A New Mission Project in Haiti – The poorest country in our Hemisphere

We (Peter Kikot & Andrew Topp with International Humanitarian Aid Foundation) are in the midst of creating a fresh new home for girls called Consolation Center in southern Haiti. We are already helping homeless girls, currently aged 5-15, just outside of Les Cayes, in the area known as Turbec. Like the predecessor boys orphanage (Project Hope), this one is a very modest beginning. Managed by a husband and wife team (Eduard- who “graduated” from the original orphanage, and his wife Dejuene), the current rented facility provides daily meals for their fifteen in-house children and an additional twenty-five transient street children with no other means of support. The group of indigenous fifteen girls is fully supported with food and shelter, clothing/school uniforms (and education at an adjacent Christian school). All of these mission activities are supported on a mere $2500/month or less.

Pastor Andy has come up with a design for a housing facility for up to 50 girls, to be built on a piece of property that has been donated to Eduard and his wife Djeune. The total construction cost of the primary dormitory buildings will be $54,000.00. The bulk of this cost is for materials as most of the labor will be volunteer. This is the first phase of construction and is the most important to get started. We are seeking funding for the other phases of this humanitarian project, which will total $100,000.00 to build complete.

We are very interested in not only providing a safe and nurturing home for the girls we take in, but also provide them with essential life skills, education, and spiritual care.

If there are individuals, Rotary Clubs, Interact Clubs, churches and other organizations that would be interested in supporting this project, with finances as well as hands on help, their participation would be welcome.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. As such, the suffering of so many people there, especially children, is mind-boggling. Yet we can make a difference, and indeed, some already have. While, the investment here is relatively small, the overall benefit to the girls currently living on the street and the good will it generates is enormous! Just read some of the girls stories below to see the kind of difference that has been made already. God is Good!

Stories of the current residents of Consolation Center, as translated from Creole by Eduard Constant:

Brisline Jean :
She was born in 2001,Brisline Father’s left the family since she was born. Brisline doesn’t know her Dad but he still alive says people. She has 5 siblings, her Mom Can’t provide them food she left them with their 73 years old Grand Mother .Her Grand Mother heard about consolation home for girls she came and asked to receive all of them unfortunately, we do not have enough place and want to give a chance another need.

Dadine Jean:

We accepted her little sister Dadine Jean who was born in 2003.They are doing well at school and look very healthy.Same stories to her sister

Samorah Pierre:

Was born in 2003; she is the youngest of 4 brothers, 2 sisters

Her parents’ can’t afford to take care of her .They gave her to someone else where she works as a slave all day. She has to clean the house, carry head a bookit of water .A morning, we saw her cried she was asking to stay .Now she is with us , he is doing well at school and stay good hard work kid.

Sandra Calixte :

She was born in 2003; since she was born her parents left her and run to Dominican Republic and never come back. She stayed with her Aunt who doesn’t have a job Sandra was very anemic, weak and colorful hair when she came him .now she is a very quiet kid who loves to draw.

Manoucheca Sinal :

We don’t have a lot of details about her age but she says she is 5 years old

Her parents died in Gonaive during the hurricane. A Lady from les Cayes took her, later his husband kicked her out because she eats too much.

Daniela Calixte:

Daniela was born in May 2003, she is the 6th in her family with 7 kids who never go to school because the parents are too poor to afford that she is with us since September to go to school. Daniel is very happy to be with us

Sophonie Calixte:

Was born in 2004 same story with her older sister Daniela

Litane Etienne:

She was born in 2000 at Maniche, she was abandoned by her Mom and stayed with her mother in law. She worked as a slave, she was a malnourish kid, she was too weak to work the mother in law kicked her out. I am doing a humanitarian mission field where I met her in the street. I took her to the hospital where she stayed for 3 months for treatment. Now she is start school and doing therapy.

Tamara Wagnac:

She was born in 2004; she used to be a prisoner of her drug edict Father.Her Mon run a way in 2003.

Yousline Renaudin :

She is 5 years old , she was dropped with her birth certificate by someone on from of our gate. She said having three other sisters

Merisianne Jean Pierre:

She was born in 2004, She is a very good girl; She used to stay in the corner to ask for money or food to take care of two oldest sisters handicaps .Merisianne’s parents are category of mental handicap but Merisianne is healthy says the Doctor .

Edline Paul:

She is 10 years old she was abused by for money to buy food .She was recommended to us by the Mayor. A friend on mine who is a psychologist visits her twice per month. She made a lot of progress, now she is more happy than the passed

Lora Benoit :

She was born in June 1998 she is the oldest girls of consolation home. Lora doesn’t know his Dad she stayed with her single Mom since she was born. Lara Mom came around to consolation home offered her service just to find some foods to take home. One day she came with Lora and the little sister Yvenise the were enjoyed to be at consolation house and refused to go back because they find free foods joys of the girls now they become a member of our family.

Yvenise Zamy :

She was born in August 2006 same story with her older sister Lora

(A Note From Eduard…)

I send you these photos of Christian (below) that my

wife Djoune founded this little boy abandoned by himself under a bridge At Fond des Blancs .Djoune took Chris to the judge to legalize his case then took him to hospital where he spent 3 months. We do not have any in formations about his blood family. Since august 2008 he is with us at (mother in law house) I send you the photo # 210 that I take from now to compare to the ones that I took when we founded him.

Proposed new home of Consolation Center

Donations can be made to:

International Humanitarian Aid Foundation, Inc.

P.O.Box 13

Midland Park, NJ 07432

Or at: www.IHAF.us

Please designate “Consolation Center”

Proposed Budget Plan for Girls Orphanage Project in Haiti

Run by Eduard and Djeune Constant

For 50 Girls and some guardians

Phase I

4 – 40 foot containers @ 2,000.00 each    8,000.00

4 – 20 foot containers @ 1,500.00 each    6,000.00

Delivery = 500.00 each -            2,000.00

Masonry footings – 800.00 ea. X 8 =     3,600.00

Metal cutting equipment -             3,000.00

Welding supplies-                2,000.00

Miscellaneous – (screening, paint, etc)     400.00

Sub-total-                    25,000.00

Phase II

Build masonry base of compost house,

add toilets, sink, solar exhaust-        10,000.00

Equip housing with Bunk beds, desks,chairs 6,000.00

Equip Kitchen with gas stoves, sinks, etc    3,000.00

Solar power system for lighting and electric    10,000.00

Phase two sub-total                29,000.00

Phase III

Build roofing system -             25,000.00

Out door tables, benches, play area    10,000.00

Classroom/study/Chapel            10,000.00

Complete Project Total            99,000.00

The above prices are primarily for materials. Most labor is assumed donated/volunteer except for masonry work.

Respectfully submitted, Rev. Andrew J. Topp

May 23-30, 2009

Albania, a country being reborn. After centuries of being controlled by outside forces, dictators, and foreign powers, they are finally beginning to control their own destiny. Known as Shqiperia, “the land of the eagles” by its people, it is a mountainous beautiful Mediterranean country.

They began forming a democracy in 1992 and formalized it in 1995 . With that the abuses of the last several rulers/leaders the country was largely in shambles. Food supplies were extremely short, most had no money, no job, and a very dismal outlook for the future. 10’s of thousands had left the country, thousands more killed. What was once a proud and strong people, was now fragmented, broken, with no public services available for health, sanitation, or law and order. Yet a spark survived, and from that spark a democracy was born. Not a perfect system by any means, but it was a start. The various parties of the country were still vying for position, for control, for popularity, yet it seems to have begun to realize they need to find ways to work together.

And so they are making progress. Incredible progress in recent years. Over 2000 churches were destroyed or taken over during the communist era, now some are being rebuilt or opened as churches again. The Health system of the country was easily 100 years behind that of neighboring European countries, one of the new government’s early initiatives has been to try to improve the health service for its citizens. Along with paving roads, building infrastructure, building adequate, safe, efficient housing for the thousands of Albanians that have been returning home. Incredible progress has been made in recent years. Whole sections of cities, especially Tirana, the capitol, have been totally renovated, complete with numerous high rise hotels, businesses, and apartment buildings. The health system is largely a public system. Health services are offered free to all citizens, currently, almost all technically advanced diagnosis and treatments, are currently only available in Tirana at Mother Theresa Hospital. Basic services, and basic surgery are the only services available at the other 16 Regional Hospitals.

And so the need for a Gift of Life program in Albania. For every 1000 births per year there are 7-9 children that are born with congenital heart defects that will most likely require surgical repair if the child is to live a fairly normal life. Mother Theresa Hospital has been able to develop its pediatric program to the point where they can do some pediatric heart surgery. Currently, they have one cardio-thoracic surgeon and 3 cardiologists that see children. It is the only place and these are the only doctors in a country of 3.5 million where people can bring their children for help. Obviously, there are thousands of people, many, if they have survived, are now in their adulthood, doing the best they can. Thousands more children are also hanging on to a hope that maybe, somehow, soon, they will be able to receive the Gift of Life. Everyone we spoke with agreed that this is the current situation. Noone knows for sure how many are suffering and waiting or dying from CHD (Congenital Heart Disease). Noone knows because the country is still too fragmented to have that kind of information centralized. Even the cardiac team at Mother Theresa does not currently have a running list of patients they have not been able to help. Yet they are doing the best that they can. There is an Italian team that has been coming for 6 years, 3-4 times per year to perform surgeries there. Albanian, Dr. Boboci continues to operate on as many children as he can, those surgeries that he believes he can handle, in between the Italian teams visits. All in all, they are able to perform 80 – 100 surgeries each year. Unfortunately, that is not enough. There should be about 200 children born each year in Albania that need corrective heart surgery, plus there is the backlog of children born from all the years that surgery was not available anywhere in Albania. Currently, no children under 2 years of age or 21 kg are receiving surgery. For some of these, it means they are destined to die, since their parents do not have the means or the know how to send them elsewhere for help.

Needless to say, there is much we can do. And so we have taken the first steps to giving the Gift of Life to many children of Albania that need it. Our Gift of Life program has worked in many countries, yet not Albania, yet. Fortunately, Peter Kikot is married to a wonderful girl of Albanian descent. Erinda (Begeja) Kikot who also has a heart to help children worldwide, and now in Albania also. And so Peter, Erinda, and myself (Andrew Topp), travel to Albania to see what we can do. Rotary began in Tirana in 1996 and has recently branched out to 2 other cities of the country with a 4^th club, in Elbason, having its charter meeting on June 15. The beauty of Rotary International is the almost automatic cooperation we received from the Tirana Rotary club, in particular, from its current president, Adrian Shehu. Adrian is thrilled to be making this one of their first international cooperative projects, and so he was eager to set up appointments for us with anyone and everyone that he could.

Remember, Albania is still in a very delicate political state. In order for any program to succeed, it will need the blessing of political powers, administrators, and chiefs of staff.

And so, on Monday, we begin our week with a meeting with Deputy of Parliament - Alira from the Albanian Children’s Foundation; a government supported charity (chaired by the Prime Minister’s wife). Meeting in Adrian’s office, she is very interested in what we are proposing and believes that we can work in partnership with each other. In order to make it clear how we will work together she asks if we can draw up a Memorandum of Understanding which will outline what each of us expects the other to do. Once we both agree on the details, we will both sign and then begin our work!

Next Adrian has arranged a meeting, for Monday afternoon with Dr. Sasha Shashenka, the head intensive care Dr. at Mother Theresa Hospital PICU unit. She was extremely helpful and very interested in working with us. She was especially interested to find out if we can find an Echocardiogram Machine for their use. They currently have to share time on the one machine that they have in the hospital, that does not work very well. They really need one dedicated to the Pediatric department.

Next we head downstairs to the cardiology dept to see their one echo. Machine in action. It is used for both adults and children, doesn’t always give a complete picture and will not make any recordings—the one piece of information that our cardiologists really need to make a good decision when evaluating potential cases. For this reason we are trying to obtain a working echo-cardiogram machine as soon as possible.

Monday afternoon we have a meeting scheduled with Minister of Health Mrs. Zonia Godo. We have an impressive meeting, talk at length about the scope of the problem as well as the various approaches to solve some of the problems. Mrs. Godo also makes the suggestion that we may want to look into the possibility of working with some of the regional hospitals and working out a system of cooperation with them and Tirana Hospital. We were already thinking along the same lines!

Mrs. Goda calls her good friend, the General Director of Mother Theresa Hospital, Mrs. Gjeorgjina Kuli-Lito who is also a pediatrician to set up a meeting for us with her on Tuesday. General Director Gjeorgjina Kuli-Lito was very interested in getting all the details worked out to help us and so she quickly set up a meeting for us with Dr. Ariel Como – Deputy Director of Mother Theresa (in charge of the Cardiologists). She also sets up a meeting for us with Dr. Baboci.

Tuesday morning we have a meeting first with Dr. Arben Baboci- Cardiac Surgeon who does some surgery in between when the Italian team comes to help out. He agrees that there are many children who they are not able to help, but it really is the cardiologists who would have a handle on those cases. Many of them are either more complicated than what they can handle there or the babies are too young and small.

Ariel actually stopped in to meet us briefly and scheduled a meeting for Thursday with himself and the 3 cardiologists that worked also with pediatrics there. He was most concerned with going over the details of how we would proceed. He was also very interested in coming up with a way to keep track of patients that come to them for help and for one reason or another did not get it. Currently, if they cannot help them, they just send them home with whatever records might have been produced, there is no record of how many patients have been seen or who they are. Our meeting concludes with thank-you’s (filomenderit) and goodbyes (mirumpopshoo).

We spend a few moments over coffee outside in the warm Albanian weather with Dr. Ariel Como, getting to know him better and the makeup of the hospital better. He tells us we have made all the right connections and have gotten all the right support and so our progress should be good. By this point its almost dinner time for us, but in Albania, that’s not till 8 or 9 pm, so we stop at Erinda’s house, pick up her dad, and go out for some “coffee” and light snack until it is Albanian dinner time, while Erinda and Zana do some shopping.

Wednesday, we have a meeting scheduled with Albana, the President of the newly formed Rotary club of Elbason. She is going to introduce us to the head of the Pediatric department of the Regional hospital in Elbason. It is about a 1.5 hour drive through winding mountain roads. A beautiful drive, as long as you don’t get car sick! We all survive and stop several times to take photos. Elbason is a larger picturesque town in the middle of a large flat valley, with a river running through and mid-sized mountain peaks all around. In spite of the huge steel mill spread out through much of the town, (it is only partly operational), the town still retains much of its mid-evil charm, including the remains of several castle walls which now frame the downtown shopping and business area.

We go with Albana to meet Dr. Arben Paralloi, director of Hospital at Elbason, who is extremely nice and seems thrilled to meet us. He explains that their hospital is the only hospital in the region and serves about 400,000 people.

Still they only have the basics, they do some emergency care, some general surgery, some outpatient procedures and care. For everything else, most people either go to Mother Theresa in Tirana, out of country if they can afford it, or if they cannot– accept their fate.

A very interesting finding comes to light in our meeting, they have a good working ultrasound cardiology machine that will make DVD recordings! Only trouble is, they do not have a cardiologist trained to use it on pediatrics and they many need a different transducer to make it work effectively. Our next step then to help them and in turn to help more children, is to get them whatever parts they may need to be able to do echo-cardiograms on kids, and then bring one of the cardiologists here for training. That way early detection and diagnosis could be performed right in this regional hospital and they could be sent straight to us; saving time, money, red-tape and quite possibly, a good number of children’s lives.

After meeting with the cardiologists and checking out their equipment, we stop to have a cup of coffee with everyone, while we are socializing, the father of a good friend of Erinda and Peter’s, who lives in the US., but is from this town, stops by to pay a visit! I’m not sure if it’s another sign that it’s a small world, or this is just a small country! It is a joyous occasion nonetheless, and it feels good to feel like we have family everywhere we go!

Back through the mountains to Tirana, a little bit of down time, getting ready for Erinda’s step-mom’s 50^th birthday party that is scheduled for Wednesday night! They put it off purposely so they could hold it while we were there. We have a great time, get a real taste of Albanian hospitality, food, music, dancing, vino, raki, and fun!

Thursday- We get back to our hotel around 2 AM, only trouble is, we have to be up at 5:30 AM to drive to Durres for a ½ hr. live news conference on UFO, and educational/news channel that is broadcast in many parts of the country. We look a little bleary eyed on the screen, but all in all the piece turns out very well! It plays not only then, but also at 4:30 pm, and then again on Saturday. We give an overall explanation of the Gift of Life program and how we hope to help Albania. The host of the show wraps it up with an invitation for any families with children needing surgery to contact one of the country’s Rotary clubs for more information. By the end of the day we are already hearing good comments from people that have seen the coverage! Great advertising not only for GOL but also for Rotary International.

We would all love nothing more than going home and sleeping for a while, but we have a 10:30 meeting scheduled with Dr. Ariel and the 3 cardiologists. Adrian has a driver pick us up and we meet him and the others at the hospital. After introductions, we get down to the key business that we have been hoping to accomplish since we arrived, to determine for sure that not only are they willing and eager to work with us, but that they have some cases of children waiting to be helped. They admit they don’t keep records on kids that have come to them that they could not help, but they do know of 5 at the moment that were not helped by an Italian team of surgeons that was just there two weeks ago. They propose to get records together and to us as soon as possible. We have since received emails from them with their contact info and are awaiting the charts of these children that need our help.

Next we make plans to go up to the top of Dayti Mountain by cable car to get a good look at the layout of Tirana, and have lunch. On the way we talk about the benefit of at least stopping in at the US Embassy to visit the consular office to introduce ourselves. One of the key components to helping people get a US visa to come to the US for treatment, is having a good relationship with the Embassy. If they get to know us there and we have a good record of making sure people return to their home country, they are much more likely to issue visas when requested. We are tired and would rather go home to rest for the late afternoon, but this is important.

On the cable car, we are seated with 3 other people, we assume are Albanian, turns out one lives in the US in NY and knows a friend that Peter and Erinda know very well, and the other two are good friends with one of Erinda’s uncles! What a small world!

After a delicious lunch and many photographs; of the city, the people, the WWII bunkers still visible in many of the hills, we hire a taxi to take us to the Embassy.

They will only allow Peter and I in, so we drop off Ashok and Erinda waits outside while we make our introductions and leave some brochures. They look forward to working with us and are glad to know that we already have a clear understanding of what is required for them to issue medical visas.

Next, we need to go to the Tirana Rotary meeting! Remember, Peter and Erinda and I are still operating on 3 hours sleep! We are really starting to show some wear and tear!

The Rotary meeting goes great, a wonderful group of folks who are very interested in making Gift of Life one of their first International projects. Peter, Erinda as translator, and I give a good program overview, we exchange cards, take some photos and then its off to dinner, finally! (although we would rather we were going home to sleep!) Adrian tells us that there is another Doctor in his Rotary club that wants to meet with us and he really thinks we should meet with him after dinner tonight. (OH NOOOO! We are soooo tired…) This Dr. is a good friend of Dr. Baboci, he is a general pediatric surgeon and besides wanting to help us work out the details of helping children with congential heart defects, he is also interested to know if we can help some of the children he sees with other difficult conditions. We tell him of our other foundation, International Humanitarian Aid Foundation that will consider other cases. We promise to keep in touch and finally—its time to go home and crash!!

Friday morning we are hoping to take some free time to travel south to see a little more of the country, Adrian has other plans! There is a possibility that we will have a meeting with Mrs. Berisha, the wife of the Prime Minister of Albania, unfortunately her schedule doesn’t work out for us to meet, but Peter, Adrian and I, do have a meeting at 1 with Dr. Zaneta Shatri of USAID. She is also a pediatrician by training but is now in charge of health development within Albania. She is very interested in what we are doing and how Rotary works in a country like Albania. She also has similar ideas on how to work with the Regional hospitals, taking some of the burden off of the Tirana Hospital. It’s a very informative meeting for both of us!

We leave there with a great sense of accomplishment for the week. We hope and pray that many or all we met with will follow up with their part and that we can get all the support that we need to make this ongoing, life saving project a reality. We agree with Adrian and this year’s Rotary theme, that together, we can “Make Dreams Real”! Yours in Rotary International Gift of Life service, Peter and Andy

Haiti – 6-08

The start of another mission project—this one seems a bit more special again, full of anticipation.  A lot of things have fallen into place in spite of some other difficulties in my life.  Our Compost House should be almost complete, hopefully waiting only for the final touches I have to add, also some of the most important components, solar panels for power, batteries for storage of electric, and exhaust fans to maintain a constant negative air pressure in the composting tanks.  I will be relieved when it is finally all together and operational!  I can’t believe that I am actually anxious to see the compost house produce its first load of digested human waste!  Pure compost!  I am hoping that Fr. Marc has begun to accumulate a supply of dry sawdust and other deciduous material, it will be a key component to get it running and to keep it running.
An additional and exciting component of this trip, (and yes, even though these trips are a lot of work, they are also exciting), is that I am meeting Jim –the well driller from Michigan, to learn how to drill wells with the used drilling rig he helped to acquire and send down to us.  At the Rotary Water Summit in Dec. 07, I met some Rotarians that are involved in replacing and repairing many of the hand pumps that are around the country.  These pumps, the India Mark II, are known to be durable and yet simple to operate.  Many were installed throughout the country by USAID and by the UN and others 30 -40 years ago and now some of those need repairs or replacement.  When I knew we were going to be drilling our own wells, I also knew a few of these pumps would come in handy for us as well.  Upon contacting these Rotarians, we struck up what I hope will be a wonderful bargain for both of us, they will give us 4 pumps if we will drill a well at another orphanage that is currently using very polluted water for all their water needs.  Right now, I am planning on renting a pickup truck in Port Au Prince, driving to Leogane where I will meet Albert, who will give me what pumps will fit in my truck, teach me how to assemble them, and then show me where they would like to drill a well.  From there, the plan is to drive to Pwoje Espwa, in Cayes, spend the next 10 days or so drilling, learning to drill, installing a pump, finishing the compost house, etc. A lot of work, but extremely valuable stuff!
Just finished writing the progress report for our Rotary Sanitation Grant, only trouble is, we have a few gaps to fill to account for the $28,000.00 that was spent so far and we only have one almost finished compost house to show for it, out of the 5 we were hoping to build.  We have had a bunch of other necessary, sanitation related expenses come up along the way, that now we have to justify in that report.  PAPERWORK!  THERE IS ALWAYS PAPERWORK!  Oh well, that’s the way it is.  Battery getting low, and we should be close to PAP.  See you again soon!   Au revoir!

Thursday, May 29, 2008   As I figured, its been a crazy couple of days.  Finally feel like we are making a little progress.  Went through shipping and customs procedures with Dominique on Monday afternoon, talked about the status of our Haitian Franchise status, and about all the different facets of the project at Espwa.   I needed to stop in Leogane to pickup a few India Mark II pumps, hand powered water pumps, and look at where they want to drill a well.  We went back and forth on how much it would be to rent a vehicle and what kind of vehicle, I really wanted to rent a pickup truck so I could easily load the pumps.  I mentioned that I really should look at buying a combination pickup/passenger, guess what?  Dominique has one and was thinking about selling it!  Over dinner we agreed on a fair price, and now its here!!   It runs great, although we did have a bit of a problem with one of the drive axles, but Dominique had a new one flown to us yesterday and we replaced it today.
Yesterday was quite frustrating with the truck breaking, not having everything we needed to start drilling wells, went into town three times to pickup parts and supplies, a water tank, etc.  Have a bunch of things to fix, the turbine is all tied up with kite string, neither grey water pump is working, some of the electric wiring has been messed with and needs to be corrected.  I keep calling Peter Kikot giving him more and more things to bring down, things we cant get here and things we need if we want to complete some of the things we have planned.  All day long I hear kids calling my name, guess I have been coming here for a while now and the kids really love to see people that care enough to keep coming back.  Of course some of the ones who are now learning English well enough occasionally get up the courage to ask for stuff that they think they need.  Its kind of interesting to see how creative they can be.

Tomorrow should be interesting, have a few things to fix on the drill rig before we continue drilling the well we finally started this afternoon.  We hope to get this well drilled, the well casing set, and prepped for a submersible pump.  Then we have to re do a bunch of the wiring that was disconnected when the local “electrician” ran his new undersized wire to all the kids houses.  Oh well, three steps forward two steps back.  A bit tired by this time tonight, guess I will sign off for now, socialize a little and then hit then hit the sack.  Until tomorrow,  AJT

Sunday, 7 AM.  A few tomorrows have gone by since I wrote last.  Well drilling has been going slower than its supposed to—seems the high percentage of clay kind of gums up the drilling bit and actually slows it down, but finally yesterday around noon we hit the bedrock and drilled into it about 5 feet, about 75 feet down.  The well casing will go down to there and then the smaller drill will go a bit deeper to where we will draw water from.   Jim had hoped to have that well finished yesterday but for some reason the mud pump lost its prime we have not been able to get it started again.  We think we have a solution that we will try after Mass and lunch today.
Peter Kikot arrived Friday 5:30 or so in the middle of a heavy rainstorm, so heavy that they pulled the fire truck out to the end of the runway with it lights on to guide the plane in! He looked really funny carrying that pink laptop bag for Nancy, one of the secretaries here!  Its good to have him down here, he works well and we have a good time together.
Of course the C/V drive joint on the other side of the “new” truck we just bought broke on Friday, Dominique was very good about ordering another one and having it flown here on the same plane as Peter.  Now the truck should be in reasonably good shape—except, the horn stopped working now, I found a broken wire yesterday that has to be soldered, I’ll fix that later.  I think Peter is a bit amazed to see all 600 or so kids eating at one time.  It is quite a sight with their 600+  silver metal plates and spoons, for lunch yesterday they had large sweet potatoes in some type of  spicy oily gravy. It actually smelled quite good!  I have been letting Peter use my camera, he forgot his and I like to see what kind of photos he takes and what things catch his eye.
Everywhere we go, especially on the weekends when kids don’t have school, there are a few kids, or a bunch, that follow us around.  I was showing Peter some of the property and where our drainage ditch goes, the river, etc.  4 or 5 kids where with us, asking us names, when are we going back to the US (they always ask that—I think they want to know how long they have to see you).  We started taking photos and videos with my camera, one of them showed us he can do a standing flip!  So we got some really good photos of him in the air! Cool!  Well- actually its been quite warm and humid, thank goodness for the fan in my room, I stayed up a bit later last night just so that I would sleep extra soundly and hopefully not notice the heat.
The kids are up so early every morning.   5 or 5:30 I start hearing them talking and playing, so we are usually up pretty early around here.  Its usually a good cooler time to be up,  yesterday morning, before breakfast, about 6, I got geared up with my home made safety harness and tools, climbed the 50 foot turbine tower and removed a mile of kite string that was all jammed into it.  It still is not working right but it also has not been windy enough to check what other short or un balance might be in it.  Something else to do later today, if I have time.
Finally got photos to load so I will include a few here- then breakfast should be ready, church after that!   Hope everything at home is ok, one more week to go!  Until later,  Andy

Sunday Evening, even though we didn’t start working till after chapel, about 10:30, it still feels like a really long day.  Jim finally finished drilling the first well, although did not get the mud pump running very well, ended up using a smaller one he had brought with him.  Still have to flush the well a bit to remove as much sediment and rock particles as possible, then it will be ready to install a submersible pump.  Tomorrow we will get the rest of the wire we need to power the pump from the line that comes from the quad here.  Peter and I spent time first replace all the broken shut off shower valves and faucets at the wash house this afternoon then  cut the angle iron frames for the solar panels for the compost house.    Tiwa started welding them together until it got dark and we couldn’t see anymore.  Finally quit around 7:30, took showers and had dinner.   Watched a movie and now most are in bed!   We had no electricity all day today,  even the batteries were dead, Peter took some time today to clean all the terminals, found the fuse from the turbine was almost broken so we need a new one of those,  the turbine seems to be working fine now. And the batteries should take and give better power.
So often today, it just seemed like we were swarmed with kids who wanted to be near, mobs jumped on the pickup truck numerous times as I drove around the property picking up gravel or tools for the work, it got a little out of hand until Francois took off his belt!  You should have seen all the kids dive off that truck!  Well, I am beat, time for bed, not to mention I am getting eaten alive again, since I am trying to sit out closer to the internet connection.  Bon nuit.   Andy

Wow, That is some flip!  And what a flip its been in the work we have done and the impressions that have been made on us in the short time we have been in Haiti.  It is now Sat. night, June 7.   Peter and I have been in transit since 6 am.  Flew out of Cayes at 7, Picked up be Jean Garry in Port au Prince.  We had several extra hours so we took Peter on a tour of PAP.   He was quite impressed, could not believe how many people were crammed and milling, desperately trying to sell something, anything, to make a few gourdes for the day.  The dirt, garbage, smells, sweat, burning garbage, burning sun, horns, hollers, nakedness, poverty, begging, strength, and beauty all mix to give one a feeling that most never experience—until you come here or somewhere as desperate and struggling as here.
Now we are in Miami airport, another change.  Should be used to it by now, don’t think one single thing that we planned on doing happened the way we planned it.  Why would our flight home be any different?!  Our flight to JFK was canceled so we have been re-routed thru Miami,  good thing is, we sweet talked the good natured check in girl and we are flying first class from here.    That will be a first!  We still don’t board for another hour or so.
To summarize the past few days,  here goes,  Peter and Tiboss put together the solar panel array for the compost house according to the specs I gave them,  it looks really cool!  And Fr. Marc even thinks its welded in the framework strong enough that noone will steal it!  I went over the design for the exhaust fans for the compost house with Tiboss, as well as the battery/control closet with the mason, and also the sink and water tank layout.  Obviously we are not getting to finish and start operation of the compost house just yet, but the end is getting near!  I will most likely have to go down again in 2-3 weeks to do the final install, and then we can begin composting!
Jim finally finished the first well!! With the drilling rig.  There were the typical combination of “Haitian” setbacks and it took more like one week to drill a well that Jim first thought would take one or two days to drill.  After the whole process was complete, we estimated we will most likely always experience similar problems, both with the equipment we are working with as well as the type of ground we are drilling in, lack of adequate water supply, and lack of repair parts etc.  and we should plan on one week per well.  Jim is hoping to drill one more well before he has to go home.  I am pretty sure Kevin and I know enough to drill one on our own later on if necessary, especially if they get the large mud pump working better than it was.