the first air conditioning I have felt since being here in the car that drove us there.  When we got there we talked to a man named Mike who graciously explained how this entire operation is working and where not to get caught in the system.  He was a military man of some sort, I don’t think he was the chief of staff (who’s extension we now have) but he certainly knew what was going on.

Basically everything is being operated by the UN, so if we need escorting, security, equipment or basically anything that aid workers need we simply put in a request and within 24 hours they can get it for us.  It’s that simple.  There is an entire new organization that is only 5 days old that is joining all the logistics of all the operations and making things happen.  So we left the airport with that information and don’t think we need to go back for anymore logistical type stuff.

We spent the rest of the day booking flights and getting ready for the next team that is coming (yah Rachel!)  The UN is giving free flights from Santo Dominfo to Port Au Prince so we applied for the team to get on one of those flights.

We had a meeting tonight with Humedica, a german organization, who is willing to help rebuild Marbial (the village Rachel will be going to) and getting their school back up and running, boys home and hopefully some houses.

We also went on a hunt for Bishop Keith Elford of the Free Methodist Church in Canada who is in Haiti right now.  We had missed where he was at the Free Methodist land here in Haiti (not too far from where we are staying) .  We did get a tour by another pastor there who was pointing at buildings that still had people under them, including some missionaries that were there from the USA.  It was the first time we looked at a building that we knew someone was still under; it was heartbreaking.  They have a community of about 100 that are living on their land that they are trying to get food for and take care of also.

Rachel comes Sunday, so I’m excited about that.  We are hoping to get a helicopter over to Marbial to look at the village there; it would be nice to see it since I won’t be staying there at all.  I am starting to stay up too late, and am getting tired.  I also have bed bug bites all over my arms, you gotta love it.

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