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Earthquake Update from Hope House
the following are emails from Debbie Berquist, VOH Director, for the week of March 14-17, 2010
Mar 17 Top o' the evening to you all:...Did you all wear green today? By happenstance I did!....but not a drop of green beer in sight. So to all with Irish blood flowing in them Happy St Patrick's day.
It was another day of taking care of the business at hand. Got the ladies off to the market this AM to get fruits and veggies, met with Joel and Fleury to straighten out some job duties, saw Joseph and Jorel off to purchase materials for the depot. Then Christophe and I headed to the school to check out what prep work we needed to do for the wall repair when the team gets here. I met with Clovis while I was there to go over some details from the budget he prepared. He was there to see that work on the food depot got started...which it didn't for one reaon or another..until late this afternoon.
Clovis also told me of an interview he heard from the Director General of Schools regarding the opening. It seems he gave very wishy washy information and further confused the whole thing instead of giving clear information and details about the opening of school and the conditions under which each one can open. We strategized a bit so that we will be giving the same message to the teachers and students who may be leery to come to school and be in the classrooms. We will just have to take it one day at a time!
On the way home, I stopped by the grocery store and then headed to the hospital to check in on Vionnie. Her big sister Waldine was with her when I arrived. She is doing better and was pretty alert and bright eyed. I think however she will be there yet for another couple of days. Christophe joined me for this part of the trip too as his son Mark, was getting treated for a cut to the forehead he recieved a day or two ago, when a thug attacked him on the street. He had to have his dressing changed and to see the Doctor. I dropped off drugs for Hopital Eben-Ezer and last stop was to Marie's to deliver letters and bracelets mailed to her and the girls via my Agape address. A class from Port St Lucie Fl was sending cards of greeting, prayers and support and friendship bracelets for the girls.
..and the rest of the afternoon doing correspondence/paper work brings me to the current time of 5:30. I promised to finish early today as Marni, the one who has been assisting me get these reports to the website, will be leaving early to get to the airport as she is part of the Mission trip to Hope House tomorrow. Now I will leave you with a short Irish Blessing. ......Debbie
. Floor is poured for the depot. Now we will start working on the ceiling..if all goes well and as I planned with Jorel this AM, it should be done, the roof that is, just before I leave for the US in April
. The wall by the work shop area is now 90% done. It will go on hold now while Christophe heads to the school to do some repairs in the dining hall to prepare for the team coming on Thurs. Before we finish it completely too, there has to be some decisions regarding the new roof and that advice I will be seeking in another email.
. I attended the health coordin mtg today and got some more information on possible psycho social support for our staff and students, through a rep from Plan Haiti who was at the meeting. It is good to know what is going on and I get to catch up with some other folks I know, plus make new connections that will stand us in good stead it the future.
. Stopped by to see Gladys for her wish list to send to folks in Naperville who are getting a container ready to send to Haiti
. Had an appt with Marie to go over the same list, but missed her as she had another place to go.
. Met with Clovis and Helene re school admin operations, background information and budget for next year
. I got confirmation for the June 23-28 group and they only have 9 folks coming. If anyone knows of any singles our up to 5 people who may be interested in joining let me know. I have already written to one person I know who was on her own, to see if she would like to join them.
. In between there were phone calls and computer work....the ordinary mundane things.
. Lots of chatter on the radio, regarding President Preval's reaction to accusations of corruption in his government; calls for him to step down before the next election. He is not elegible to run again as he has held office 2 times and that is the constitutional limit here for a President's terms. Who will run to take his place is another huge question?
. Clovis heard the Minister of Ed'n speak on the radio and he is hopeful school will be able to open in April as one of the Minister's comments was realizing he should be having kids in school in our Dept where the school were not damaged....that it didn't make sense any longer to make a blanket statement that all school should remain closed. So we are keeping our fingers crossed and Clovis will move ahead with his planning with the staff.
I'm attaching another couple of photos from my day yesterday. They will give you an idea of what many of the side streets look like. Private citizens and the yellow t-shirt work crews are clearing wheelbarrows of debris from the smaller inner streets and bringing it to a larger one that would be able to take a dump truck on it. The plan is that eventually the dump trucks will come and haul it away....and who know how long that will take. It gives you an idea why all the main bigger streets are so busy because everyone's "secret" side streets they used to use to deke around traffic are now strewn with rubble and in places impassable.
  a la prochaine,
Debbie Hopital Ti Frere et Soeur.....close to the US embassy. I went by to visit Vionie, Modelene's daughter who has been in the hospital for a week. She had her first operation last week for appendicitis. I spoke with one of the residents who said she was doing a lot better than when she first was admitted. Today she was scheduled for a second operation to reassess the site as it seems an abscess formed and it was still draining more than he thought was good at this point. I told them I would drop by again on Wed. While at the hospital I passed by their outpatient clinic to ask about a nurse I have known for a number of years and sadly learned that she was killed in the earthquake. She was really an exceptional nurse and I know they will miss her very much there.
Food for the Poor....to drop off some donated medical supplies and medications I had in overabundance. Didn't see Dr Laurent or others I wanted to check in with because everyone was in a meeting with Mr Mafoud. I'll try calling the others tomorrow..wanted to check on a shipment of food that is due to arrive anyday now.
Megamart....a large grocery/dept store along the line of Costco..but not quite as large. I was checking on some prices for a group who is deciding whether to purchase things at home and ship them or purchase the items in PAP. They have quite a large parking lot and part of it is taken up with folks camped out in their tents.
Carrefour.....this area is about halfway between PAP and Leogane.....I didn't realize it was so far, having mixed it up with another section of town. I was heading there to see where Joseph, our driver, was living and how he was situated with his tent. I tell you it is like two different worlds between Santo, our area, and that side of town. The damage is so much worse over there. Having visited his house, I now have a better understanding why Joseph has to leave his house at 4:30 to get to our place by 8....what a trip!!
Kombit Artisanat...is an Haitian souvenir place not far from the Oloffson hotel which I have been frequenting for years. I wanted to see if one, the shop survived and two, if the owner and her staff were okay.......good news on that end. All were okay as was the shop....so naturally I had to spend a few gourdes while I was there.....for various gifts and fund raising events. A crew was busy out from of the Oloffson in the process of re-building their walls. I didn't stop to check out the hotel but from the number of cars I saw in the parking lot, I figured they are open for business.
Ministry of Health....found Mme Nazaire the Dir of Nursing for the State school of nursing in the "new" offices of the Ministry of Ed'n. She was there chasing after some money for her staff who haven't been paid in some months. My purpose to see her was to present her with a tarp as she too is living on the streets. She is still deeply saddened by the loss of so many of her students and still does not have a complete count. Some have not only left PAP but the country. The Ministry will be having a Mass at the end of this month for those students and staff members killed at the school and hospital.
Plaza Hotel..made reservations for a Canadian construction contractor who will be visiting Haiti at the end of the month. It is a convoluted story of how I got connected with him but I was happy to be able to help a fellow Cdn. He may be interested in doing some construction work in Haiti, so I told him about the clinic we wish to build..so now Hope House is on the agenda for one of his stops while he is here so I can share more with him about our project.....you never know where it could lead!
Jospeh headed home from the hotel and I drove the rest of the wayback home, as I only had one more stop. It didn't make sense for him to drive me all the way back to Santo just to turn around and take public transport all the way back home. After each of us downed an icey cold coke we went our separate ways.
Visa Lodge...stopped by there to make reservations for the gang coming this week. We will enjoy lunch there Sunday after church.
From there it was clear sailing all the way home...I chose the right route as traffic was pretty light and I got back home in no time.
And that folks is what took me from 8:00 AM today until 3:30 this afternoon......I am a little bouke...(tired out)..are you too!!
I'm attaching a couple of pictures for your interest.
One is of an irrigation ditch in PAP. This is one of the biggest challenges for recovery work..trying to clear out some of the canals before the rainy season starts in earnest. As we headed to Joseph's the one crane was pulling stuff out of one of the canals. The sludge that it lifted was definately not a pretty site! The second picture is of a crew of men taking down a building by brute force alone...they have a long way to go!
The EDH just came on, so I will say goodnight and go and take care of a couple of chores taking advantage of the electricty.
Have a good evening.
Debbie.
Mar 14 Good evening one and all: A quiet weekend but a productive one. Saturday I shopped for groceries and cement....as I said to someone else..that is quite a combination. Never fear for all who may eat here, I will not get the two mixed up! Then it was on to mail pick up and at the same time recieved some more medical donations. Slowly I am being able to replace a lot of items we had given away to help others for emergency care. The afternoon was spent doing correspondence and sorting through the supplies.
Joel and I watched a movie in the evening and then it was time for some shut eye.
Today I putzed about doing some preparation in the kitchen for the team arriving on Thurs. and then spent the rest of the afternoon in front of the computer completing some assignments. It was nice to have the peace and quiet and not a lot of interruptions.
I had a call this afternoon from one of the kitchen staff (Modelene) who's daughter Vionie is in the hospital with apparent appendicitis. I will stop by at the hospital tomorrow to see them. Modelene said she may be operated on tomorrow or Tues.
This report seems a little drab but in a way its nice, knowing things are slowly down a bit so that we can get to the everyday work at hand.
Wishing you all a pleasant evening.
I will close with a short quote from Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy "Life isn't a matter of milestones but of moments"!......how true that seems to me.
Debbie
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