Haiti - February, 2018 - Team 3

February 18, 2018

Sunday – Some of our group went to St. Marc for church – Pastor Lynn Thompson preached and Pastor Herve translated. It was a great service, and many of the women from St. Marc who had attended the sewing classes last week were so warm and friendly when they greeted us.  Mark, Pam, Jeff, Heather, and Jean went to Dupin to church. Heather sang  “It is Well With My Soul”. What a treat to hear our Mission Center guard, LeFette, preach on John 9. There was no one to translate, but they were able to decipher that God is faithful, mighty, and strong in times of trouble.  After lunch we had a relaxing day at the Mission Center, swimming, reading, resting, and talking, except for Heather and Jeff. They didn’t consider it working on Sunday, as they were varnishing and drilling holes in tables under a tree by the Caribbean Ocean listening to worship music.

February 19, 2018

Monday – One construction crew worked on the storage shed here at the Mission Center. Others painted and finished putting the tables together. Adam poured a slab of concrete in the new storage room after mixing the cement by hand. The Haitian guard “President” was a big help. 

Heather made 14 beds on her birthday getting ready for the new team that will now not get here until tomorrow. Please continue to pray that there will be no flight delays tomorrow. We sang to Heather all day. She has spent her last 8 birthdays here in Haiti. 

Jeff will also be working on a storage peg board for tin cups for Lanzac. This project was initiated by Shirlene, our community agent at Lanzac. She did her capstone presentation on health promotion and the importance of having a clean cup every day for the children to drink water. Before we leave, we hope to have it installed for the school.

Another construction crew teamed up with the Haitians – to finish the third roof at MPCA. They are now known as the Ebony and Ivory Construction Company. Except for a little clean up – we are now finished with the roofing project at MPCA.

The sewing group went to Chardene to teach the ladies how to crochet a tote bag made of T-shirt yarn.  It was challenging to say the least but thrilling and exciting to see their faces when they “got it”.  The ladies were intrigued by Wendy’s support hose. They took her shoe off and pulled the knee-highs down. They were truly amazed!

The medical team went to Lanzac to follow up with a few students. We fell in love with this sweet little boy pictured below.  Throughout the day, the medical team worked on completing tasks from last week’s OB teaching and prepared for physicals that will begin tomorrow.

February 20, 2018

The highlight of today was that our Week 3 Team finally was able to fly out of Ft. Lauderdale this  morning and arrived at the Mission Center at 2:15 PM. They looked amazingly well considering that some of them had not slept since they left early Monday morning. After eating a quick lunch, the medical providers, pharmacist, and nurses were whisked off to MPCA to do physicals on approximately 60 kids.

Deb and Heather went to Degeance with Anite, the school nurse, to do some follow-up checks on students. We have passed the baton to Anite to give the hygiene seminar to young ladies. Previously, all of the hygiene seminars were conducted by US teams.

The construction crew worked on the storage shed at the Mission Center. They got the roof on, the storage racks moved inside, and then leveled up. Lighting is the next stage of the process.  BJ modified a Lifestraw table to accommodate the preschoolers at Lanzac, making it reachable for them. The finished round classroom tables were delivered to a happy group of preschoolers at Lanzac.

The sewing team went St. Marc to begin instruction in crochet to over 30 women. The ladies went away knowing how to crochet (hopefully). They started out learning how to do a slip knot and by the end, they had a good start on the bottom of their purses.

February 21, 2018

Construction: Today the construction team completed several projects that have been in the making over the past two weeks.   They cleaned the rust off of steel tubing, in other words, the day was engaged in corrosion control. Jennifer is our designated organizer for the week. She worked on labeling the shelves in the new tool shed.

  

Bible School – Lynn finished teaching at the Bible School. Their session ended in an exam, and then the students surrounded Lynn and prayed for him. The students were so sweet in sharing their appreciation for Lynn and his teaching.

Sewing – Liane and Wendy.  We were fortunate to have two new people join us today, Julie and Michelle from St. Marys.  We enjoyed a fantastic afternoon crocheting purses from the T shirt yarn the Haitian ladies had made on our last session on Monday. It was our last session at Chardan so we took pictures of the quilts they made and recognized each of them for their participation.  There was lots of hugging and congratulating and Merci, Merci. We all were sad to part company and hope to see our ladies next year!

Medical – The medical team went to Dupin to do physicals in the morning. For the afternoon, they came to MPCA to finish the physicals there. Deb and Deb spent the morning with the Community Agents at MPCA and treated a few children with some skin issues.

After supper we had a time of praise and worship in the gazebo. Several shared of how God has brought them to this point. We are all so blessed.

February 22, 2018

It was another great day here in Haiti with everyone going different places. Our menu board made us think of home. Too bad the fine print stated “just kidding”. Fortunately, we have had amazing meals here and no one is losing weight.

Our new sewing machine was put into service today and Herta made her very own quilt. She was so proud.  Liane taught her how to use the machine. She will be able to sew the reusable hygiene pads more efficiently.  The sewing group had a catch-up day here at the Mission Center sewing hot pads and preparing yarn for the ladies of St. Marc.

The medical team saw over 70 students at St. Marc for physicals. We had a bigger team today-which meant lots of help and high efficiency! Sabine, Travis, Ben, Greg, Tom, Madison, BJ, Ellie, Pam, Amanda, Myra, Julie, Alicia, and Crystal guided the students through foot checks, vitals, examinations, treatments, and getting them medicine if needed. With so much help we finished up earlier than scheduled and got to play a game of futbol (but with a tennis ball) and hung outside with the students. Sabine and Amanda played “Ring Around the Rosey” with several of the smaller children.

Josh and Mirlene (Community Agent at St. Marc) took a Tap-Tap and a moto to 4 different schools to get water samples from the Lifestraws. When then got back to the Mission Center, they began the water testing process to check for E-coli.

Deb and Michelle went to MPCA to spend the day with the Community Agents. We had a little bit of an intense situation. A teenage girl was brought to where we were treating some minor injuries, carried by the principal and other workers at the school. It was apparent she was having some type of seizure. The Community Agent got her VS’s and they were normal. She continued to have what looked like a seizure about 3 times. She would not respond verbally, but was able to follow commands. While we were waiting for her aunt to arrive to take her home, we surrounded her and prayed for her. About 3-4 minutes later, she opened her eyes and was able to sit up and drink some water. We found out that she was very sad because her father had passed away 2 weeks ago. We thank God and give Him the glory for intervening for this child. Both of the Community Agents conducted themselves very well and Deb was very proud of them.

The construction team delivered a new Lifestraw table to Lanzac. The kids were so excited. More progress was made by Jeff on the peg board that will be used to store individual cups for the kids at Lanzac. Jennifer, Debbie, Lynn, and Mark worked on inventorying and labeling tools for the new storage shed. Kevin and Steve worked on a special project.

Our evening concluded with a wonderful time of worship in the gazebo with Ballack (one of our translators) and his friends leading us. As in previous weeks, this was such a special treat and sweet time of reflection.

February 24, 2018

Today was a very active day for the team! All the Haiti “newbies” got to see the sights and visit a few important places.  The medical group plus some bounced and swayed all the way to La Hatte bright and early to finish a few physicals, then enjoyed a hike through the village, holding the hands of precious, little ones along the way, returning back hungry and sun burnt.  In the afternoon, the same group went to Degeance to hike up to the school as well as preview the land for the new school.  Everyone agreed it was amazing to see the beautiful, scenic view and appreciate the beauty of Haiti. 

Josh and Mirlene (Community Agent at St. Marc) gave a seminar about maintaining the Life Straws. Responsible persons from each school as well as all of the community agents attended.

               

Pam and Deb conducted an afternoon training session for the community agents.  The community agents were very gracious for all they had learned and the teachers are encouraged by all they learned. They enjoyed learning how to use the new thermometers and in Lanzac, they are thrilled to have the new cup holding peg boards that Jeff made.  The time wrapped up with some sweet worship, Jezi renmen.

The construction team took lumber and supplies to Dupin to set up to complete the new roof next week in the remaining few days of work.  The walls were completed on the tool storage shed so everything can be put away into a new organized space next week.  A couple guys finished a screen for rat prevention in the supply room.  Hooray! The rest of the day was spent sorting supplies to keep in Haiti and packing up things to take to Findlay.

Some of the team will be leaving bright and early for the airport tomorrow AM. Thank you, Lord, for this amazing time in Haiti. May we never forget what we have experienced and take Haiti home in our hearts!