The Carwell Blog

PATRICIA'S BACK PAIN

2010-05-22T02:27:00.001-04:00

Saturday May 15 Patricia had a lot of back pain. It is never a good time to have pain, but right as we were preparing to return to Haiti, and were doing a lot of packing.. it seemed like bad timing to us. Patricia got her first professional massage which seemed to help some.. but she still had a lot of back pain. On Monday May 17 & Tuesday May 18 we had full agenda's and lots of packing and cleaning.. so this further aggravated Patricia's back. On top of that we weren't able to get much sleep, so that was another contributing factor I would suspect. On Wednesday May 19, we traveled from Chicago to Port-au-Prince, and Patricia's back seemed to get progressively more painful. As we drove home from the airport, I tried to drive slow and watch for bumps.. but it is impossible to have a smooth ride on these roads. The bouncy ride home was very painful, bringing tears to Patricia's eyes. Naomi was crying too, and needed to be fed, which added to the emotional stress of the ride home. When we arrived home, we knew we needed to care for Nathan and Naomi in getting them bathed, their beds assembled, get them fed and to bed. That took a while, but Patricia persevered to make it happen. As time went on, she was really in severe pain, not even able to get into bed, or get to the bathroom. At a late hour, I called an American friend of ours who is a physician's assistant. As I explained the problem to him, he felt it was a muscle spasm that was causing pain in her sciatic nerve. He offered to give her some medicine to help with the pain. The problem is while Patricia is nursing you have to be careful about what medicine you can take. Complicating things is that Naomi (now 10 weeks old) doesn't like to take formula from a bottle. Wednesday night I did go and pick up some pain medicine and got home before midnight. The medicine did seem to take the edge of the pain off enough that Patricia was able to finally get some sleep. Thursday was a very difficult day, and Patricia remained in bed except for a trip or two to the bathroom. I attempted to take care of Nathan and Naomi. On Friday May 21 a chiropractor visiting Haiti for a week or so, came by to do an evaluation. He along with the physician’s assistance believe that this pain is caused by muscle spasms around the sciatic nerve. He explained that she needs to spend all the time she can in bed, and he went over a list of good things to do, and other things to avoid. We were encouraged to hear that there is reasonable chance that this pain will subside in a week or so. Most importantly, please pray that this pain will go away quickly and Patricia will be able to return to her normal activities. Secondly pray for me as I work with Nathan and Naomi and balance priorities for our family and what needs to be done at work.

WE ARE BACK IN HAITI

2010-05-21T11:03:00.003-04:00

It's been 4 months since the earthquake.. and much has happened since then for all of us. We are happy to have Naomi in our family now.. but traveling as a family turns out to be quite a bit different than the last few trips I've made alone.

First of all.. I want to express our thanks to so many who continue to pray for us and support us. We couldn't be here without you. We are very grateful. Our families have helped us in many ways. It was so nice to have visits from several people before we left the states. Some came to help us pack things up. Carter gave the use of their van to get all of our stuff to the airport. John Naubert has graciously been our airport driver numberous times now.. and Patricia's brother Alfred was a tremendous help to us getting our baggage from the curb and through checkin.

So.. we had a lot of stuff. American Airlines allowed us to take 8 checked bags of 50 pounds each, 4 carry-on bags, 4 personal bags, 1 double stroller, 2 car seats, and 1 car seat base. That is 20 pieces if you are counting them.. and with Patricia's back not feeling well.. your's trully attempted to multi-task. Fortunately the double stroller worked well and we could hang some bags on it, and Patricia could push it. I was able to get a baggage cart and push it into the secure area of the airport.. which I wasn't sure they would allow. In Miami I was also able to get a cart which really helped out. Boarding in Miami we met a friend that I've flown in Haiti and he helped carry some bags, and again on our arrival in Port-au-Prince he helped again.

Clearing security in Chicago was an adventure with all of this stuff. And of course Nathan wasn't a happy camper during all of the process as we took off shoes, belt, opened up electronic devices, lotions, liquids for the baby.. etc. But I would have to say that the TSA folks were very nice, helpful, and facilitated the process as well as they could and still accomplished their task.

Both in Chicago and in Miami we had a lot of territory to cover, in other words a long distance to walk, but it went pretty well. We were rushed, but we did get a bite of breakfast in Chicago and some lunch in Miami.

We didn't have seat assignments.. but American Airlines worked with us to get us seated as close together as they could, taking into account the way the seats were configured with the isles.

Because of the earthquake, much of the original airport terminal is damaged in Port-au-Prince.. so things are in a make-shift arrangement. Getting off the airplane is normal, through a jetway bridge. Then you walk down a long hallway to an escalator and go down to the ground level. From there busses transport you to a building east of the original terminal. The space is small, and the area is very crowded when multiple airplanes of hundres of people arrive. In this area is imigration, baggage claim, and customs.

Our MAF coworkers were a wonderful help and whisked us through a big crowd of people to the immigration office for processing. It took a long time for our baggage to arrive, but once it came.. we got all of the pieces pretty quickly. The customs officials were gracious and didn't open any of the bags after I talked with them and explained what we had. Patricia was feeling miserable, but was able to sit on a chair in the corner and watch Nathan and Naomi in the stroller while I claimed bags. Leaving this little building is an adventure too.. a narrow walkway covered with an awning leads you to the street and the area is crowded with skycaps, taxi drivers, passengers, people trying to sell things, and people waiting to pick up someone. The area is not really smooth for wheels of baggage carts and strollers.. but we did the best we could and made it down the street and to a make-shift parking lot where the MAF vehicles were parked. We bounced along and made it home before dark.

We noticed some new construction in a few places.. but most of the tents are still up and things are mostly the same. The misery of so many, and the struggle to live is readily apparent as you drive through the streets. We realize that great needs exist, and we pray that God will use us in whatever way He desires.

We found things at our house were fine. We miss our dog Brownie who died while I was gone, but our other dog, named Bear, continues to be our watchdog. We have battery power, water, I turned on the propane gas to the stove, we plugged in the microwave and refridgerator, we don't have hot water yet but should get it when the city power comes on, our car isn't working but I knew that before coming.. and so forth. The neighbors cut our internet cable while cutting down a tree, but that is par for the course. Our neighbors were glad to see us back.

WRITE-UP FROM CESSNA MAGAZINE

2010-05-12T21:29:00.002-04:00

Volume 1, Issue 2 of Cessna Magazine has a number of good photographs of our airplanes with an article explaining about some of the eartquake relief flying we have done. See http://cessnamagazine.com/

3 MINUTE VIDEO OF MAF DISASTER RESPONSE IN HAITI

2010-04-04T14:16:00.002-04:00

Click on http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1253338932651 or paste it into your browser.

RAIN IS CAUSING PROBLEMS IN THE TENT CITIES

2010-03-19T22:12:00.002-04:00

Last night there was a pretty decent rain. Even before the earthquake, it was common for a heavey rain to cause casualties in the ravines. Now the misery overflows in the tent cities. They say almost 1 million people are homeless after the earthquake.. whatever the numbers are.. the living situations are poor. Please pray for help.

Here is a CNN video clip: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/03/19/sidner.haiti.rain.cnn?iref=allsearch

MAF PLAYING CRITICAL ROLE IN HAITI FOOD DISTRIBUTION

2010-03-10T23:59:00.001-05:00

Ministry Response Transitions to Rebuilding
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—03-10-10—Nearly two months following the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) must continually redefine its role in Haiti. What began as crisis management shifted to food distribution to the Haitian people.
Now the aviation ministry is gearing up for the next phase: to assist with rebuilding the nation's shattered infrastructure and partner with ministries serving in the most remote areas of Haiti.
While these steps trace the usual path following a crisis, each disaster presents its own challenges, according to John Woodberry, MAF Disaster Response manager.
"Disaster response always throws something new at you, so you have to adapt. You can't just respond based on the needs following a previous disaster," said Woodberry, who has led MAF responses to other parts of the world, including efforts after Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh (2007).
Tragedy Concentrated in City, Ripple Effects Elsewhere
Although this recent earthquake was centered just 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital city, many remote communities were affected.
"The earthquake's devastation is the magnitude of the 2004 tsunami, but it's localized," Woodberry stated. "Most of the deaths and destruction took place in the capital. But many remote communities depended on Port-au-Prince for their food supplies."
An estimated 1.5 million Haitian people were left homeless following the earthquake. Camps of the homeless sprung up everywhere. Many Port-au-Prince victims who lost their homes went to stay with equally poor relatives living in remote villages.
"Where there once was a family of five in a home, there are now 20 people," Woodberry said. Towns that had 5,000 people now have 20,000, "but these towns don't have more provisions than they had for the 5,000."
Before the quake, the infrastructure supporting food distribution from Port-au-Prince to the rest of Haiti was in disarray. Now it's in shambles. The nation's seaport just west of the capital sustained severe damage and only recently has been able to receive goods. The commercial sector of Port-au-Prince was decimated.
"Farm plots in remote villages can't provide enough food for additional family members who have arrived from the capital, so there's a need to help feed displaced people," Woodberry said. MAF helped feed thousands of hungry, isolated families in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake because its aircraft could deliver food to areas not quickly accessible by land.
As the ministry addresses long-term needs in Haiti, a huge advantage is that MAF established its presence here in 1986. Since then, MAF has assisted the country through a succession of natural disasters. In 2008 alone, Haiti was ravaged by three tropical storms and one hurricane. Knowing the culture, the language and the people has enhanced the ability of MAF to serve this suffering nation.
MAF Resumes Haiti Flights
MAF has long networked with Christian and other humanitarian groups that were ministering in Haiti well before the latest tragedy. Almost immediately after the earthquake, MAF began flying in partnership with Missionary Flights International (MFI) about 10 times more than it had before the quake. In the eight weeks following the disaster, MAF has distributed approximately 120 tons of food via planes. This food has been delivered mainly to the remote areas of Haiti, primarily using 14 different airstrips throughout the country.
The emergency response by MAF entailed learning of specific needs of displaced Haitians in areas too difficult to reach by ground transportation. MAF then flew in lifesaving aid.
Most Haitians eat only one meal a day. Food boxes contain humanitarian ration MREs (meals ready to eat). These high-calorie meals typically consist of rice and beans, peanut butter and crackers, and fruit slices, all providing a person with a day's worth of nutrition and energy.
MAF staff link aid shipments for distribution by agencies they know are reputable. "Through our partner organizations, we learn where the needs are," Woodberry said. "We're getting food and vital supplies to them."
Much of the cargo arrives designated for specific projects at a particular hospital or ministry, such as Operation Blessing International or World Concern. "But other aid comes undesignated, sent by churches and other organizations," Woodberry said. By knowing an agency's specific needs, MAF can help meet the need. "If we hear from a partner agency that a remote hospital needs crutches, for example, we can get them to the hospital."
Transition to Rebuilding, Long-Term Needs
Most of the food now being distributed will become part of food-for-work projects. "Due to the disaster, countless Haitian people have lost their home, job and income. That's where the search comes in for sustainable solutions. "Haitians will be able to work, whether it's building a road, sanitation system or whatever, in exchange for food," Woodberry commented. Schools, clinics and other infrastructure must be rebuilt as well.
Challenges abound. Haiti is no longer daily front-page news, which means the public won't read about the ongoing misery that still needs millions of donor dollars toward rebuilding efforts. And everyday tragedies still hit. On March 1, a volunteer nurse from a U.S. Christian humanitarian ministry died of a heart attack. MAF, in conjunction with MFI, helped arrange for his body to be flown back to the United States.
As road conditions in Haiti improve, "more and more aid is being transported by truck," Woodberry said. This allows the focus of MAF flights to turn from delivering food to transporting missionaries and humanitarian workers to where they're most needed around the country. MAF will likely add more staff and aircraft to its Haiti flight program in order to address the long-term needs.
"God works through disasters in many ways to open doors that had been closed," Woodberry remarked. He cited as an example the Christian relief agencies that after the great tsunami were allowed to help in Aceh, Indonesia, where previously they hadn't been permitted to serve. The local leadership in Aceh was so impressed with many of these groups" work that they were invited to stay after helping with the immediate disaster relief efforts.
Woodberry knows that Romans 8:28 is true, even when a crisis doesn't result in an apparent silver lining. "God is still in control, and someday in heaven I'll understand the whole picture," he said.

MAF HAITI EARTHQUAKE DISASTER RESPONSE STATISTICS

2010-02-01T09:28:00.002-05:00

In partnership with MFI we have helped transport 2000 people in and out of Port-au-Prince and 440,000 lbs of relief cargo has been delivered. Please pray wisdom, strength, and safety.

WATCH WHERE THE KODIAK IS FLYING IN HAITI

2010-01-30T09:33:00.001-05:00

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=01IxeevPcG2dmgg30lY1rQ7YkWiJDRkpn

This website allows you to see on a map where the Kodiak is flying.

CNN VIDEO OF A DRIVE DOWN DELMAS

2010-01-30T09:31:00.001-05:00

http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2010/01/world/haiti.360/index.html

This video is taken on a main street right in our neighborhood.

NASCAR AND THE CHEESEBURGER MAN

2010-01-26T22:37:00.002-05:00

This article comes from http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/columns/story?columnist=mcgee_ryan&id=4856538

Hendrick's three Saabs rotate in teams of two, leaving their home at the Concord Regional Airport and heading south to Fort Pierce, Fla., home of MFI's staging area. The hangars on the Atlantic coast are a constant flurry of activity as cargo planes are loaded with supplies, passenger planes are loaded with personnel and a waiting area is perpetually lined with volunteer medical and rescue specialists, waiting their turn to head south.

There's an orthopedic surgeon from Houston, a pair of trauma surgeons from New Jersey and a neurosurgeon from Portland, Ore. They will work in the streets of Port-au-Prince in one-week shifts, some tasked with saving lives from tabletops on crumbled street curbs, others stationed under a city-sized cluster of pop-up tents and storage canisters set up on the edges of the airport runway.

Many clearly have no idea what they are walking into. Some wear ties and dress shoes. One female surgeon is in heels. By the end of their time in Haiti they will have been exposed to images of crushed bodies, unimaginable injuries and, as one aid worker described it, the smell of death.

"I am able to help," one clearly nervous young doctor says on his first flight down, "so I should."

When they land at Port-au-Prince, the airport runway is a parking lot. U.S. Army choppers hammer overheard, towing supplies in long nets slung underneath. The white Hendrick planes, trimmed in red and black, park alongside dozens of smaller private aircraft, a handful of commercial airliners and a long line of pot-bellied C-130s. They bear the military marks of the U.S., China, Turkey, the nations of Europe … nearly every country one can think of. The flags at the terminal have flown at half-staff since the quake.

Rick Hendrick said helping Haiti recover from disaster is just the right thing to do.

Making sense of it all is another mission organization, the Mission Aviation Fellowship, or MAF. They work hand in hand with the MFI by providing ground and logistical assistance. Zipping through the chaos behind the wheel of a forklift loaded with supplies is James Collins of Hopetown, Fla., an MAF worker. Every time a Hendrick plane lands, they are greeted by Collins and his tireless enthusiasm. They call him "the cheeseburger man."

"You find yourself really looking forward to getting in there to see those folks," Klepper says. "You want to do whatever you can to make sure they keep going."
Last week, Klepper asked Collins if there was anything he needed. They'd already brought one MAF worker a cowboy hat because he'd lost his favorite hat and his neck and head were burning in the tropical sun. Others had been able to catch their second winds thanks to a cooler full of cold Pepsi hauled in on HMS flights. But Collins started rattling off a list of supplies and gear. "No, James," Klepper interrupted. "What do you need?"

"Man, I would kill for a cheeseburger."

The next day Klepper jumped off the plane and handed Collins two McDonald's cheeseburgers that he'd picked up in Florida. Collins pulled out his pocketknife, cut them into pieces and handed them out to his coworkers. So on his next trip Klepper brought another McDonald's bag. This one had 20 burgers in it. "Now," Jim said to James. "You have to eat one."

"We're just the point of the spear," Dudley says. "The people on the ground are the ones that will turn the tide of this thing."

The Dahls 6279 E. 6th Street Long Beach, CA. 90803 dadahls5@msn.com
________________________________________

TRAVEL DAY.. MFI BUSY AS A BEE

2010-01-26T21:59:00.003-05:00

It was a short night.. finalizing the packing. It seems like the night before we fly anywhere.. it is always hectic. With just one person.. not the whole family traveling.. it should have been better.. but I still managed to make it a bit of an ordeal. Finally I had my laptop bag backed, my carry-on, and two light blue sterilite trunks from Wal-Mart all packed. The big ones were right up to the 50 pound limit with just a couple of pounds to spare. We set our alarms for 6 am and caught a few winks. In the morning, I packed the final things and loaded the car, and brushed the fresh snow off of the car, loaded it up, and left the heater run for a while. Patricia fixed some breakfast, and I went and picked up Nathan and held him for a while. I sure am going to miss him. Even though Nathan has a cold, he smiled, waved, "talked", crawled around and acted like a happy boy.. we thank God for him.

All too soon, John Naubert arrived to help drive me to the airport. We had a nice little visit as we drove and then unloaded things at O'Hare. I had arrived in plenty of time, so even though the security line was long.. the entire process of check-in, baggage drop-off, security, and boarding went just fine. I got a bite to eat as well. The flight from O'Hare in Chicago to West Palm Beach, FL was full, but went on time and was uneventful. I had good conversations with the people sitting on each side of me and I was able to read most of the Nikon camera manual for the camera I bought the night before.

On the ground in West Palm Beach, I claimed my luggage, checked in with Hertz and got a little Chevy Cobalt. The trunk was small, but fortunately my two big footlockers just fit. It was perfect. I got a bite to eat, enjoyed the sunny 71 degree day, and started driving north on I-95. I pulled out my GPS and refreshed my memory on how to get to MFI.

Mission Flights International, a similar but different group than MAF.. is doing a great job responding to the Haiti earthquake disaster. Large signs directed traffic from the main road to their hangar. Volunteers directed traffic and helped people unload donations. Inside was a whir of activity everywhere. Phones were ringing, forklifts were moving palets of supplies around, passenger manifests were constantly being updated, airplane arrival times updated, cargo arranged for loading the next plane, people fixing food.. you name it.. it was probably happening. Check out their websight for more up to date information on that worthy organization that is our lifeline of transportation to Haiti. www.missionaryflights.org

I sorted through the mail bag and found mail that was addressed to us, and with some help I located an important box containing a water filter that will help get our water purification system working at our house. I spent some time with my MAF coworker Dave Jacobsson who is currently stationed at MFI helping coordinate the cargo loading. He has been working long hours.. something like 15 hour days. On the ramp I saw a C-130 that was being loaded up, and a Hendricks Motorsports SAAB 2000 jet. MFI's two DC-3's were in the air coming back.. and N300MF is in the hangar for maintenance. I looked at some sheet metal work that they had recently done in the tail section. I got several lists of things that needed to be purchased for MAF, and I headed out to the store.

I checked in at the hotel that MAF had arranged for me, and made the rounds at Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Home Depot.. and got what I could before the stores closed. I got some things.. some things were sold out.. and I couldn't find certain items. I'm thankful that I got what I could. With another snack.. I went back to the hotel.

So.. I'm booked for my flight to Haiti in the morning.. and now I just need to sort through the last few weeks of mail and get some sleep.

NEWS FROM HAITI

2010-01-25T23:59:00.001-05:00

This was written by John Woodberry, MAF manager of disaster response:

I became a grandpa tonight. Baby Anne was born at 7:30pm January 25, the same day as my son Daniel. She is 6 lbs, 12 oz and 21 inches long.

I will be leaving tomorrow on the last plane out and back on Feb 2nd. Rick D will be filling the DR Manager role in my absence.

Around 200 total passengers today, 35,000 lbs of cargo

The airport head of security had his driver killed today in a carjacking. Please review carjacking procedures attached below and be careful when you are out and about. There has not been a lot of this but it is good to review procedures.

The airforce is working on getting MAF a direct line VHF to talk to the tower. They will check with MAF for space on the GA ramp before sending planes our way. We are controlling the ramp. This may develop over the next days.

Good news from our meeting with airport officials. It probably won’t happen this fast, and the director could shoot it down, but it looks like they will provide immigration service at the GA terminal. This will mean we won’t have to drive passports down to get stamped at the international terminal – one mile away on each flight. This will go on for two weeks and will be extended as needs develop. This will make our passenger handling a lot easier. Do I hear a chear?

The 3 SAAB 2000 flights a day, plus cargo flights, goes through Friday. There is potential of an RJ – Regional Jet doing the run staring Saturday. That would mean we could handle 90 passenger on just one jet flight a day.

We have magnetic stickers for vehicles on the airport and lanyards with plastic holder for MAF ID badges

Order 20 four/five man tents – Coleman style we can use for PR gifts. – Dave – can you do this? Many of the airport workers have lost homes and this is a wonderful relationship builder.

The plan if for American Airlines to start flights on Feb 15th. A good section of the terminal is condemned and will be torn down. There will be an temporary arrival and departure area. Commercial flights will start then, but it will most likely be a slow process before commercial flight volume is any where near what it was before the earthquake.

Grant proposal submitted to Scottish Government.

Plan for tomorrow is listed below.

N509RH ETA PAP 11:30 (Saab #1)
N179SA ETA PAP 1:00 (Caravan)
N511RH ETA PAP 1:30 (Saab #2)
N517JG ETA PAP 2:45 (Saab #3)

Numerous Kodiak flights -

I will check on the status of the DC4 tomorrow. They do have cargo for us ready to fly but they are in the middle of an engine change. I will let you know. There will be a C-130 landing in PAP Wednesday morning between 6 -7 AM. Most of that cargo is designated. They are planning on the GA ramp.

The military took 150,000 pounds on over 100 pallets to Miami today to be put on a freighter. No charge to us! Much of it is undesignated. Please use as necessary. All pallets have MAF spray painted on all 4 sides. Hopefully you can connect with it

This means that MAF will have 150,000 lbs of cargo to deliver to our mission and other partners. We sure could use this loading for the Kodiak. Hopefully it will arrive in the next few days.

NEWS FROM MAF-HAITI

2010-01-22T00:00:00.002-05:00

John Woodberry writes:
• As I write this at 11pm our fork lift is busy bringing Medical cargo for Operation blessing into field in front of our MAF hangar. The pace of rapid relief continues. At 7 am we unloaded our first DC-4 with around 30,000 pounds of medicines, food, and relief cargo.

The field in front of our hangar has been a hive of activity – receiving and coordinating delivery to a number missions and aid organizations. At the end of the day our grass is almost empty. The cargo from a C130, DC4, Caravan has all been delivered to orphanages, hospitals, and mission station that have run out of supplies…people desperate for help.

• 16 flights and around 130 passengers and 30,000 lbs of cargo delivered.

• Kodiak arrival is possibly tomorrow.

• Story from Will:

Attached is a pic of the Fairs. They received food and supplies that were brought in on MFI and we released to them. Below is a note they gave me.

Thanks to MAF and MFI for working together and working long hours with out much rest. Because of their dedicated work we are able to get food and supplies and tents to people who have lost their homes or cannot find food.

We appreciate the hard work in getting us back home (to Haiti) so we can help the Haitian people.

We were only able to purchase 2 bags of rice on the street. And cannot find more. Thanks for those who have sent food. We were able to get supplies (from MAF/MFI) and gave them out to the hungry Haitians. One fmaily we know, we stopped and gave them six boxes of food for her to pass out to their friends. She started crying, "you are a blessing" she said. They were hungry "Beni swa etenel" Praise the Lord Once again we thank you very much for heling in all you are doing.
Bill Marylin Fair.

• Cessna Ops from Will:
Today I was able to fly over 2000 lbs of food items to the Island of Lagonave. They had a few houses collapse but the main issue is food. They purchase food at the beginning of the week in Port au Prince. So they have no food supply. From what I understand there are 100,000 people on the island.

I had been contacted by one mission group that had evacuated that they needed to get food to their people. It was Jerry Dickherber. He was in the US and trying to figure out how to arrange this. With the food items that we had brought in on MFI I flew two plane loads out. It was enough to keep his staff fed but not the 400+ people in his churches. The food was accepted by WISH at the strip and they are also working on how to distribute it.

• GATR update:
We are still based at the UNDAC group supporting the MapAction people.
David Hoffman left out on a flight in the morning. The current plan is to stay at this location through 4pm tomorrow at which time I'll move the GATR system down to the MAF hanger.

Plans are being finalized to rotate down Randy Black (former MAFer and now working with Food For the Hungry) and Traig Friedrich from Application Technology, Inc. Randy will be here starting on Sunday with Traig following the next week.

Randy Black and Traig Friedrich will join the rotation on the Haiti team.

Second GATR coming.

USGS Issues Assessment of Aftershock Hazards in Haiti

2010-01-21T20:59:00.000-05:00

from http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2385

RESTON, Va.—The aftershock sequence of the magnitude-7 earthquake that struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Jan. 12, 2010, will continue for months, if not years. The frequency of events will diminish with time, but damaging earthquakes will remain a threat.
U.S. Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt asked a team of USGS earthquake scientists to provide an evaluation of the earthquakes facing Haiti now and in the future. Here is the statement in its entirety from the U.S. Geological Survey:

Earthquake Hazard and Safety in Haiti and the Caribbean Region

The magnitude-7 earthquake of January 12, 2010, near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, has generated a sharp increase in concerns about the potential for future earthquakes in Haiti and the surrounding region. These concerns extend to understanding the causes of the earthquake hazard and learning what can be done to ensure seismic safety in the future. The purpose of this statement is to convey our best judgment on these subjects.

Aftershocks: The aftershock sequence of a magnitude-7 earthquake will continue for months if not years in the affected area. The frequency of events will diminish with time, but damaging earthquakes will remain possible in the coming months. There is also a small chance of subsequent earthquakes larger than the initial shock. The sequence from the Port-au-Prince earthquake continues to be very strong and active. Based on this activity and the statistics of aftershock sequences, our estimate for aftershock activity during a 30-day period beginning January 21, 2010, is as follows:

•The probability of one or more earthquakes of magnitude 7 or greater is less that 3 percent.
•The probability of one or more earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater is 25 percent.
•The probability of one or more earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater is about 90 percent.
•Approximately 2 to 3 aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater are expected within this time period.
These estimates will be updated as new information becomes available.

Precautions: Any aftershock above magnitude 5.0 will be widely felt and has the potential to cause additional damage, particularly to vulnerable, already damaged structures. Anyone living in Haiti or involved in relief work there must maintain situational awareness with regard to their personal earthquake safety. They should always be aware of what action they are going to take if the ground starts to shake. Open spaces are generally safe but running through falling debris to get to an open space may be dangerous. Only qualified engineers can determine if a damaged building is safe for reoccupation. Until engineering assistance arrives, a general rule to follow is: If it does not look safe, it probably is not safe. Entry into or reoccupation of obviously damaged structures should be avoided.

Near-term concerns: The geologic fault that caused the Port-au-Prince earthquake is part of a seismically active zone between the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates. The earthquake undoubtedly relieved some stress on the fault segment that ruptured during the event, but the extent of rupture along the fault is unclear at this time. Fault slip models, preliminary radar surface deformation measurements, and examination of satellite and airborne imagery for surface rupture suggest that the segment of the Enriquillo fault to the east of the January-12 epicenter and directly adjacent to Port-au-Prince did not slip appreciably in this event. This implies that the Enriquillo fault zone near Port-au-Prince still stores sufficient strain to be released as a large, damaging earthquake during the lifetime of structures built during the reconstruction effort. In historic times, Haiti has experienced multiple large earthquakes, apparently on adjacent faults. We shall continue to study this situation using radar, LiDAR, and photographic data taken from satellites and aircraft. Field studies and ground observations of fault offsets during this earthquake and past events are essential to evaluating the potential for future earthquakes in proximity to Port-au-Prince.

Long-term concerns: It is essential that the rebuilding effort in Haiti take into account the potential for, indeed the inevitability of, future strong earthquakes. Haiti is cut by two major plate boundary fault zones. Over the past three centuries, earthquakes comparable to or stronger than the recent one have struck Haiti at least four times, including those in 1751 and 1770 that destroyed Port-au-Prince. Engineers and construction professionals know how to design and build structures that will not collapse in strong earthquake shaking. Seismic hazard assessments provide the basis for the development of appropriate building codes and the identification of regions at greatest risk. A thorough seismic hazard assessment of Haiti, as well as of other countries in the Caribbean, will provide the basis for establishing or improving building codes and strengthening building resilience over the long-term. Such assessments involve geologic investigations of faults and soil conditions, reoccupation of geodetic measurement sites to determine strain accumulation, and studies of recent and historic earthquakes and seismicity patterns and statistics. These assessments usually take several years but can be accelerated to provide results markedly better than what is currently available. From these investigations, we can assess the likelihood and nature of strong shaking and ground failure over various time frames. The development of more resilient structures and infrastructure is a long-term goal, particularly in the face of economic limitations. Over the short-term, it is critical that the rebuilding effort be undertaken with an awareness of the potential for subsequent damaging events during the next months and years. It is essential that structures such as hospitals, schools, and critical facilities be reconstructed with greater resilience for the preservation of life and functionality.

Regional concerns: The experience of the Port-au-Prince, Haiti, earthquake reveals a need for better understanding of the nature and extent of earthquake and tsunami hazard in the Caribbean region. The arc of islands that forms the Lesser Antilles and Greater Antilles generally outlines the contact zone between the Caribbean and North American plates. This entire region is seismically active due to the relative motion between the plates and is prone to damaging earthquakes: a small-scale “ring of fire” like that encircling the Pacific ocean. Historical earthquakes greater than magnitude 7 have occurred in Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. Along the northern coast of Venezuela, the juncture of the Caribbean and South American plates has caused damaging earthquakes in the vicinity of Trinidad and Tobago. Earthquake safety policy, including building codes throughout the region, should be based on thorough seismic hazard assessments.

You can access a current map of aftershocks at the M7.0 Haiti Earthquake and Aftershocks Web site, and you can listen to podcast interviews at the USGS CoreCast Web site.

FELLOW PILOT JASON KRUL TELLS HIS STORY ON TV

2010-01-21T00:10:00.001-05:00

Paste this into your internet browser http://www.southwesternontario.ctv.ca/news.php?id=6626

MAF BRINGS MEDICAL CARE TO THE INJURED IN HAITI

2010-01-20T21:31:00.004-05:00

From Karen H. Carr, Director, Community Coalition for Haiti
Via John Woodberry

With the help of MAF, CCH's (Community Coalition for Haiti) trauma team and medical supplies are in Jacmel helping heal the injured, hurt and hopeless … MAF has been a constant source of hope for all of the relief organizations trying to get supplies and medical personnel into Haiti. For the Haitians who are suffering and those bringing help, hearing the MAF flights overhead gives us more reason to believe that things will recover here and that more help is on the way.

On the ground, gas is running low, but available. There are few medical supplies here except the ones we brought in by MAF. There are several medical teams here, but they are facing treating over 2,000 patients at the hospital and clinic. In the rural areas, thousands more need assistance. Aftershocks were felt this morning and at 3AM. People are still sleeping outside.

Without MAF, our ministry here to those in need in Jesus' name would not be possible. For the lives that have been saved, we owe MAF an eternal debt of gratitude. For those who will hear and see Jesus touching them through our medical volunteers and MAF's efforts, our appreciation on their behalf is infinite.

A NEW KODIAK AIRPLANE HEADS TO HAITI

2010-01-20T18:13:00.003-05:00

The AVGAS fuel supply may be limited in Haiti.. and that is the type of fuel our airplanes use. Already MAF has launched a new, state-of-the-art Kodiak to help out in the relief work. This is a larger airplane than the 3 we have their now, yet it can still fly into the same short and narrow airstrips. It uses JetA fuel which is readily available. You may track the progress of this plane by pasting this into your web browser. http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0D1PXJl3qUEr3JnlFt9jYrAhIK3fcdFYC This airplane was slated to go to Indonesia, but while it awaits needed paperwork, let's put it to good use! Please pray for safety and effectiveness in ministry.

News clips are also found at:
http://www.ktvb.com/news/Idaho-plane-with-special-cargo-bound-for-Haiti-82205687.html

http://www.kivitv.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=4475826&h1=Haitian%20Adoptee%20Helps%20His%20Homeland&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=120166&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&rnd=93941619

http://www.fox12idaho.com/global/story.asp?s=11855588

UNPACKING, CLEANING, REPAIRING, VISITING, SHOPPING, ORGANIZING

2010-01-19T23:59:00.000-05:00

The relief efforts in Haiti continue, and we think about the situation there all of the time.

Meanwhile our first order of business in Chicago is to unpack our suitcases and get settled in. We've been vacuuming and cleaning the house so that Nathan is okay as he is beginning to crawl on the floor. I worked at getting our van operational today. I did get it started, but it won't stay running. I made progress but it isn't roadworthy yet. We had a lot of fun visiting Patricia's brother and family in Northbrook. They gave us some nice gifts and had a cake for Nathan's birthday. I looked at some things at Best Buy but didn't buy anything. I bought a few groceries to hold us over.

Nathan is enjoying exploring new places and is beginning to get used to his room and his schedule in a new time zone.

MAF HEADLINES ON THE RELIEF WORK IN HAITI

2010-01-19T14:58:00.001-05:00

See http://www.maf.org/news/earthquake-haiti-2010

FROM FLORIDA TO ILLINOIS >> NATHAN'S FIRST BIRTHDAY

2010-01-18T23:59:00.000-05:00

We packed up our stuff at Hobe Sound Bible College and went in two vans with three other families to the West Palm Beach airport. We flew on Delta from there to Chicago via Atlanta. The flights were pretty full, and we sat in the very last row of the airplane both times. We are thankful that they were on time and all of our baggage arrived okay.

We also thank our friends at Carter who sent their church van to pick us up and two other ladies brought some food staples to the house and encouraged us. Patricia's brother also brought food by earlier and left it in the refridgerator.

It was Nathan's first birthday. The poor guy.. he totally missed his morning nap, and didn't get many other winks all day. We weren't always able to feed him and give him things to drink at the right time. And not only that.. we realize that he has outgrown his baby car seat and was hanging out both ends, and the seat belts are very tight on him. So he had to fuss a little bit and let us know what he was feeling, but he had a lot of fun moments today of making us laugh. He enjoys waving at strangers, and he gave out a lot of smiles to people.. and people smiled in return. We have a special birthday candle that we are to light each year. We lit it and sang happy birthday to him. Yeah Nathan!

Patricia's parents have been out of town for sometime.. but everything at their house seems to be okay. We unpacked the majority of our bags and began settling in. We have a ton of email messages to read and reply to, as well as a lot of phone calls that we need to make.

Today I heard word that a former MAF-Haiti national employee was killed in the earthquake. He had been married just 2 weeks, and was the pastor of a small church up the mountain. The stories keep coming.

RESTFUL WEEKEND IN FLORIDA

2010-01-17T23:59:00.000-05:00

We want to give MAF management thanks for providing us a soft landing in the US. The personel department made numerous calls to our families. Our area director and his wife did an excellent job of arranging the weekend and meeting individual needs. Hobe Sound Bible College and one instructor and his family in particular really rolled out the red carpet for us. We thank the Lord for everybodies help.

Saturday morning we were able to sleep a little bit later.. and visit with our coworkers. After lunch (provided by volunteers) we had a group session with a wise counselor that helped us better understand some of the normal issues people face when going through such trauma and how to deal with it in a health way. On Sunday we went to church, had lunch in the school cafeteria, met with the area director to make future plans ect. Patricia and I pushed Nathan in the stroller down to the Atlantic Ocean which was nice. Since there aren't sidewalks in Haiti suitable for pushing a stroller.. it had been since last July that we had enjoyed a walk like that.

The weekend with our coworkers allowed us to process some of what we have experienced, better understand one another, and recommit ourselves to the task that God has given us to do.

Removing the women and children from the front line has allowed the crew of men remaining to better concentrate on the intense, and difficult work at hand. I and the other 3 pilots who took their families out, will be returning and will relieve the guys who are working hard now. That's the plan.

EVACUATION

2010-01-15T23:59:00.000-05:00

We had another night of pitch black, multiple tremors, swatting mosquitoes, and tossing and turning. But we made it through the night.

We got up at 6:15 and did our normal routines with Nathan, fed the dogs, etc. We left our bags pretty much packed.. but I did completely unload the car and we opened all of the bags and repacked some things. We needed to be ready to go by 7:30.. but wanted to hear from MFI that they were airborne before we left again to attempt to leave.

Well.. it wasn't looking good that they were going to get approval to land. So we decided to have a meeting to talk about what our plan B might be. During that meeting we got a call that they got approval! Yipee! So we set the repacking and loading up in motion again. I put the bags in our car and once again we closed up the house and said goodbye to our poor lonely dogs.

We had 3 vehicles going down together again. Patricia video taped some of the sites we saw. It looked like relief workers with a crane had given up working at the police station and prison on Delmas 33. The crowd had dispersed and we could smell the bodies there. At another place an end loader was working and blocking Delmas 33 and we had to take a long detour to get back oncourse to the airport. We finally made it and unloaded everything in the parking lot.

The chaos began. We were all spread out it seemed. Three American families got put into a line of American citizens trying to evacuate. Our Canadian family wasn't allowed in that line and went another place. Three other families coming from a different direction.. we didn't know where they were. Will and Todd were on the inside of the airport.

While standing in line, I got a call through Amber's phone from MFI saying that they had to divert and land in Cap Haitian. What!?! They were denied landing clearance again in Port-au-Prince.

So I decided to leave the group, and use my airport badge and go out onto the ramp and see if I could find Mark and figure out what to do. We located the temporary air traffic control "tower". It was a handful of US military men standing in a circle in the grass between the ramp and the runway. We went and talked to them and appealed to them to get a clearance to land. For a while we talked to them about flying our own planes out and shuttling our group to Cap Haitian or Pignon. They would let our planes fly out okay, but couldn't guaranty that we could come back to land. Then we realized their main problem was that the main ramp is too small for the number of big planes they have coming in. That was the restriction. They said that yesterday at one time they had 42 planes on the ramp. Note that the yellow lines only have it marked off for 8 or 10 planes to park there. So.. we asked if MFI was able to come in VFR (not on an instrument approach clearance) and if they parked at the general aviation terminal.. would they allow them to come in. Yup.. with some stipulations that was agreeable to them. Yeah! A breakthrough! They wanted to know the callsign of the incoming airplane.. no problem we had that.. and they wanted a person there beside them to be in contact with the plane. No problem.. we had a hand-held portable radio that could communicate with the inbound airplane and coordinate the arrival.

So our next job was to get that message to MFI, and then to move all of our people from the main terminal to the MAF hangar at the general aviation ramp. Will worked on communicating with MFI and got in touch with them. We talked about options for getting everything to the GA ramp. Remember now our group was split.. some outside the airport and some inside on the ramp.

Patricia and Nathan were on the outside. They were in full, and hot sun in a very claustrophobic crowd that was borderline unruly at times. A lady was forcefully removed from the area because she was not following directions. Patricia thought at any moment a riot could breakout. Thankfully it didn't.

Getting everybody inside the airport and out onto the ramp was not easy, but after talking to the security guard, we got permission to bring our group in. We had to push and shove a little bit, but it worked better than I expected.. and finally we were all together as one group on the inside. Now we just had to figure out how to move about 3/4 of a mile from one terminal to another. We just walked and carried our bags to the end of the main terminal ramp and there Will White was able to drive he MAF Nissan Pathfinder and shuttle the 23 people and 900 pounds of baggage the rest of the way over the bumpy path to the MAF hangar.

Okay.. now we are all at the MAF hangar. That's good! We have shade, water, electricity, internet.. and it is our comfortable stomping grounds.

We were thrilled to see Lesly! Our national hangar worker lives a long way from the airport and near to the area worst hit by the earthquake. We didn't know if he was alive or dead.. so it was great to see that he is okay and to know his family is okay too. Of course he has suffered loss in his home, just like most people.. but at least he is alive. What good news it was to see him.

As we waited, we had a little snack, drank water, changed Nathan's diaper, and got our baggage loaded onto a cart so it would be ready when MFI arrived. Some of the guys moved some other planes around so that there would be more room for the DC-3 when it arrived. At last we got word from Todd, who was standing by the make-shift tower control, that MFI was in radio contact and would come soon. Then we saw the plane and rejoiced as we saw it touch down. Passengers often relate to us how grateful they feel when they see us come. As pilots.. we live around airplanes.. so it doesn't seem like such a big deal. But as I became a passenger today.. I experienced that emotion of joy in seeing "my ride" arrive.

We talked to the people that got off the airplane, helped unload things, arranged for the fuel truck to come and refuel them, Jason calculated the baggage weight, and then we loaded up. Ray gave us a detailed safety briefing and then prayed with us before we buckled up and the engines started. With little delay.. we were given a taxi clearance and we were airborne by 12:45. At last!

Nathan slept during the first part of the flight. It was a smooth flight most of the way, so we were able to get out of our seats some and walk around. They served us some juice and some chicken noodle soup and some got hot chocolate. We cruised at 12,000 feet. On our decent Nathan cried and couldn't be comforted on two occasions, but then he seemed just fine after that. He seemed like he was in a good mood the rest of the day.

The load was light enough that MFI could take on 450 gallons or so of fuel which was enough to take us directly from Port-au-Prince all the way to Fort Pierce Florida without having to stop in the Bahamas for fuel. By about 4:35 we were touching down on American soil... soil that wasn't shaking every so many minutes. We were a tired, but relieve bunch of folks. We went through immigration and customs with no delay.. we were the only plane disembarking at the time. Everything went smooth.

As we exited the customs area.. we were met by Rick and Theresa Dickson. Their friend from Hobe Sound Bible College had a nice big clean greyhound style coach sitting there ready to transport our group. We loaded up the baggage underneath, posed in front of the bus for some pictures and an interview and loaded up. Rick handed each family a cell phone charged up and ready to go and said call home. Wow! Onboard the bus they handed out hamburgers and cheeseburgers and something to drink. We were on the bus a while.. I'm not sure how many miles we traveled, but it was a nice smooth comfortable ride.. and we were all glad to be in the USA.

All 23 of us are staying in a building called the Manor, and each family has their own room and private bath. In our room was a pac'n'play for Nathan and a little CD player already turned on with soothing music playing. We had a bowl of fruit, some soap and shampoo and a welcome note with a schedule on it. Thank you Dicksons and MAF for giving us a warm welcome!

We unpacked, then went over to another house to get an internet connection.. had pizza delivered at 7 pm, and then fellowshiped with others and made a few phone calls. Nathan had a bath in the sink and drank his formula. He cried when we put him down. We want him to learn to go to sleep on his own, but once in a while I "break the rules" and just pick him up and hold him till he goes to sleep. It is fun to snuggle with him. He went to sleep on my chest. Later Patricia held him for a while in the chair and they were both fast asleep. It's late now and I should join them too.

PACKING UP AND AN EVACUATION ATTEMPT

2010-01-14T23:59:00.001-05:00

We are still in Haiti.. and doing okay.

The decision to stay or leave was a hard one to make. As a matter of fact the meeting yesterday went for 2 hours, and a lot of issues were discussed. But I think the decision is a good one based on the information we have. Perhaps staying longer would be okay.. as there really seems to be no security problems or looting going on right now.. but there are a lot of problems that need to be overcome before any form of normal life will resume. I think I discussed some of these issues in yesterday’s communication.

This is just a comment.. based on feelings. The daylight hours are filled with full sun, and life seems to go on, and I would be comfortable staying longer. But at night I have been more fearful. The darkness penetrates. We seem to feel more tremors at night.. there probably aren’t any more than in the daytime, but we notice them more at night. Even though a lot of people have generators, they aren’t using them because we don’t know how long it will be until more fuel will be available. The place is so black and quiet. I don’t mind that in the countryside.. as a matter of fact I like it.. but in a city of millions of people it just seems eerie. Nathan was happily asleep in his playpen while Patricia and I were being vigilant in case an aftershock came. We were tired and wanted to sleep but were pretty restless and wanted to make sure we could run out of the house in an instant with Nathan. We felt two pretty hard aftershocks and lots of little ones. Anyway.. I digress.. back to the main story line.

Our morning was crazy full of activity packing up our belongings and preparing the house to be vacant for a while. We gave all of our food supplies away. We didn’t have much, but it amounted to 8 plastic sacks or so. We turned our refrigerator off, packed up what we could and made a few visits to our neighbors so they would know what was going on. Ferial and her son Iman came over to give us a hand as we were rushing. It was great to have them here to do last minute stuff. Ferial played with Nathan, helped wash dishes, pack up Nathan’s toys, get things cleared off the dining room table, etc. Iman helped David move tubs downstairs, pack up the playpen and pack-n-play and several other things. We are grateful for all they did for us. We were supposed to be ready at 1:30 pm… I think by 1:45 we were pulling out of the driveway in our car. We met down the street with our coworkers and got into 3 vehicles. Michael made a trip in a 4th vehicle to pick up people who live in another part of town.

The drive to the airport was surreal. The main roads are open, and had moderate traffic. There was a very high amount of people walking everywhere. I don’t really recall seeing any tap-taps.. the public transport pickup trucks. My eyes were glued to the fallen walls and crushed buildings. By no means are ALL buildings down.. thank God!.. but plenty have fallen. Even some that have cracked.. I suppose will need to be torn down and rebuilt. We didn’t see dead bodies on the side of the road like others have reported, but we did see a lot of people wearing masks. We were passed, or met by several ambulances. We made decent time, and arrived in about 30 minutes.

We were told to go to the general aviation terminal, where our hangar and offices are. The gate was locked and the guard would not open it for us. He was instructed to only open it for pilots and mechanics with an airline. Some of us qualify there.. but having women and children in the cars made him not want to open the gate. There is no electricity at the GA terminal, and no government employees to screen passengers through security. So he was just doing his job I guess. He had no way to contact anyone else to get approval as cell phone systems are not in service. So we sat there for over an hour.

Then we went to the main terminal. There was a pretty big gathering of people there trying to get flights. We jammed our way into the VIP entrance and went straight through the building almost to the ramp. There one lady sat at a small table with an immigration stamp and cleared all of us through and stamped our passports. From there we walked out onto the main ramp. Normally this ramp holds about 8 large aircraft. It was packed! I don’t know how many were there.. but they were parked very close together and there were a lot of relief supplies being unloaded. They were almost all military aircraft and represented a lot of different countries. We took more pictures. Nathan seemed to enjoy watching the large airplanes and helicopters several yards away from him. He was a happy camper despite being out of his routine and not having time to explore things scooting on his belly. He enjoyed all the attention he was getting and waiving at everyone near and far.

Here is the list of MAF staff being evacuated:
David, Patricia, & Nathan Carwell
Jason, Wilhelmina, & Jayden Krul
Julie, William, & Abby White
John, JoAnn, Marshall, & Kelly Munsell
Karen & Kaydence Broyles
Jennifer, Kyle, & Megan Edgerton
Glee, Amber, & Marc Williams
John & Joyce Pipkin
Remaining are Mark Williams, Will White, Michael Broyles and Todd Edgerton.

We waited and waited. The plane was to land at 4 pm, but by 5:30 pm we realized it wasn’t going to come. MAF’s point man for disaster response, John Woodberry, is on the flight coming in along with other relief workers and some supplies. While enroute to Haiti, they were turned away from Port-au-Prince and had to land at Turks and Caicos and spend the night there. Port-au-Prince was not accepting civilian flights.. just military flights. So.. we had to turn around and go back home.

By this time it was well after dark. We traveled in groups of 2 vehicles and made it home okay. There was still quite a bit of traffic… but it was so dark everywhere. We went home a different route and saw the devastation in other areas. Many people are camping out in open areas, or outside of their homes.

I didn’t have a flashlight with me, so I stumbled through opening gates and doors and getting the electrical inverter turned on so we could have some light. We unloaded everything and I put Nathan’s bed together and we got him down to sleep first thing. No bath tonight, but he was so tired and happy to be in his bed. He was asleep in no time.

We don’t have a bit of food in our house.. but our coworkers were kind to share some of their food with us. Thank you Todd and Jennifer!

I went to a neighbors house to let them know what happened to us.

After working so hard to pull everything together to leave, it was disappointing that it didn’t work. But we are glad all MAF staff are safe and sound for another day.

Rick Dickson and his wife Teresa are in Florida now. Rick is the MAF regional director over Haiti. They will receive us when we get to the US and help us with a place to stay and coordinate further flights to our home area.

The plan is for MFI to depart Turks and Caicos at 7 am. Our tentative plans are to depart our house at 7:30 am and be at the airport for MFI’s arrival at 9 am. We’ll confirm the times before leaving our house in the morning.

Thanks for all of your prayers.

MORE EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE PICTURES

2010-01-14T16:22:00.000-05:00

The first picture we took at the main terminal at the international airport the first day we tried to leave. The building behind us is still standing, but has major cracks in it and structural damage.

The other pictures we took on our way to the airport. So many lives have been impacted by the hundreds of buildings that have collapsed. Undoubted you have seen a lot of similar pictures.. and one starts blurring into the next.

THE DAY AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE

2010-01-13T23:59:00.001-05:00

Well.. the aftershocks continue. We stayed in the car, and barely slept any at all. As it got light, I could see that Nathan was awake, and when he sat up at 6:15 I figured we should get up. So we cared for him and got ourselves going.

The MAF men on our street met for a meeting to figure out what we should do. We shared information. All of us were prepared to go to the airport, but in the end just 3 went, and they brought back a report later.

So.. I had the day to work at home and begin the cleanup. We worked in shifts of doing that, checking email, visiting neighbors, having people stop by our house for news..ect. I got the glass in the kitchen cleaned up first.

There had been a lot of water on the floor in the bathrooms, and I feared that the water pipes had broken. It turns out that it was just toilet water that had sloshed out.. so I was able to turn on the water valve from the tank on the roof without loosing water anywhere that I know of.

We couldn't let Nathan on the floor as there was broken glass around. It was challenging to keep him occupied, but he did a pretty well, considering he had missed sleep.

Our coworkers brought back reports of what they saw on the road. Things are a mess, but they were able to get through okay. The good news is that our airplanes are okay and the hangar is generally okay. Of course things have fallen off of shelves and lots of things have shifted.. but there are no serious problems that I'm aware of. The air traffic control tower had the glass windows broken and the structure is cracked. The main terminal building is still standing but has significant structural damage and is not useable for the moment. The runway and the ramp seems to be fine. No fuel was available, and not much was going on except lots of helicopter traffic.

We got reports of the well-being of our own houseworkers, Guylande and Calixte. They are okay. At the hangar Gregory, Marc, and Fanes we know are okay. There is no report from Lesly, Sabine, or Mildred. The school were Daniel was attending after work hours collapsed and he is feared to be dead. Daniel is the one who has been translating for me at our Wednesday night Bible studies. There are so many other people we are wondering about and have no way to contact, as the phones remain out of service.

At 5 we had a staff meeting. The meeting started out in the Edgerton's living room, but after a strong tremor that sent everyone scrambling for the door, the remainder of the meeting took place with chairs set up in a cirle on the street. For two hours various pieces of information were considered as we looked at how we should respond. The decision to evacuate or stay was not taken lightly. There were pros and cons for each position, but in the end is was decided for the women and children to evacuate and 4 pilots and leave a core team of 4 men with the airplanes to continue working. Major considerations were: many UN officials have been killed and they are not well organized to respond and maintain order, the police are largely vacant and not able to function, all of the food stores where we shop are destroyed or closed, most gas stations are closed and fuel will likely be in short supply, some staff homes have security walls that are knocked down leaving families vulnerable, and there is the potential for rioting and looting to take place if food and water supplies are not available to the public soon. Obviously there are a lot of emotions attached to these decisions.. one way or the other.. so it was good to talk through things and come to an agreement with the help of some objective criteria. So.. we are going to evacuate. The next question is when. Wheels went into motion to see what flight we could get out on. We are told that we would need to be ready tomorrow to leave the house by 2 pm. So we had our work cut out for us.

We were exhausted from not sleeping.. and the activities of the day. We wrestled over the decision of sleeping inside our house or outside. I knew that if we slept outside we wouldn't get much rest at all and we really needed to rest. But would we get a serious aftershock? And what about running to Nathan's room and getting out before something fell on us? We decided to sleep inside.. but tried to take turns at staying awake. The mosquitos were around, but we did have enough battery power to run the fan until about 5 am when the batteries died.

EARTHQUAKE PICTURES

2010-01-13T16:10:00.001-05:00

The first picture is of a multi-story unfinished school building that partially collapsed. One end of the building collapsed and the other didn't.. and the concrete in between had to do some stretching.

The second picture is of a business along Delmas. This building was at least 3 stories tall. I bought two couches at this place in 1995 or 1996.

The third picture is house that is used as an office building, just a block away from our house. I hope no one was on the lower level when the earthquake happened.

The last picture is of our dining room. We had two Ikea bookcases that came tumbling down. They had decorative items in the top section and dishes in the lower section. Many of these things broke on the hard ceramic floor.

EARTHQUAKE!!

2010-01-12T23:59:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends and Family,

We have experienced a major earthquake in Port-au-Prince. Patricia, Nathan and I are okay.

At the time that I’m writing this.. I have not had the opportunity to hear what is being reported on the news. You may have more information about this disaster than we do. Our cell phones are not working, so we cannot communicate with many people we are wondering about here in Port-au-Prince. Here is our version of the story…

I had a long hard day of work at the airport, having flown a lot, and I had carpooled with my coworkers to my house. I took the Christmas tree down, and we were doing a little bit more cleanup in the house, expecting to meet our landlord for a discussion this evening. Patricia and I were in the living room talking, and watching Nathan as he was crawling around. With almost no warning the room began to shake violently, and continued for what seemed like a long time. I picked up Nathan, and the 3 of us were close together. All kinds of things in the house shook and slid and came tumbling to the floor. Bookcases and their contents, broken dishes and all sorts of things are strewn throughout the house.. but our house stood. All of the perimeter walls around our house stood, with only minor damage. We were shaken…literally… and now we are shaken emotionally.

There have been many aftershocks and tremors. They seem to be weakening.. but I doubt if it is over yet. Although our house did stand, we don’t know if it is compromised.. we are camping out in our driveway right now. Nathan is in his pac’n’play with a mosquito net over it next to our car. Our big perimeter gate, 18 feet wide by 10 feet tall, rattles and shakes ever time there is a tremor giving us warning to be on the alert. I’m not sure if we’ll get much sleep.

In the property next to us, the perimeter wall collapsed. In the next lot the entire 2nd story completely collapsed. The large supermarket we were in at this time yesterday, we heard that it has completely collapsed. Electric polls are down everywhere, and there will be no city power for some time I’m sure. We have some battery power, but are conserving all we can. We will be able to run our make-shift generator, but have little fuel. We don’t know how we will get food in the coming days.

There are 3 MAF missionaries living on our street, and 2 other American missionary families. On our street everyone is okay as far as we know. One other MAF family is a couple of blocks away, and we learned their large rear perimeter wall fell down. Our other 2 MAF families are separated geographically from us, and we can’t call them, but heard by email from 1 family that they are okay, though they sustained wall damage. We have another MAF volunteer couple that just arrived today and is staying at the other location.

Given the few facts we have, it seems probable that there has been extensive damage and loss of life. In spite of all the sorrow, this evening we heard a group from the nearby ravine singing songs of thanksgiving. Especially in these times, we recognize our need to turn to God. He is powerful, and the only sure One we can turn to. He is our Rock.

At this point we do not know what damage the airport and our airplanes may have sustained. We plan to have a meeting tomorrow morning at my bosses house down the street to gather information and plan our next steps. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. We have much to be thankful for.

NATHAN SCOOTS AND SITS UP

2010-01-03T00:38:00.002-05:00

Wow.. it has been quite a week for Nathan. He has been rolling over, stable in the sitting position, able to stand if he can hold on for balance.. all of these things for months now. But this week he has figured out how to be dramatically more mobile. He was able to scoot backwards before, but he couldn't go forward. Now he can. He isn't moving from one room to another yet, but he can pretty easily and quickly move a few feet to find a gadget that has caught his eye. It is fun to watch. Next he figured out how to roll from his back onto one elbow, having the rest of his body on one side. Now he doesn't need to be on his elbow... he can just put his hand down, and from that position he can go on to sitting upright. Also we've noticed that when he rolls over from his stomach to his back.. he does so very cautiously so he won't bang his head on the hard tile floor. Good job Nathan! He really made a lot of visible progress this week. This morning we heard him crying in his crib. He was supposed to take a nap, but I'm not sure he slept any at all. We found that he had pulled the mosquito netting into his playpen/crib and he was sitting on top of a section of it. How did that happen? He stretched up higher than he has before. This evening we put him to bed after his usual bath and feeding routine.. but we later found him sitting upright in the corner crying. He's never done that before. I'm not sure why he was crying.. perhaps he didn't know how to lie down again.. or probably he was just over-tired. I held him for a while, put a dry shirt on him, and he went to sleep fairly easily after that. We've been talking about the fact that we need to "childproof" the house.. but we haven't taken action yet. I think we had bettered hurry up! We are thankful to God for his progress.. and hope we can keep a step ahead of him!

CHRISTMAS

2009-12-26T00:11:00.004-05:00

Unto us a child is born! We are thankful for the birth of the Lord Jesus... God dwelt among us. We are truly thankful for our salvation in Him.

This is Nathan's first Christmas. Patricia had a special reindeer sleeping out fit for him which was cute.

Patricia made pancakes for breakfast and we enjoyed eating and watching Nathan roll over and find presents by the tree. With a little bit of help he unwrapped a few of his gifts.

I made a quick grocery store run to get butter and a few things we needed and Patricia made a fresh up side down apple cake.

Will White and family invited us to their house for the Christmas dinner. Julie White's brother Mike is here for Christmas. They also invited the Edgerton family to come, and so we had a nice traditional dinner and good fellowship.

Mid afternoon I went to church for a Christmas concert rehearsal. Rehearsal tend to not be too well organized, prompt, or efficient... but I did get a chance to go over two of the songs I'll be playing on trombone.

Nathan took a 2 hour nap in the morning, but fought going to sleep all afternoon. I guess the Christmas excitement got to him too. We gave him an early bath and put him to bed at 6:30. He cried from 6:50 until 7:10 and then went to sleep.

The Whites invited us for leftovers in the evening and I went and ate some more and brought Patricia back a little plate.

We are grateful for all that God has provided for us.

CHRISTMAS EVE

2009-12-25T23:01:00.002-05:00

The day began as kind of a home work day. Nestor was able to come over, and he was a big help. We cut wood biscuits and reglued some picture frames that came apart when they fell to the ground in a wind. We worked on one of our bedroom doors that was sticking, and hard to shut. We put up some shelves in our new office. And we relocated our TV in the family room and worked at unpacking some AV equipment that we've had in storage since June 2008 when we left for furlough. So it felt good to get all of that done.

Patricia spent a lot of hard hours in the kitchen cooking. We got a beautiful turkey as a gift from the local grocery store and it came out delicious. Patricia baked bread and gave it to our neighbor and our workers for their families. The bread turned out really well too. Patricia also had a small ham, stuffing, some bread pastries stuffed with meat, oatmeal bars, corn on the cob, squash, gravy for the turkey.. and I'm sure I'm forgetting some other things.

We didn't get any city power the night before, so our inverter batteries died several times. I started our borrowed generator and it would run for a while and then the circuit breaker on it would trip. It wouldn't reset until it cooled down, so I made a lot of trips to the generator room throughout the day.

We let one of our workers off early and I took her home in the car, which was a 1 hour round trip venture. There was a lot of traffic. I took some pictures in the Munsell property of the trees that blew down in the recent storm.

We went to Quisqueya Chapel for their Christmas eve service. Nathan wore his Christmas tree sweater and looked nice. The service included special music by several different people and groups, congregational singing, scripture reading and some short video's. According to tradition, the service was concluded with everyone lighting a candle and singing Silent Night. I was holding Nathan, so I asked Patricia to represent our family with the fire. It was a nice service, and it was good to see people we don't often see anymore. The service was well attended. Nathan hung in there like a trooper, but afterwards it was just getting too late, and the crowd was too loud, and it was time for his bedtime. So we took him home and he went to sleep quickly. Many people went to Ed Amos'es house for desserts and fireworks afterwards.

After church, and after Nathan was in bed and the house was locked up.. we had our Christmas dinner. Patricia made quite a spread on our dining room table, and since the city power came on, we turned the lights on our Christmas tree on, and the 3 other lighted strands of garland. We played Christmas music and had a really nice meal.

THE STORY OF A WIDOW AND HER DAUGHTERS

2009-12-23T23:49:00.002-05:00

I'll keep this ladies name anonymous, but I've known her for 14 years or so. Her husband died of AIDS. She is raising two girls, and even though they have a small house, they don't have any steady income to eat or pay school bills. We don't see her very often.. maybe once every couple of months, or occasionally talk on the phone with her.. We knew that the older girl was living with another family, and we kept inquiring if this was a good situation or not. They tried to make everything sound okay, and so I didn't pursue it further. Last Sunday we met her and were able to pass along some money for her and we learned more about this older girl's situation. Basically she was what is called a restovic. She was a modern day slave for this family in exchange for food to eat and the payment of school bills. She was allowed to go to school, but she didn't have time to do her homework, and as a result she didn't pass her exams and will have to repeat one grade. She is a smart gal, and likes school.. so this is a serious matter.. not just the case that she didn't apply herself. Well.. apparently she grew quite ill and her "host" family didn't take her to the doctor or get her any medicine. Eventually they just called the mother and said to come and get her. I hope she was not abused. The mother got her and was able to get medical treatment for her and she is doing better now. The mother knows now how bad the situation was and will not send her daughter back into that environment. That is an easy decision for her, but paying the bills is still very difficult.

A NEIGHBORHOOD BOY

2009-12-23T21:54:00.002-05:00

Quite a while ago, I'm guessing it was in May 2008, we visited a home down the street from us. At the time it was not rented, and the Haitian caretaker let us in and showed us all around. He seemed like a nice guy, and was very friendly. He often leaned over the tall wall and talked to people on the street and I always said hi to him when I was walking the dog or passing by. We noticed that he was limping and we asked about it. He had some kind of infection in it, but the owner of the house is a retired doctor, and she was supposedly helping him. On a couple of occasions we had some food that we gave him. When we returned from furlough, we noticed that this house has been rented to a security guard company and they use the house as an office, a place to do training, and as a rondevous place for employees to meet the trucks that transport them to customer locations. Apparently the security company did not need the caretaker and released him. This week we received word that this young man passed away, apparently from this infection in his foot. We were shocked to hear this news, and further saddened that this was probably a preventable situation. We never know when we'll see someone for the last time.

RAIN AND DIFFICULT FLYING

2009-12-23T10:17:00.002-05:00

In followup from our last posting.. Nathan's rash went away pretty quickly and he is doing just fine. PTL

On Monday and Tuesday some of our MAF coworkers were on vacation and Will, Jason and I made the flights. On Monday we delayed our flights. Once Will went about 35 miles north of Port-au-Prince but had to turn around due to bad weather. Later in the day I took a load of people wanting to get to Pignon, but just a few miles from our destination I had to turn around. At that point I was able to divert and go to the nearest airport which is Hinche. I unloaded everythign there and the people were planning to go by public transport by road. Meanwhile I spent a lot of time on the phone discussing the weather and the options for people that were at Pignon who were catching an airline that afternoon. We decided to load everything up in the airplane and takeoff from Hinche and see if the weather had improved. It was better and I was able to get everyone where they needed to go. The weather on Tuesday was somewhat better, but we still had to delay some flights allowing for conditions to improve. Will made a difficult flight to Cap Haitian to pick up Missionary mail from MFI. He flew on top of a layer of clouds and had to fly out over the ocean to find a hole to get down underneath.. and then reverse the process to get back home. I think we were all glad to be home and know that we have the next few days off for Christmas. We thank the Lord for safety.

NATHAN'S TRIP TO DR MEVS

2009-12-17T22:05:00.002-05:00

This morning Nathan was fine, and Patricia didn't notice anything unusual when she first changed is diaper. Patricia prepared breakfast for him, and as he was eating, he began to fuss a bit and didn't finish his meal. We soon noticed that he had a rash. I had some other errands to run, but when I got back to the house, we loaded up and went to meet Dr. Mevs in Petionville. She wasn't in yet when we arrived, but came pretty soon. The nurse weighed him as 23.5 pounds and measured him as 29 1/2 inches tall. The doctor checked his heart and breathing, inside his mouth, inside his ears and took his temperature. Everything looked good except his rash. Patricia had given him just a very few walnuts that she used in muffins yesterday and a couple of bites this morning. We concluded that it was an allergic reaction to that. However, later on we began to think about the bananas he ate for breakfast. They were a different variety with a different inside color and a different smell. Now we think that was probably what didn't agree with him, rather than the nuts.

Nathan slept a little bit in his car seat while going to the doctor's office, but missed the majority of his morning nap. In the afternoon he slept 2 1/2 hours. We dressed him up to take Christmas pictures in the afternoon, and he did his best, but he didn't last too long before we knew he had enough. Either his teeth are bothering him, or his rash, or perhaps both. He ate a good supper and 9 ounces of milk before going to bed. He cried a few seconds when we put him down to sleep, but within 5 minutes he was fast asleep.

Dr. Mevs prescribed some medicine for him to take and a lotion to put on him. I got that, and we used it this evening. Hopefully the rash will go away quickly and he'll feel better soon.

CORRUPTION

2009-11-19T20:35:00.002-05:00

Who would want to be known for corruption? None of us of course. In my experience, I've found that many Haitians are very honest. In spite of great poverty and huge temptations, some Haitian people live with integrity and are trustworthy and dependable.

In some cases though, I've found that the lines of what is right and wrong are drawn in different places than where I would expect them to be. In some cases it is culturally okay to take things from your employer, or from your friend (if he hasn't used the item in a while) and so forth. At church I look in the parking lot and see that many parishioners have driven their company vehicle. I don't know if they have permission to use this vehicles for personal use or not. We used to see police vehicles with their lights and sirens on go past us jammed full of people including children in school uniforms. It is my impression that they weren't going to jail nor was their really any emergency that warranted their lights and sirens. People lost respect for them and didn't pull over. Of course most roads are so narrow there isn't a place to pull over.. but I digress. Currently reforms have reduced the number of private citizens in police vehicles which seems to be a good thing. But these are just some small issues. What about processing shipping containers through customs? What about government funds being syphoned off for vehicles and homes? What about the bribes that take place every day? What about the power plays of people preventing this or that from happening? Corruption is still a huge issue in Haiti and the Bible has a lot to say about honesty and integrity. While on the one hand we pray for justice, on the other hand we pray for grace and mercy.

I'm prompted to write on this subject as the Associated Press just published this article:

A look at the world's 10 most corrupt and 10 least corrupt countries according to the Corruption Perceptions Index report published Tuesday by watchdog Transparency International.

The world's ten most corrupt countries:

1. Somalia 2. Afghanistan 3. Myanmar 4. Sudan 5. Iraq 6. Chad 7. Uzbekistan 8. Turkmenistan 9. Iran 10. Haiti

HAITIAN SENATE FIRES THE PRIME MINISTER

2009-10-31T22:07:00.002-04:00

From the Miami Herald:

By JACQUELINE CHARLES jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Haiti's Senate voted just after midnight Friday to dismiss Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis, following almost 10 hours of debate.

Senate President Kely Bastien, who is not allowed to cast a vote under Senate rules, said a letter will be sent to President René Préval notifying him of the Senate's 18-0 decision.

A number of senators who opposed the move to fire Pierre-Louis had left the Senate floor shortly before the vote, believing that they had successfully filibustered the attempt when the clock struck midnight here.

``There is nothing illegal about the vote,'' said Bastien, adding that Haiti ``could have a new prime minister as early as today or Saturday.''

The session began almost two hours after the scheduled start time and lawmakers spent hours debating procedures with supporters of Pierre-Louis, who questioned the validity of the senators' move to censure her.

Her supporters made impassioned pleas and cries of ``illegal'' and ``unconstitutional'' from the Senate floor.

Senators have accused Pierre-Louis, a favorite of the international community, of not moving quickly to solve Haiti's crucial problems: high unemployment, lack of significant foreign investments and environmental deterioration.

Pierre-Louis, in office for a year, said she has spent much of her tenure getting international support for Haiti after four back-to-back storms devastated the country last year, and it is too soon to see the results of her work.

Senators were not swayed.

But unlike the last censure of a Haitian prime minister -- Jacques-Edouard Alexis in April 2008 following days of food riots -- this one wasn't as swift or orderly.

At times, chaos reigned: Lawmakers screamed and talked over one another in front a national television audience.

The Senate president often rang a small silver bell in a futile attempt to create order as the session stretched into Friday morning without a vote. The vote finally occured at about 12:15 a.m., long after Pierre-Louis' Senate supporters had left, believing they had succeeded in preventing a vote.

``There is an error in the summons and everyone knows it,'' said Sen. Youri Latortue, a Pierre-Louis supporter who last year successfully led the movement to oust Alexis.

But those lined up against Pierre-Louis weren't moved by the constitutional arguments, nor her letter to the Senate president questioning the validity of the censure and informing him that she did not plan to attend the session.

``Do we not have the right, the freedom today to call the government and ask for an explanation?'' asked Jean Hector Anacasis, one of the senators leading the effort to oust Pierre-Louis.

Sen. Joseph Lambert, the former president of the senate and leader of President Préval's Lespwa Coalition, went even further, accusing Pierre-Louis of not improving the lives of most of the country's estimated nine million citizens who live on less than $2 a day.

``I've never been so shocked in my life,'' said Sen. Andris Riche after hearing Lambert's reasons for wanting Pierre-Louis gone and walking out of the session following an impassioned speech in support of her.

``You are going to commit an act that to me is disastrous. Decisions are not made at the prime minister's office. You know where the decisions are made,'' he said, implying the presidential palace.

Neither Pierre-Louis nor her government showed up for the censure.

SATURDAY FLYING

2009-10-03T16:05:00.001-04:00

We rotate pilots to work on Saturday, and October is my month to fly on Saturday. Whoever flies on Saturday, gets Monday off, so you still have a bit of a weekend. Today I flew two mission teams. The first group was going to help HAFF in Bohac. The 2nd group was a dental team from South Carolina that will be at the Weslyan hospital on the island of LaGonave. They had 8 people and lots of baggage, so I made two trips for them. Some of them had been to Haiti before, and others hadn't. They will be able to help people who normally don't have access to any dental assistance. I hope to hear their stories on the way back.

FULL FLYING DAY - RAIN

2009-10-02T15:50:00.002-04:00

I started my flight day with the regular scheduled flight to Hinche. There was mud on the runway and a full load to go out.. but we made it out okay. Next was Karen Carr's group out to Pignon. After that was Slyvia Campbell's group. We fly them to Pignon and then they take the road on out to Mombin Coshu. Sylvia has been helping this hospital since 1996. It is a place where people have very few options.. they see a lot of unusual medical cases and have helped a lot of people over the years. On my last flight back to Port-au-Prince.. I saw a line of dark clouds but wasn't too worried about it, as I had seen isolated thunderstorm activity all afternoon and had been able to navigate around them okay. As I got closer, I was steering farther and farther off course to get around the clouds. I saw a tunnel that I could get through, and then I saw lightening strike about a mile or two in front of me. So I turned and went another way. After a few anxious moments, I popped out into the PAP valley and could see the runway about 11 miles away. My descent was bumpy in the vacinity of the mountains, but as I got closer to PAP.. it smoothed out and was nice flying. The huge cloud canopy made the air a bit cooler on the ground. After the plane was parked and the paperwork completed, I headed home, thanking God for a good day.

BILL CLINTON IN HAITI

2009-10-01T15:44:00.002-04:00

The former president, Bill Clinton, now is working with the UN to try to improve daily living in Haiti. Of course his work is cut out for him, meaning it is a big job to do.. but any positive attempts are welcomed. I don't know the whole agenda, but I know there were a series of meetings at Hotel Caribe. I also noticed that there were an unusual number of Lear jets parked at the main terminal, and also we came across several motorcades while driving home. I hope something good comes from the meetings.

STAFF GET TOGETHER

2009-09-21T09:15:00.004-04:00

We had a staff get together at Todd's house and all of the American, Canadian and Haitian staff were present. I don't have a final count.. there were thirty some people there. MAF provided the hamburgers and the career staff people provided other parts of the meal. Most people jumped in the swimming pool afterwards and I think everyone had fun. I picked up a load of national staff to help with transportation and took 2 families home. Lesly lives the farthest away, and it took me over 2 hours to make the round trip.. and traffic wasn't too bad.. it was just a long ways! I think it was a good relationship building time.. and I praise the Lord for each person that is a part of the MAF team.

A SATURDAY OF ERRANDS AND SPECIAL DINNER GUESTS

2009-09-19T23:34:00.003-04:00

I got air in the tires of the car, picked up dry-cleaning (bedspread and shams), bought 2 gallons of paint for Nathan’s room, talked the police about what I need to renew for the car (just insurance not registration), bought some plastic tubs and some cheap plastic made in China toys for Nathan and came home. It was almost 11:30. Patricia went to Eagle Market for a few things and I watched Nathan. After lunch I worked on the generator. I think the starter needs to be replaced. I sent an email asking for a quote. Patricia worked hard in preparing a meal for the Olsson’s. They arrived at 4:30 PM and stayed about 4 hours. Nathan’s naps were cut a little bit short, and he was fussy at 5:45.. but went to sleep just fine. The Olsson’s liked watching him in the video monitor. We had a huge thunderstorm pass through with close lightening that made Ann Olsson jump several times. Nathan didn’t hardly flinch. A few times he kind of made a face and shook his head, but sometimes he didn’t even move. I guess the Lord prepared him for thunderstorms. Patricia’s meal was delicious. We had pork roast with mushroom sauce and roasted potatoes and carrots. Also we had jello fruit salad and a layered salad. Patricia made clove rolls. The appetizer was artichoke dip with crackers and raisins, mixed nuts, and walnuts. Desert was homemade apple pie and Breyers vanilla ice cream. Yummy. We enjoyed visiting with the Olssons and catching up on what is going on in their lives. We appreciate their dedicated service in Haiti. City power came on and went off 5 or 6 times I suppose, but currently it is on.. and hopefully it will stay on for the night.

SLOW FLIGHT MONTH / HEALTH

2009-09-16T23:21:00.002-04:00

Today two of my coworkers stayed at home sick. Pray that they feel better.

September is typically a slow flight month, and this year is proving to be no exception. Jason made our regular flights to Hinche and Pignon today, but there were no charter requests.

Todd, Michael and I worked on doing two 500 hour inspections on the magnetos in HH-LLS. The engine ran up just fine, so it seems like everything is okay.

Nathan napped fairly well, but perhaps not as long as he could have. From 2:30 pm when he woke up, until his 6:00 pm bath time is a long stretch for him.. and he was starting to get fussy. For a long time, we've given him 8 ounces of milk before going to bed. Tonight he let us know that wasn't enough. So Patricia made him another bottle, and he drank 2 more ounces.

We attempted to go to Carribean Market. The traffic was just stopped most of the way going up hill. I did successfully buy a 25 gallon tank of propane, but after that we just returned home. Nathan would have been pretty fussy before we would have returned home if we would have waited the traffic out.

The rainy season seems to be beginning, but we haven't had an overwhelming amount of rain yet. Saturday was our biggest rain with 1 inch. Last night we got .2 inches.. and tonight it was probably just a sprinkle. Thankfully 'no hurricanes have come to us yet.

PRAISE GOD! OUR CAR RUNS AGAIN

2009-09-10T23:53:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow will mark 6 weeks since we've been back in Haiti... and for the first time we'll have our own car working. Yeah!

My battery charging scheme during our 1 year absence seemed to work. I had taken it out of our vehicle and put it on a trickle charger in our inverter room. Although now the trickle charger appears to be no good, I think the battery was charged enough that it is okay. So my vehicle resuscitation began with putting the battery back in.

I quickly realized that rats had a field day in the engine compartment. They chewed on hoses, wire insulation, the air filter, and even the master brake cylinder fluid reservoir. I cleaned what I could, and kept looking around.

The engine would turn over, but not fire up and start. I used starting fluid and exhausted my ideas on what to do. I called a couple of mechanics, and got some ideas, but nothing really panned out. So I decided to take it to the dealership, Sun Auto.

On August 11, through a friend, I was able to locate a towing truck and struck a deal with them. The first price for towing was $200, but I was able to talk the guy down to half of that. The towing in itself was quite an ordeal. I followed the truck down in a MAF vehicle, and that trip took 3 hours round trip, as we got stuck in a bad traffic block on Rue Frere. Upon arrival they started to unload it one place, and then the dealership guy said no.. it had to be unloaded somewhere else. Finally all of the paperwork was filled out, and they said they would work on it.

Honestly I've forgotten the exact sequence of events... I don't remember how many phone calls and trips I made to Sun Auto. I do recall that on my first visit I was told that the fuel injectors were bad. I have the price estimate they gave me as proof... they said the 4 injectors would cost 151,575.88 Gourdes, or about 3630.56 US dollars, plus 5.13 hours of labor was going to total $US 4239.07 My jaw dropped, I felt angry, my heart sank, and I feared the worst. I asked the mechanic if I could see the injectors.. and he said no. I asked if I could take them and try cleaning them myself. The mechanic just sat there, doing nothing. I requested to see the supervisor, and eventually I learned that he speaks good English, and he was much more cooperative. I did eventually get the injectors, and I did my own work on them at the airport hangar shop. I cleaned them, took them back.. and they told me I needed to clean them a different way. So I took them back and took them further apart and cleaned more. I thought they were working. I rigged up a jig that would supply electrical power to them and with some air pressure I thought they were firing. I took them back and still they said the spray pattern wasn't good. Meanwhile Lionel, the head mechanic, was on vacation out of the country. He was swamped when he returned, and the days dragged on into weeks. I would call and get another story. Meanwhile I'm calling another guy with an injector shop downtown and getting another story from him. I visited Lionel again, and he said to give him another day, and he would see what he could do.

A couple of days had passed, and today I got a call from Lionel. He said "When can you come to Sun Auto?" I wondered what he meant. I said I could probably come this afternoon. I asked what the story was. He didn't want to say much, but when I asked him if I should bring another driver with me.. and he said yes.. I knew there was good news.. the car was apparently running again!

So after making a flight to Hinche, meeting MFI to get our mail, and coordinating with Daniel the MAF driver, we set off for Sun Auto. I went into the normal waiting room area and got in line. I presented my paperwork and waited to pay my bill. The lady radioed several people, but I didn't understand all of the responses. A couple of people came and went, and I was wondering where things stood. I decided to call Lionel. He asked me if that was my White Terracan sitting out front. I was inside the building, and there were no windows, so I didn't know. I stepped outside and saw the car... meanwhile Lionel was walking from the garage to the building where I was. He came in, gave me the key, and said to the accountant lady where I had been sitting for 15 minutes or so-- "no charge".

WHAT?!?! I at least expected to pay the labor for them using their computer to analyze the system, take the injectors in and out several times... I was willing to pay for the work they had done. Several times in our devotion times, I had prayed that the car would get fixed, and that the bill wouldn't be real high. God had other plans.. "NO CHARGE!" It was a miracle.

I walked out to the car on cloud 9, and fired it up. As with any vehicle that sets a day or two in Haiti.. dust accumulates quickly. They had washed the car, and it sort of felt like I was driving a new car off the lot. I was so thankful to God.

Now the car still has a few issues to address.. I need to check the front brake pads, check the power steering fluid, change the oil and filters.. replace some hoses the rats ate.. and pay for insurance and registration. That will be another chapter... but the chapter of getting the car running is complete.. and I am so thankful to God.

I didn't mention anything to Patricia on the phone. I just showed up at home with the car.. and her face lit up. It was a happy moment. Later.. we made a trip to the grocery store in it.. so Nathan got to make his first ride in our car.

I also installed a little mirror we have so that the driver can see Nathan when he is in his car seat in the back seat, facing rearward. When Patricia and I travel together with Nathan that isn't an issue, but the mirror is supposed to help when one person takes the child, and there is no adult beside the child in the back seat to assist watching the child.

WATER, GAS, ELECTRICITY PROBLEMS

2009-08-24T23:59:00.000-04:00

We have a tank with 200 gallons of water which we can use with gravity flow when there is no electricity to run the water pump. Somehow after washing the car, watering the front garden plants, doing a couple of loads of laundry, using the bathroom, mopping the floors... we ran out of water in the tank on the roof. So we waited...

Patricia had been smelling some propane gas near the kitchen stove. That's not good. So I found a spray bottle and made a mixture of soap and water so that I could look where the bubbles were forming to find the leak. Outside near the tank I found a small leak. Inside I looked and looked and couldn't find any leak in the normal places I would have expected. However, the expensive metal flexible hose that I had bought in the US had a pinhole in it! That is supposed to be better quality than the rubber hoses typically used in Haiti.. but I guess anything can leak. So Patricia had no stove. I went to the neighbors house and to a nearby grocery store that carries some hardware parts. I couldn't find what I needed, but was able to use some things I had to shorten up the line and put the tank in the house and get the fire going. Patricia heated up corn on the cob, baked beans, and baked a chicken... eventually that is. We ate supper at about 8:30 pm.

Meanwhile all of this was going on... the batteries failed and we had no lights or fans. I went to the generator room where our borrowed little gas generator is. I pulled the rope to start it and the rope separated from the generator and remained in my hand. So with my flashlight I began to repair that. I put a different kind of rope in the recoil starter and then I pulled the knot through the hole and still was stranded. Fortunately the city power did eventually come on, and rescued us from our misery. The generator recoil starter remains to be fixed, and is sitting on my workbench.

HH-LLS INSPECTION OFF TO A GOOD START

2009-08-24T22:59:00.000-04:00

Our Cessna 207 had a couple of operational flights in the morning. By noon Todd, Will, Leslie, Joe and I were able to start the inspection. We stayed on it and everybody did their job and we almost got the entire inspection completed. It was a good feeling of accomplishment. We have Tuesday to complete everything and test fly it and then Wednesday it is scheduled to fly.

HH-PTL RETURNS TO HAITI

2009-08-17T23:59:00.001-04:00

MAF-Haiti's Cessna 206 flew to Florida on July 30th, I think it was, to get a new engine. The manufacturer says these engines can fly for 1700 hours.. and those engines work hard during their lifetime.

Todd Edgerton and Michael Broyles went up in the plane and used the hangar and tools from Mission Flights International in Fort Pierce Florida. They worked hard to get the engine change done.

We used to do engine changes in Haiti. We have all the necessary tools, and it would be more convenient to go home to our families each night. However with the rising costs of customs, it has become much more expensive to import the new engine, related parts, and ship back the old engine and often ship the propeller out for overhaul as well. It has become more cost effective to just fly the plane out and do the work in the US, and fly the plane back in.. "refurbished" and ready to go. So that's what we are doing nowadays.

Todd and Michael worked extra hard to get the plane ready and loaded so that they could make it to Haiti in between lurking storms. They got in the air early, and made good time. It's great to have them back.

THE WEATHER

2009-08-16T23:31:00.002-04:00

In short... IT'S HOT! It typically is 85 to 95 degrees in the summer, and I doubt if it is really much different this year, but to our bodies it seems especially hot this year. If you do anything at all, you soak your shirt with sweat... at least I do. Fans do help a lot, and the occasional air conditioned room is really enjoyed.

Tonight we had a thunderstorm with a lot of close lightening. I'll see in the morning how much rain it brought. I'm guessing it will be more than an inch.

Wandering out in the Atlantic are the first named storms of the season.. tropical depression ANA, and tropical storms BILL & CLAUDETTE.

I don't think these storms pose a big threat to Haiti, but our coworkers are keeping their eye on things. Michael Broyles and Todd Edgerton are wanting to fly our Cessna 206 HH-PTL from Florida to Haiti on Monday if the weather is okay to do so. That plane has a new engine on it, and it's ready to go to work, and the guys want to get back to their families.

NATHAN NOTES

2009-08-16T22:50:00.004-04:00

Nathan is now eating pears, apples, bananas, peaches, prunes, squash, green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes and oatmeal, rice, brown rice cereals. He has a pretty good appetite, and usually eats at 7 am, 11 am, 3 pm, and 6:45 or 7 pm.

He is still sleeping 11-12 hours at night, and takes up to 3 naps, sometimes getting up to 3 hours of sleep during naps during one day.

We don't have his regular bathtub yet in our shipment, so Patricia is doing a more simple bath routine. She washes his face and his bottom with a pan of filtered water and then does a sponge bath on the rest of him. He likes his massage time afterwards when Patricia rubs in some lotion.

He has been taking a full bottle of 8 ounces of formula at night, and usually is exhausted and ready to sleep. He hasn't cried much going to sleep at night, but he still cries occasionally at his nap times.

In this picture, he was wrapped up to go to bed, but fell asleep on our bed before we could transfer him to our borrowed pac'n'play. Patricia puts him in a few layers in case the electricity comes on and the air conditioner is working.

On some days, he has gotten several mosquito bites. I think Patricia counted 20 one day. The good news is that he hasn't seemed to scratch those bites, and he hasn't complained about them. They go away fairly quickly. We have a mosquito netting draped over his pac'n'play, which seems to have helped.

He is stretching more to look behind him, or to reach for a toy. He is interested in anything new we give him and seems to be soaking it all in. His two middle bottom teeth are showing more of themselves. They are clean and white and sharp. He plays pretty well by himself for quite a while. He smiles a lot, and doesn't hesitate to giggle when he thinks something is funny.

As a new little feller, he has a lot to learn, but his parents have a lot to learn too!

We are blessed to have Nathan and thank God for him.

JOHN MUNSELL, MAF-HAITI PILOT HIGHLIGHTED IN EAA VIDEO

2009-08-15T17:43:00.003-04:00

This video is 7 minutes and 54 seconds and is filmed in Haiti, showing the very airplanes and airstrips that we fly to. Check it out http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid626910413?bclid=9230910001&bctid=30090062001

PART OF OUR SHIPMENT ARRIVES

2009-08-14T22:40:00.000-04:00

Today Salsa flew some of our cargo from CAP to PAP, and Mark and Jason brought six items from the airport to our house. Five of the boxes were opened by customs, but fortunately they figured out that the extra tie wraps that I taped on the outside of the tubs were there so that they could reseal the tubs. It was helpful that they resealed the boxes, otherwise they could dump their contents if they were put on the side and the lid popped off. The basket weave hamper I just wrapped with clear plastic, and customs decided not to open it, which was fine with me. There was one thing that had minor damage, and that was probably my fault. We packed a metal garbage can full of bottles, and the side of the can was dented. It sort of popped out and I reshaped it a little bit. Otherwise, I didn't notice that anything was damaged or missing from these 6 items. Praise the Lord with us. I noted that each item had at least 6 stickers on it in order to get delivered from Morton Grove Illinois to Port-au-Prince Haiti.

TAKING THE DOGS TO THE VET

2009-08-14T22:15:00.001-04:00

Every year we need to take our dogs, Bear and Brownie, to the veterinary for their shots and annual checkup. Because of our travel schedule, we were a few months behind schedule, but thankfully the dogs seem to be doing okay. Dr. Wulf is a Haitian man that seems to be well qualified, but we always take note that he is a serious man and hardly every smiles, and doesn't laugh at a joke. He has a reasonably nice setup in Petionville, just a few miles from our home. He opens his office at 7:30 AM and closes at 10:00. Then in the afternoon he opens from 3:00 until 6:00. On Saturdays he is open 9 till noon. I think those hours are a bit unusual, but it works out good for customers, and gives the doctor a 5 hour break in the middle of the day.

Just flashing a leash in the house causes our dogs to start barking. They know something is up. Brownie is particularly the one who wants to go out and explore. Bear just gets wound up because Brownie is hyper. So I get them loaded up into the back of MAF's pickup truck (pictured here) which has a cage around it. Bear barks at everything as we go down the road and people look at us funny. It isn't normal for dogs to be in vehicles in Haiti, they way it would be common in a farming area in the US.

In the past I've made this trip with Patricia, and we could each take one dog. Now Patricia is home watching Nathan, and I'm by myself with two wound up dogs. I left the cage padlocked and went inside the waiting room. There a lady asks for my dog books, and she registers me as being present, and I'll be called in the order of arrival. I asked for someone to help me unload the dogs. There are at least two helpers, maybe three that assist the vet. One guy went out to the truck with me, and we somehow managed to get their leashes on and out of the truck without them running off.

The next job was to hold their leashes for a half hour while other dogs came and went. One puppy had a broken leg and barked a lot. Fortunately Brownie didn't get loose and eat him. Near the end of our wait, somebody brought in a cage of 4 little puppies. It wasn't a particularly enjoyable wait, but we made it.

Inside the examination area, which is air conditioned, they put brownie up on the exam table. They always mussel the dogs just to be safe. It took 2 helpers to hold Brownie down while the Dr. examined him. He got a good report and got his shots. Then it was my turn to hold Brownie while Bear got up on the examination table. The bad news is that he has an enlarged prostate and the doctor recommended that he be castrated. We'll have to schedule that at another time. Bear got his shots, and then the helpers take the dogs out into the waiting area.

At that time I go into the doctors office and he begins to fill out all of the paperwork. He fills out a general invoice for his own records, and then he signs each dogs vaccination book, and then he makes out a billing receipt. The doctor won't take a US dollar check from the US, so I needed to pay in Gourdes, and I didn't quite have enough. I gave him what I had and promised to return the next day.

So then it was time to get the dogs loaded up, and drive home and unload them. The whole process took something less than 2 hours, so that wasn't too bad. I'm glad to have that little chore done.

OUR SHIPMENT IS COMING!

2009-08-13T23:31:00.002-04:00

The 20 boxes I dropped off at the FedEx office in Chicago on July 30 arrived at the MFI office in Florida on August 4. I think that today, August 13, most if not all of the boxes were flown to Haiti and unloaded in Cap Haitian. So now.. we wait for customs to decide how much we owe them and then wait for another company Salsa, to have room on their flights to fit this cargo in from CAP to PAP. Stay tuned.. I'll let you know when it arrives here.

THE WHITES RETURN

2009-08-13T00:09:00.002-04:00

Our co-workers, Will, Julie, William, and Abby White returned from their two month mini-furlough. They had a long travel day, but seemed to be doing okay. It was great to see them. I'm sure we'll catch up more in the coming days.

MOLD

2009-08-13T00:06:00.002-04:00

Our downstairs area seems to smell musty, especially if it is unoccupied for a while. The guest room, where we had a lot of things stored, had some mold. Today I finished cleaning that room out, and we put many things out on our back patio to air out in the sun. Our shoes had a lot of mold on them, but I think they'll clean up okay.

SECURITY LIGHT

2009-08-12T23:52:00.002-04:00

I don't totally understand the concept of security lights. It always seemed to me that providing a light would just enable bad guys to do their work... but the overwhelming advice is that light during the night hours is a deterrent to crime. Certainly there is a spiritual illustration there.. that evil loves darkness and we should love the light and the truth.

Anyway.. when we returned to Haiti the security light in the front of our house overhead our entrance gate was not working. Not only was it not working.. many pieces were missing. It was explained to me that the wind blew it down. I may be wrong, but I don't buy that explanation. I figured if somebody threw a rock at it, at least the metal part of the light bulb would still be stuck in the socket. Interestingly enough, the wind apparently was able to unscrew the light bulb, twist out the photo eye, unplug the wire, take the tape off, remove wire nuts, and break the mounting for the ballast and twist the unit 90 degrees so that it was sitting sideways, even with the bolts pretty snug. It must have been quite a wind... or maybe the wind had a helper.

The unit was a low pressure sodium lamp, which is more expensive to buy, but cheaper per lumen to operate than the more common mercury vapor light. I went to Eko Depot yesterday and found that they had a compact fluorescent light unit for less than $100. I bought it. Today I spent much of the morning getting it all configured and installed. This time I ran the wires inside the 1 1/2 inch mounting pipe so that people can't easily get to them. Tonight I was quite pleased to see it light up and illuminate the street in front of our gate as well as the parking area inside of our gate. It is 65 watts, and seems like it should work pretty well, so long as we don't have a big wind and a helper to take it down.

FRIENDS

2009-08-12T00:51:00.002-04:00

On Sunday we met quite a few more people that we hadn't seen the Sunday before. With vacations, people come and go it seems. Also, with two services at church, we are missing some people that we usually see. But in regard to vacations, they not only take regular people away, they also bring alumni back while they are on vacation. We saw two such people back at church this Sunday.. one who is now in law school in the US and one who is in college in Holland. It was nice to see them.

I received a message from a gal I knew here many years ago. She and her sister were visiting Haiti and they came by to meet Patricia and Nathan and visit. It was so nice that they came by... unfortunately our house wasn't very clean, and I had to leave with the tow truck when they came to pick up our car. But I appreciated the visit nevertheless.

Friends we made in Port-de-Paix came today from the US. Their summer vacation and deputation period was over and they are going back to prepare to teach a new school year. They had to spend the night in Port-au-Prince, so we went to the hotel where they were staying and enjoyed a good visit with them. They have a boy that is about 6 or 7 months older than our Nathan, so that gave us something to talk about too.

While walking in the neighborhood, or through the grocery store, we have been warmly welcomed back. We thank God for each and every friend. We hope that we can be good friends to those we meet.

AN APPRENTICE

2009-08-12T00:39:00.002-04:00

For some time now I have wanted to train somebody to use carpentry tools. My idea has different facets to it. Part of it is selfish.. wanting to have someone help do our projects around the house. Part of my idea though was to invest in a young life and help give someone the gift of a trade, and a way to make a living.

Friends in the US are sending us some industrial arts textbooks. They haven't arrived yet, but I'm hoping I can use the curriculum to systematically teach the subject. Thank you for sending those books!

I've had a hard time identifying a person to be the candidate for this apprenticeship. In a land of poor people, where school is hardly affordable, and where jobs are hard to find, you would think it would be easy to find someone.

One of the big issues is integrity. When you let someone into your home, you go to a new level. Trust and honesty is not easy to find. I even heard a remark from one lady I asked that she didn't even know who to trust in her own church. So that put a damper on the whole search. But I finally found someone! It is the oldest son of the man that currently does our yard work. The father has a vested interest in this going well.. so I think that is good.

The young man, John, has worked parts of 2 days now. His knowledge and skill is very limited, so we need to start out with the basics, but I'm hoping that he will work out. Right now I'm just teaching him to turn things clockwise to tighten them, and counter-clockwise to loosen them... something many of us take for granted... but surprisingly... that is something that many Haitians don't know. With supervision, he used a drill and a saw today, and he seemed to enjoy that.

SHOWERS OF BLESSINGS .. MORE WATER

2009-08-12T00:29:00.003-04:00

After complaining about having no water, and having to buy a water truck to put some water in our cistern, I really need to write this note as a praise to God. Recently the city water came on for a good many hours. I guess it had been broken, and so I'm really glad that it is fixed now. I don't remember it staying on so long before. Although the water pressure seemed a little bit lower, nevertheless the cistern was at least 2/3 of the way full.

Our friend Luke tells us that basically there hasn't been rain in about 10 weeks. In this place, things get dusty quickly, and a gentle rain is very welcome. We got a little bit of rain Sunday night, and we got 0.13 inches Monday night. Already tonight there was a pretty good rain, this time with some wind too. Now the cistern is nearly full! Yeah! Praise the Lord. Having water is such a privilege.

PAINT

2009-08-12T00:13:00.002-04:00

At first we thought that Nathan's room, the former office, was painted with the national paint brand in the color of ivory. So I bought a gallon and touched up some places. It didn't match at all, and it looks terrible. So we did some research and found in our financial records the date we purchased the paint.

Buying paint is simple right? I went to one of the nicer paint shops here, knowing that we had purchased paint from this store on May 29, 2006. I asked them what color we had bought, as I hadn't noted the exact color. They quickly accessed our account on their computer and told me it was B-45. However.. they have switched paint suppliers and they can no longer make that color of paint. So I asked them for paint samples of what they now have and went back home. Patricia and I studied the samples and made our selection. I went back to the store and stood in line again. I was told that the didn't have any oil based paint, as it is currently waiting in customs. Who knows when it might arrive.

So then I made a couple of trips to a Sherwin Williams store. They had oil base paint in stock. Of course they have a hard time understanding why I'm using oil based paint inside the house, but after I explain that there is already oil based paint on the walls, they sort of understood that applying water based paint on top of it might cause peeling. So we talked about the color, and all of that was going well. I asked if they sold paint in semi-gloss, satin, or matt. They said that gloss, semi-gloss, or matt was an option. Okay.. so I wanted semi-gloss. Well... that wasn't available at the time, but would be out of customs the next day. So they redid the performa to make it accurate, and then when I repeated everything to them... I realized that this semi-gloss paint was water based! What? I guess the lady forgot that I was wanting oil based paint, and she said they do not stock oil based paint in anything except high gloss. Patricia doesn't like high gloss.. so that was the end of things at that store.

I went to a very simple, small hardware store close to home. I knew that they sold the national brand of paint. I begged them to take their piece of paper that shows the colors home we me to show Patricia. They finally agreed to let me do that. The color they have isn't really what we want, and all this paint comes in is high gloss.

The next day we went to another hardware store to see what they stocked. They only had the national brand, which is high gloss in a color that is less than ideal.

So... I've spent hours and parts of several days looking for the right kind of paint for Nathan's room. I still don't have any paint. Hopefully customs will release the paint soon.

RATS

2009-08-11T23:57:00.003-04:00

When we arrived, one of the first things I noted was that the Internet cable that runs from a satellite service in the MAF office down the street was not working. Working little bits over several days, I found that the cable was eaten by rats in 3 different places. Thankfully I was able to repair that.

Our car had not run for 13 months or so. I kept the battery on a trickle charger, and it seems to be okay. Although the engine turns over, it certainly won't start. While taking a closer look, I saw that rats had eaten the hose going to the windshield washer and the radiator overflow hose. They had chewed on numerous wires, the air filter and even the brake fluid reservoir. What else might they have damaged? We had to tow our vehicle to the dealer for repair.. so that will end up being another story.

The rats seem to like our bananas. Our workers told us that as soon as a banana was ripe, they would get into it. I guess they chewed the sandals of our workers and pied on their clothes in the storage room. We even heard a story of a rat dying in the cistern and smelling things up. Fortunately the glue traps that we sent were effective, and the population seems to be under control now. I have a Combat brand rat hotel that puts poison inside of a box with a hole in it. The idea is that neither dogs or children can open the box and are safe from reaching the poison. Rats also chewed through window screens so they could get into the house. I just can't imagine. Hopefully we are past this problem.

Shame on our dogs. I know in some cases the rats are out of their reach.. but seriously I'm thinking about removing one of the awards I had previously granted to our dogs. Hopefully our dogs will take their jobs more seriously in the future.

THE KRUL FAMILY

2009-08-08T23:20:00.003-04:00

We had heard of Jason, Wilhelmina Krul, but tonight was the first time to meet them. They are from MAF-Canada on loan to MAF-US joining us in service here in Haiti. Jason is a full time pilot. They are a young couple, and have a little boy Jayden. For more information on them click on http://www.mafkrul.com/ They live just a couple of blocks away from us, and they have a nice home. They have a Haitian family living with them that also works for them. Wilhelmina fixed a nice meal for us and we enjoyed talking with them and getting to know them. They loaned us a pac'n'play for Nathan to sleep on so he won't have to be on the floor. Hopefully our shipment will arrive in the next couple of weeks, but until then, we are thankful for this bed Nathan can use. We thank God that He has called the Krul family to serve here with us.

TIRED

2009-08-08T23:16:00.004-04:00

Friday night I just ran out of gas by 7:30 or 8:00 pm. It's unusual for me to go to bed early, but that seemed like the thing to do. It's true that I did take the dog for a walk, and that I've been active all week, but I can't really explain my tiredness. Maybe it's the heat, or maybe it was all of those trips up and down the stairs.. whatever it was, it caught up to me. I did enjoy a good night of sleep. True I did wake up several times, but I was able to get back to sleep. Thank God for rest.

LIVING ROOM BOOKSHELF

2009-08-06T23:21:00.002-04:00

Well I suppose that today's biggest accomplishment was the unpacking of many of the books for the big book shelf in the living room. Patricia and Guylande worked on that and it looks much better. There is still a bit more to do.

I just did a bunch of misc. stuff. I cleaned boxes out of the shop, organized keys, organized misc stuff that we load in our wallets depending on what country we are in, tried some touch up paint in Nathan's room as a color check, put spackle in wall holes of Nathan's room, glued a Swiffer mop handle, called about getting the car fixed, fed Nathan, replaced smoke dector batteries, etc.

Nathan woke up early this morning and I gave him some milk, and then he went back to sleep until the normal wake-up time.

This evening we went to Hotel Karib, which is where the former Union School used to be. They have made it into a very pleasant place to go. We had our evening meal there and looked out over an area with trees. Our meal was pretty good too. We went with Luke Perkins and enjoyed catching up with him on the news from Quisqueya Chapel and the missionary community.

NO WATER

2009-08-06T00:52:00.003-04:00

Here in Haiti, it is common to have a water cistern. Our cistern is under the kitchen and it holds about 9000 gallons of water. There are 3 ways to get water. When it rains, all of the water from the roof goes into the cistern. The 2nd way is by the public utility of city water locally known as CAMEP. Typically the water will be turned on for a couple of hours each week, but when there is a lack of rain, service can be very spuratic and unpredictable. The 3rd way is by paying for a large truck to come and pump in about 3000 gallons.

Over the years that I have lived in this house, method one and two have been sufficient to maintain a good water supply. I've only ordered a truck of water a few times.

Last night as we were eating our supper, I was listening to the water pump and commented that it sounded funny. That made me get up to open the cistern cover and peer inside. To my dismay I could see the bottom and heard the girgle of the pump sucking air through the pick-up pipe. So I turned the pump off to protect it.

Fortunately, our house has a 200 gallon tank on the roof. It is positioned there so that when there is no electricity and the pump cannot run, water can still flow with gravity to maintain basic needs in the bathroom and kitchen. We began a new level of water conservation and this supply was able to sustain us for the next 22 hours.

After exchanging money at the local supermarket, I called the water delivery company and they dispatched a truck. After a while I got a call from the driver. Eventually the truck and 3 men onboard arrived. I tied up our dogs so that they wouldn't bother anyone, and then they unrolled their firehoses, fired up the little Honda powered water pump, and added 3000 gallons to our cistern. Yeah!

I turned the pump on, Calixte began to water the drenched plants, our dogs had their water bowls filled, Patricia began to do laundry, and later on I enjoyed a nice warm shower. What a privilege it is to have water, and it's even better yet to have "running" water. We take so much for granted.

BACK TO HAITI!

2009-07-31T23:14:00.000-04:00

Our furlough and medical leave took longer than we thought... but God knows exactly what we need. After a stressful week of packing things up and saying our good-byes.. we were finally able to get on the airplane and make the trip back to Haiti.

Nathan got to use his new passport.. but I think he slept through his big debut in Haiti. Our boss, Mark Williams, picked us up a brought us home. Elie, who house-sat while we were away, was home to welcome us in the door and give us our keys back. After we unloaded things, we had supper at Mark's house. We have our work cut out for us to get everything upacked, cleaned, and operational again.. but I'm glad to be back.

NEW PRIME MINISTER NOMINATED

2008-04-27T23:54:00.002-04:00

We continue to pray for the governing authorities of this country.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN27434520
By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 27 (Reuters) - Haitian President Rene Preval named a new prime minister on Sunday after lawmakers fired his predecessor to quell violent protests ignited by rising food prices in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Preval named Ericq Pierre, a senior adviser with the Inter-American Development Bank, to replace former Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, lawmakers said.

Alexis was dismissed on April 12 in a vote by opposition senators who blamed him for failing to boost food production and reduce the cost of living. His departure followed a week of riots and looting over food prices in the poorest nation in the Americas.

The violence claimed at least six people, including a Nigerian with the 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti.

Pierre's appointment was first confirmed to Reuters by Kelly Bastien, head of the country's Senate. It still must be ratified by Haiti's parliament.

Preval huddled with Pierre in the presidential residence on Sunday to discuss various issues, including ways of speeding the ratification process, according to a source close to the presidential palace.

The source did not elaborate but, as part of the process, Pierre must provide parliament with copies of the birth certificate of his grandmother or grandfather to establish their Haitian nationality.

Pierre failed to provide either document in 1997 when Preval made his first effort to name him prime minister while serving in his own first term as president.

Public unrest has struck several countries as bad weather, competition with biofuels, market speculation and rising demand in Asia send the price of many staples soaring.

The president of Haiti's lower house of parliament, Pierre Eric Jean-Jacques, told Reuters Preval's decision to designate the new prime minister was welcome.

"The country has been waiting so eagerly for this moment since the fall of the previous government," Jean-Jacques told Reuters. "We are ready to play our part and make sure the country has a new prime minister as soon as possible."

Preval, who took office in 2006, also served as president from 1996 to 2001, and is the only elected Haitian leader to serve a full term and successfully hand over power to a democratically elected successor.

In his first term, it took Preval 21 months to put a new government in place after then-Prime Minister Rosny Smarth resigned in June 1997.

Haiti, where most people subsist on less than $2 per day, has been ravaged by political upheaval and dictatorship since it overthrew French rule with a slave revolt 200 years ago. It has struggled to install stable democratic institutions since the end of the corrupt and notoriously repressive reign of the Duvalier family in 1986.

A GOOD SUNDAY

2008-04-13T23:59:00.000-04:00

Patricia made a good breakfast with eggs, sausage, and pancakes.

Paul, Bix, Patricia and I went to Michel Charbaneauxs (sp?) place of worship at 8. They had several hundred teenagers in the service.

From there we went to our regular church service at ECEH.

We went home and changed clothes. Then we went to the Montana Hotel for lunch, which tasted great.

After eating and taking pictures from the overlook, we left.

On our way home we drove through certain areas of Petionville. We saw many stores that had rock damage to their windows. Many were boarded up. In some places they just put up concrete blocks in place of the windows.

Back at home we changed clothes and had a short rest. Then Paul, Bix and I went for a walk with our dog Brownie. We found some neighborhood kids playing soccer and stopped to play with them. Unfortunately I kicked the soccer ball over the wall and into somebodies "yard". While a little kid went in to retrieve the ball, a dog got the ball and bit it, putting three punctures in it and the ball deflated. So I guess I need to go back there sometime with a new ball. We continued our walk.

I worked on the generator some more, and with our car battery got the generator started. Paul and Bix relaxed on the back porch and I took a shower. We ate supper, talked, checked email and they called home and then retired for the night.

Patricia worked hard doing a lot of cooking and washing a lot of dishes.

We thank God for the strength He has given us and for His many blessings.

PRIME MINISTER FIRED, RICE BAGS ARE 15% SUBSIDIZED

2008-04-13T17:00:00.000-04:00

from http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5geZrL5OB_kHM3gx_HW4bPRSgT3YwD900MC4G0

By JONATHAN M. KATZ
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitian lawmakers on Saturday dismissed the country's prime minister, hoping to defuse widespread anger over rising food prices that led to days of deadly protests and looting.
President Rene Preval, who earlier announced plans to cut the price of rice, immediately said he would seek a replacement for the ousted Jacques Edouard Alexis. The prime minister took office in 2006 with Preval's backing to head a Cabinet meant to unite the poor and fractious nation.
After Alexis' dismissal, when the country seemed to be calming, a U.N. police officer bringing food to his unit was pulled from a car and killed execution style in Port-au-Prince, U.N. sources said.
Opposition Sen. Youri Latortue said lawmakers ousted the prime minister because he did not boost food production and refused to set a timetable for the departure of U.N. peacekeepers.
"I think that will satisfy the people," he said after 16 senators out of 27 voted to remove the prime minister.
But about 25 people gathered outside parliament after the dismissal, chanting "Aristide or death," in reference to exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia, said a leadership change without much delay could help Preval create a government with more legitimacy.
Without a Haitian army to challenge him and with the backing of the international community, Preval is likely to remain in power despite recent unrest, Fatton said.
But Eduardo Gamarra, director of the Latin America and Caribbean Center at Florida International University, cautioned that a political vacuum has been created and senators might now go after Preval.
The prime minister's ouster reflects frustration over soaring food prices in a nation where most people live on less than US$2 (euro1.26) a day and chronic hunger had become unbearable in recent months.
The rage erupted in days of violent clashes with U.N. peacekeepers and looting across Haiti that left five people dead in the countryside before abating late Thursday. Protesters even stormed the presidential palace on Tuesday, charging its main gate with a rolling dumpster and yelling for Preval to step down.
Before the death of the U.N. policeman Saturday, U.N. military commander Maj. Gen. Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz told The Associated Press that calm was returning across the country, with some transportation resuming and people going back to work.
The police officer, identified in a forensics report as Nigerian Cpl. Nagya Aminu, 36, drove a marked U.N. vehicle into a crowded clothing market near the cathedral, where he was dragged from the car and shot through the neck, U.N. police spokesman Fred Blaise said.
The incident is the first execution-style killing of a U.N. peacekeeper since the mission came to Haiti in 2004, Blaise said. Passengers in the car, including two Haitian women who work for the mission, were left unharmed.
Witnesses said other Nigerian police officers fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse the crowd before recovering the slain man's body. Two Haitian men were detained for questioning, including a local television journalist who was covering the incident.
When Associated Press reporters arrived shortly after, several market stalls on both sides of the street were on fire. Many in the crowd chanted "Down with MINUSTAH," referring to the U.N. mission by its French acronym.
Heavy gunfire was heard late Saturday from the suburb of Petionville as the situation seemed to heat up again.
Some residents felt their plight would not improve regardless of the dismissal of the prime minister.
"Alexis left? What's the difference?" asked Jackson Aubri, a 28-year-old chicken vendor.
Emmanuel Joseph, a 26-year-old from the seaside slum of Cite Soleil, said residents there are still planning to protest on Monday because they are hungry.
Preval announced that the price of a 50-pound (23-kilogram) bag of rice will immediately drop from US$51 (euro32) to US$43 (euro27).
He said international aid money will subsidize the effort and that the private sector has agreed to knock US$3 (euro2) off the price of each bag of rice.
Globally, food prices have risen 40 percent since mid-2007. Haiti is particularly affected because it imports nearly all of its food, including more than 80 percent of its rice. Once-productive farmland has been abandoned as farmers struggle to grow crops in soil devastated by erosion, deforestation, flooding and tropical storms.
The U.S. State Department has issued a statement banning government officials from traveling to Haiti and advised American citizens to consider leaving the Caribbean country.
An estimated 19,000 U.S. citizens live in Haiti, most dual-nationals who live in the capital. More than 140 American citizens have been kidnapped since 2005, but few were short-term visitors, the U.S. Embassy said.

VISITORS ARRIVE

2008-04-12T23:59:00.005-04:00

College friend, Pastor Paul Harshbarger, and his friend Dennis Bicksler (Bix) arrived safely on the last American Airlines flight from Miami. Their flight was delayed a bit, but we had a smooth pickup for them in PAP. We got through immigration, baggage claim, and customs just fine. Theodore helped us get everything to the car okay. We had a good time talking as we traveled home, gave them a tour of our house, and ate dinner. They called home to let their families know they arrived okay.

THE GENERATOR AGAIN

2008-04-12T22:59:00.000-04:00

When it rains it pours. For several days I've been having problems with the generator. Now the problem lies in two areas. One is that the AVR controller for the field of the generator is bad. I've borrowed the parts from two different generators. The one from the MAF IT house I needed to return because that generator needed to run. The 2nd one I borrowed, I missed getting an adaptor cable the first time so had to make an extra trip across town for that. For now that problem is solved until the new part arrives from the US.

Part two of this is that the two batteries that I'm using to start the generator are both just weak enough that they won't work unless you put a battery charger on them for a long time and then put the charger on "start" to get the maximum "humph" out of them while cranking the engine over. Sometimes the engine just starts to crank over and then goes slower and slower till it won't turn over at all. On occasion I've used my car battery to start the generator, but you can't disconnect the battery and keep the fuel valve open, so I can't switch batteries while the generator is running, which means you can't take the car anywhere at the same time the generator is running. I haven't been able to purchase a new battery because the stores have been closed after the rioting. We'll see what this week holds.

GARAGE SALE

2008-04-12T14:00:00.000-04:00

For weeks we've been doing spring cleaning at our house, sorting through things and figuring out what we really need and what we can do without. In my case in the shop, I decided to get rid of things that I couldn't repair. It was such a good feeling to get things cleaned out.

Of course in garage saleing, we also needed to price things, mark things, load things in boxes or trunks for transport and do some advertising. Little by little this was done.

We were able to make one pre-sale to a person that bought quite a bit which was nice. We held the actual sale at the MAF IT house carport, which worked very well. A few other families contributed items to sell too. We had a couple of hours in the morning where there was a lot of traffic in and out.

There was a minor problem in that we couldn't watch everything close enough. A few things were stolen, which leaves you with a bad feeling. Patricia reminded us that those people who do that will reap what they sow. So I tried not to get too upset by it.

We lowered many prices again, and we gave certain things away. The neighborhood Haitian boys had a field day.

We were thankful to sell a little over half of the things that we put up for sale. Thankfully we didn't have to take home nearly as much as we took down to start with.

CLEANUP AFTER THE RIOTS

2008-04-11T23:59:00.001-04:00

Wow what a difference a few days can make! I say that in a good way and in a bad way. Haiti seems to be much worse off after the rioting in terms of damage to businesses. They've been set back in that regard. But the calmness of the day, seemed to be such a positive thing after the gloominess of the past days. That was a good thing.

I saw end loaders and 10 wheel dump trucks cleaning up big garbage piles in the streets. Many of the burned tires, dumpsters, rocks, refrigerators, and other debris blocking the roads was removed. Tap-taps were running again, and the grocery stores reopened. Patricia said that food was flying off of the shelves. People seemed to be in a panic, stock-up type of mood, not knowing if there would be further trouble. Some of the gas stations reopened, and there were long lines at many places.

At the airport, Texaco ran out of Jet A fuel. Actually they had a fresh supply at the wharf, but didn't want to deliver it without an escort. The domestic commercial airline guys had to quit flying, and we had more flight requests. Fortunately they finally got a truck delivery and were able to get people flying again. Texaco had plenty of AVGas too, but had problems with their truck that deliveries it to our airplanes. So we fueled out of our drum reserves.

Although schools and many businesses remained closed, it was comforting to see many people out and about again.

WHAT THE PRESS IS REPORTING ABOUT THE UNREST

2008-04-10T00:07:00.001-04:00

From AP http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5geZrL5OB_kHM3gx_HW4bPRSgT3YwD8VUJDKG0
Haitian President Fails to Restore Order
By JONATHAN M. KATZ – 6 hours ago
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A desperate appeal from the president Wednesday failed to restore order to Haiti's shattered capital, and bands of looters sacked stores, warehouses and government offices.
Gunfire rang out from the wealthy suburbs in the hills to the starving slums below as 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers were unable to halt a frenzy of looting and violence that has grown out of protests over rising food prices.
Many of the protesters are demanding the resignation of the U.S.-backed president, Rene Preval, and on Tuesday U.N. peacekeepers had to fire rubber bullets and tear gas to drive away a mob that tried to storm his palace.
He delivered his first public comments Wednesday, nearly a week into the protests. With his job on the line, Preval urged Congress to cut taxes on imported food and appealed to the rioters to go home.
"The solution is not to go around destroying stores," he said. "I'm giving you orders to stop."
But gunfire rang out around the palace after the speech, as peacekeepers tried to drive away people looting surrounding stores.
The streets remained in the control of bands of young men carrying sticks and rocks, who set up roadblocks of burning tires and stopped passing cars. Businesses were closed and most people locked themselves indoors, as mobs looted stores, warehouses and government offices.
Black smoke billowed over the city as protesters set tires ablaze. Sustained gunfire was heard throughout Petionville, where many diplomats and foreigners live, and in Martissant, a lawless slum west of downtown. On the road to the airport, groups of protesters surrounded makeshift barricades and threw rocks at passing cars.
Looters could be seen sacking a supermarket and several gas-station mini-marts. Radio stations reported looters also sacked a government rice warehouse outside Port-au-Prince and the office of Petionville's mayor.
Protests were also reported Wednesday in two northern towns, St. Marc and Cap-Haitien.
Haiti is particularly affected by food prices, which have risen 40 percent on average globally since mid-2007. With 80 percent of its population struggling to survive on less than US$2 (euro1.27) a day, the rising prices pose a real threat to its fragile democracy.
Preval acknowledged the threat in his address, saying Haiti's predicament comes partly from its dependence on imported rice that has weakened national production. He said the rising prices are a global phenomenon, and said the tax cut would help lessen the pain.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pledged Wednesday that his organization "will continue to support the Haitian authorities to bring emergency relief assistance to the Haitian people and to maintain public order," spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. He also called on donors to provide emergency aid.
U.N. police spokesman Fred Blaise said several people have been injured by bullets and rocks in the capital, including a Haitian police officer. Five people have been killed in the southern city of Les Cayes, where protesters tried to burn down the U.N. compound last week.
The U.S. Embassy suspended visa services and routine operations and advised Americans in Port-au-Prince and Les Cayes to remain indoors. Tim Aston, a U.S. Agency for International Development contractor in Port-au-Prince, said he and colleagues hadn't left their hotel in two days.
"You can hear gunfire and stuff like that," he said. "The helicopter is flying around and you see black smoke from the window."
Preval's speech had been widely anticipated, and his response to the violence could determine the future of his government.
Sen. Joseph Lambert, a member of Preval's party, said nobody should expect the president to "solve everything with a magic wand," adding that the protesters should listen to Preval's appeal for calm.
"If not," he said, "if there is an attempt at a coup d'etat to remove the president, things will get worse."

GETTING HOME FROM THE AIRPORT

2008-04-08T23:59:00.000-04:00

We had heard about protests over rising fuel and food costs taking place in a few places around Haiti. Monday one of our workers couldn't get to the airport, but otherwise our day was routine. Tuesday things started out normally. Patricia went to the grocery store, and on to work. I was at work and made several flights without incident. We soon realized that things weren't normal though. From the air I could see burning tires in different sectors of Port-au-Prince. In particular I could see the main road going out to the west of Port-au-Prince. Normally it is bumper to bumper traffic. Today there weren't any vehicles except an occasional truck parked sideways to block the road. You could see black spots where tires had been burned, and active fires. Groups of people were walking in certain areas on the street. Meanwhile Patricia heard that people were throwing rocks in the ravine near our house and she needed to take an alternate route home from church. Demonstrators were throwing rocks around the Christian school where MAF kids attend. Julie White went to pick up her children midday and the vehicle behind her had the back windshield broken out. Julie met Patricia part way home and then went through the ravine a different way and made it home okay. I made another flight to Jacmel and LaGonave and did my paperwork. On my last landing in PAP, I couldn't believe how many intersections had burning tires. I didn't see a way for us to get home. We waited around almost two hours, getting reports from different people, and waiting for things to die down. If I'm counting correctly, there were 5 MAF American staff, 3 MAF Haitian staff, and 2 American visitors that made up a convoy of 4 vehicles going home. I led the way and we attempted to go our normal route on Delmas 33. Karfou Gerard looked like it was still hot, so we turned around there and went another way. We saw the UN with three army tanks blocking the main entrance to the main terminal at the airport. We saw lots of burned tires, and various things pulled out into the streets: concrete poles, dumpsters, rock piles, old refrigerators, logs, and trash in general. At one point a crazy looking man with a mask over his head was waving a stick in his hand that he was holding like a machine gun daring me to pass him. We proceeded by back roads to the Visa Lodge to Delmas 31, Faustine primiere, and then up Delmas 83. The unrest really popped up quickly, and I was surprised at how wide spread it became in such a short time. We were thankful that all MAF-Haiti staff made it home okay.

IIT HAITI OUTREACH DEVELOPS HAITI WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

2008-02-04T23:59:00.000-05:00

I flew this group on at least one occasion. This article is on the internet at http://www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=7966&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Haiti Outreach Student Chapter at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is embarking on the design and implementation of a new water distribution system for the town of Pignon, Haiti.

Currently, the main source of water is a stream that runs through the lower end of the town. Obtaining water is an arduous and time consuming task that contributes significantly to the spread of water borne diseases in this poverty-stricken area. The solution developed by IIT students is a gravity-fed pumping system that provides potable water to the community of 10,000.

Led by IIT professor of Environmental Engineering Krishna Pagilla, IIT vice president of External Affairs David Baker and graduate student Alexandre Miot, IIT’s team is composed of more than 20 students from various majors, including architecture, civil engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. This project developed as an IPRO (Interprofessional Project), a cornerstone of an IIT education. All undergraduates must participate in two IPROs to graduate. Many IPROs, including this one, occur over several semesters.

The team has done calculations on water demand, drawn up plans for water kiosks, and considered various solutions to provide a consistent source of water. The diversity of their skills has made it possible to solve these problems and make this multifaceted project a reality, which they hope to translate into a working water system for the residents of Pignon. In addition to designing the system, the team has made four trips to Pignon. There, they have surveyed the elevations, met with town leaders, and familiarized themselves with the environment.

Their most recent trip took place in January 2008, during which the IIT team presented their preliminary design to the Haitian government and local leaders. They are currently finalizing the design of this water system, and have estimated the cost. The proposed design will cost between $150,000 and $200,000. The town of Pignon certainly does not have the budget to spend this amount of money, despite it being a fundamental problem.

The Haiti Outreach student chapter is now conducting a campaign to raise money for the design and construction phase of the project. To date, primary funding has been provided by a grant received from the USEPA P3 (People, Prosperity, and Planet), by IIT, by the American Society of Civil Engineers, by local Rotary Clubs as well as local engineering companies and private sponsors. Unfortunately, even with these donations, there is still a substantial amount of money to be raised. Haiti Outreach Student Chapter is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. All contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 7,300 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment.

CARPENTRY TOOLS RETURNED

2008-01-12T23:59:00.000-05:00

Last spring Vahan Sipantzi came from Idaho to help us rebuild our kitchen. Having traveled to Haiti many times in the past, he had an extensive collection of woodworking tools stored here. After he left, he agreed to let me borrow the tools as I continue to work on the kitchen. Vahan and his wife are returning this spring to work on some projects for the Free Methodists, and I needed to round up all of his tools and take them back to the Free Methodist guest house. Eberle, Patricia and I worked a long hard day to sort, clean, organize, pack and transport Vahan's tools. Vahan has 4 large wood trunks to hold many of the tools, and the other things were transported separately. We borrowed a pickup truck, and we were able to fit everything in it and make just one trip. Eberle went along to help unload, and then we dropped him off closer to home. We moved the solid surface countertop material that had been sitting in the driveway to the back balcony. We swept the carport area and reorganized the wood sitting there. It looks much cleaner there. All of the tools are out of the kitchen now, and that allowed us to bring up a plastic shelf unit to put pantry items. It seems like there is more room in the kitchen now, and there is hope of it being even better at the remaining countertops, drawers and cabinets are finished. All of my tools are back downstairs in the shop, along with a bunch of things that need to be fixed. It is a mess down there. I plan to address that mess in the coming weeks, and get that room useable again. Again, we thank you Vahan for loaning these tools to use for the time that you did. We couldn't be at this point without your help.

FLIGHT RESTANDARDIZATION

2008-01-11T15:22:00.000-05:00

MAF seeks to maintain high safety standards, and a big part of that involves pilot training. When new pilots are accepted by MAF, the training department spends several weeks working with each pilot and mechanic, taking their skills and teaching MAF "standard" operations. Once a pilot begins flying on the field, every 6 months a proficiency flight review is conducted, usually by the local instructor pilot or chief pilot. Every 2 to 4 years, an instructor pilot from headquarters comes and does "restandardization". The idea is to insure that all pilots are holding to MAF standards and working to continue operating safely. We currently have two instructor pilots from headquarters here to do restandardization with us.

Paul Bergen has been the director of the training department for many years. His field experience is from Iran Jiya. Scott Channon joined the training department more recently having served in Venezuala. They conducted a ground school meeting with us Tuesday afternoon at Mark Williams house. Paul is flying with Michael Broyles and Will White. Scott is flying with me and Mark Williams.

On Wednesday Scott flew along with me to Hinche on an operational flight. Thursday we went on two operational flights, one to LaGonave and one to Hinche. Friday we spent time doing a number of special operations including: short field, soft field, no flap, takeoffs and landings, takeoff aborts, stalls, unusual attitude recoveries, simulated engine failures, maneuvering in terrain, steep turns, emergency turnouts, airstrip evaluation, simulated drops, and some instrument time. I expect to see the final report and debrief with Scott next week. Please continue to pray that we will operate safely.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2008-01-02T21:59:00.000-05:00

2007 is finished, and 2008 has begun. Where does the time go?

I was on my feet most of the day, and I was pretty tired by 10 pm, so I went to bed. Patricia stayed up and watched the festivities in New York. I was awakened by all of the fireworks in the area and got up for a while.

We learned that not only is our older dog, Bear, afraid of fireworks, so is our younger, bigger dog Brownie. He was so scared that he would do anything he could to bolt inside the house. We didn't know what was going on at first and disclipined him pretty hard... then we felt sorry for him once we figured out what was going on.

January 1 & 2 are holidays in Haiti, and not much goes on. Businesses and schools are closed. We did a variety of things around the house. I worked on the kitchen, spending most of my time preparing the supports and base for the 2nd countertop. The base, consisting of 19 pieces of wood, is now glued and nailed in place.

BUSY FLIGHT DAYS

2007-12-28T23:59:00.000-05:00

Thursday I was the only MAF pilot on the flight line. My route of flight was PAP-LGN-PAP-HIN-PAP-LGN-PAP-PGN-PAP-JML-PAP. I picked up the Larakers, did the scheduled flight to Hinche, made a cargo delivery for Fonkoze, made a flight for the Pignon hospital, and then took a late arriving group from the US out to Jacmel. With stop and go traffic on the way home, it was nearly a 12 hour day.

On Friday Will and I together made 16 take offs and landings with the two Cessna 207's. We had some big loads too, which were better suited for the 207's rather than the 206's.

John worked on maintenance the two days, nearly finishing the inspection on HH-PTL. Greg, Mark, and Michael were on vacation.

OUT OF WATER

2007-12-27T23:58:00.000-05:00

I forget the exact day, but one day I came home and realized that the water pump was running a long time and not shutting off. Our 9000 gallon cistern was empty. I turned the pump off, and started another project. Since I've lived here, I've never cleaned the floor of the cistern. The dirt and dust from the roof washes in there, and I'd like to clean it sometime. The hole to get into the cistern is narrow, and neither ladder I have will fit into the hole. So I set out to make a special ladder that would fit. I was dirty and sweaty, and was expecting to go down to the Whites house and take a shower later on. Low and behold... city water came on! Wow! We hadn't had any water for many weeks, and it came on just at our moment of need! We were so thankful. The next day we got a little bit more water. I'm estimating that we got at least 1000 gallons in the two days.

Well... a couple of weeks later, we had a recurrence. Once again the pump ran and ran, but didn't shut off. Patricia sprung into action and started calling company after company. There are many different companies that have trucks that deliver water to people's cisterns. She finally found somebody who would deliver right way, even though it was 7:30 PM or so. I drove up to the corner and showed the truck to our place. They unwound the large hose, started the well worn gasoline engine which pumped the 3000 gallons into our cistern. They seemed like nice guys, and we were happy to have water again. I celebrated by taking a shower.

Sure enough, the day after we bought water, the city water came on for about 3 hours. So now our cistern is over half full, and we are thankful for that. It will still probably be a long while until it rains again.

BACK TO NORMAL

2007-12-26T23:59:00.000-05:00

After rearranging the house for extra guests on Christmas, it was time to clean-up. Patricia put the left over food in containers. Guylande washed a countless number of dishes and put them all away. Eberle mopped the floors. We took the extra boards out of the dinning room table, moved the china cabinet from the porch back to the dining room, and returned all of the chairs to their normal positions. We returned extra things we had borrowed from the Whites to their house.

Patricia did go to the Chapel to work, but I was able to stay at home. I worked in the office some, and wrote a few more Christmas cards. It is good to have the house pretty much back to normal.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2007-12-25T23:59:00.000-05:00

What a wonderful day it was to celebrate Jesus coming to earth.

Patricia worked really hard for several days to bake and prepare all of the food. Others brought things too, to add to the bounty.

We celebrated with 5 other families: the Whites, the Carls, the Olssons, the Khozouees, and Moises and three of his children.

Appetizers began in the living room, dinner was served buffet style in the dining room, and dessert was served on the back patio/balcony. We enjoyed talking and after it was dark, some people went on the roof to watch fireworks. We had a wonderful time!

COMINGS AND GOINGS

2007-12-20T23:59:00.000-05:00

The Christmas and New Year holiday is a special time to spend with family. Unfortunately we can't all go home, but we enjoy those times that we can. This year Greg Ryle will leave Telitha in Haiti and go back to Delaware where his wife and 3 children are. Michael, Karen, and Kaydence Broyles are flying back to the US to be with their families in east Tennessee. Amber, Marc, & Eric Williams are all flying back to Haiti so that they can be with Mark, Glee, and Kurt. So they'll all be together here. John Munsell's parents plan to be in Haiti in January. Otherwise, the Whites, Munsells and Carwell's are holding down the fort during the holiday.

STAFF PARTY - COWORKER TUMBLES

2007-12-19T23:59:00.000-05:00

Our MAF-Haiti staff meeting was held at Mark Williams house. There was pizza and plenty of food. JoAnn organized some group games. There was a gift exchange where you can steel from someone else. Everybody had a good time.

After arriving home, coworker John Munsell stumbled on an outdoor stairway and broke his wrist while breaking his fall. He was in a lot of pain and didn't sleep the first night. It is set in a cast, and he should start to be able to use his fingers in a couple of weeks, and expects to have the cast off in 6 weeks or so. Unfortunately he won't be able to do some of those things around the house that he had hoped to do, and he won't be able to fly for a while. Thankfully it wasn't any worse than that.

TROPICAL STORM OLGA

2007-12-12T20:59:00.000-05:00

Monday I noticed when I got in the airplane that the altimeter was reading a lot higher than the field elevation. That means that the barometric pressure had dropped a lot since my last flight. I was a little bit windy, but not too bad.

Tuesday it was more windy, and on one flight in particular, there was quite a bit of turbulence around the mountain peaks. I was glad to be finished with the flights.

Wednesday morning Patricia and I were awakened by a boom. It scared me. I got out of bed and found that our hallway door had slammed shut. The banana leaves were blowing and there was a light sprinkle and a stormy overcast. But there were a few breaks in the clouds and we went to the airport as usual. When we arrived though, we found that the government had cancelled all domestic flights. American Airlines and Spirit did come in, but it was a quiet day in terms of air traffic. The winds were about 20 to 25 knots all day out of the east. Marc and Leslie washed all 3 of our airplanes, and we saw the other airlines doing some maintenance. I made numerous calls regarding cancelled flights and rescheduling things, as Will was off at the dentist. Greg and Mark picked up the freshly recovered aircraft seats for HH-MAF, so we made some use of the day.

Thankfully, we did not get severe wind, nor did we get flooding. We could actually use a nice rain and pray that we might get some. We thank God for his protection.

Thursday we hope for clear skies and to resume flying.

CAR LICENSE!!

2007-11-14T23:55:00.000-05:00

It has taken about 8 months for the official transfer of our vehicle to be completed. Whew! It's finally done. We have a new license plate for the rear of the vehicle, a yellow sticker with the license number to go in the front windshield, and a red sticker in the front windshield that signifies we have current insurance. With two nice pieces of paper in the glove box complete with colorful stamps and fancy signatures, we are ready for any police check. Give thanks to the Lord with us.

TROPICAL STORM NOEL

2007-10-29T08:11:00.000-04:00

Sunday, we had an overcast day with light drizzle and light winds. This Monday morning the storm has moved closer to us... closer than earlier models predicted. I don't know if we are in the eye of the storm or what..... but the weather at this moment is not too bad. Satellite images show heavy rain east of us though. We'll see what today holds. At this point I don't know if the airport will be open or not, whether American Airlines will fly into Port-au-Prince or not. We pray for God's protection.

HH-LLS TAKES TO THE AIR

2007-10-19T23:59:00.000-04:00

Our new Cessna 207 is now registered in Haiti as "HH-LLS". The "HH" is for the country of Haiti and "LLS" is for Praise the Lord in French. Greg completed the paperwork Tuesday and John completed painting the new letters on Thursday.

Today I worked on maintenance for another airplane, "HH-FLY" for a while and then went for a test flight in the new airplane. It flies nice! No sooner had I landed that Will walked out to the airplane and asked if I was ready to make an operational flight in it. So I took a load of midwives out to Hinche. Then I made another flight going to Pignon, then Hinche, and back to Port-au-Prince. The airplane was filled to capacity on the 2nd flight, and it seemed to do well. I felt honored to make the first operational flight with it.

OUR NEW CESSNA 207 ARRIVES

2007-10-10T23:59:00.000-04:00

Today John Munsell and Will White flew the new C-207 from Florida to Haiti, stopping once in the Bahamas to refuel. Their flight went well, and we were glad to get a first look at the "new" plane. It is a 1977 model, but has many new parts on it including a new motor, overhauled propeller, new paintjob, new radio stack, new interior, new leather seat covers and much more. It has the new plane look and smell! Praise the Lord for the safe arrival of long awaited airplane. Now it will go through the process of being deregistered from the US, registered in Haiti, new numbers painted on the side and a few remaining customizing touches for our Haiti flying. Rejoice with us!

JOHN HOOD WITH THE LORD

2007-10-09T23:59:00.000-04:00

Our friend and former coworker is now in the presence of the Lord. John suffered a stroke a little over a week ago, and then had another stroke last night. Though he traveled to Haiti and Suriname this summer and had plans to go to Guatemala this fall, he was at home in Redlands California when this happened. John will be missed by many.

John and Sue lived in our house here in Haiti while Patricia and I were on deputation preparing to come in 2004. They adopted two children earlier in their lives and had two biological children. While in Haiti they worked with an orphanage and decided to adopt Michele, who is now 16 years old.

John served with MAF in Indonesia, the home office, Suriname, Mexico, and Haiti as well as traveling to several other countries for short trips. He was a maintenance specialist here in Haiti and also served as the Latin American chief of maintenance before retiring.

Greg Ryle was able to travel to California to represent the MAF-Haiti staff at the memorial service on October 18.

THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE

2007-10-04T23:59:00.000-04:00

Today I had the opportunity to fly the Haiti Minister of Justice. His name is Rene Magloire. With him were Theodore JnClaude and Moline Louis Jeune Jr. From the Canadian embassy were Francois Montour and Kathy Mongones. I dropped them off in Oanaminthe where they were picked up by an enterage of vehicles. They traveled by land to Fort Liberty, Grand Riverie de Nord, and then Cap Haitian. They were involved in the inaugurations of new tribunals.

I spent time in Oanaminthe with Hughes Bastien. He gave me a tour of his school where 1500 children are enrolled. We visited the clinic near his house that is awaiting staff and equipment to become operational. Currently they are only staffed by occasional visiting medical staff from the US. He also took me across the Dominican Republic border and we had lunch at a chicken place. It was fun.

From there I flew on to Cap Haitian and waited there. I had time to visit the control tower, the fireman, the Texaco refueling station, the ANN bureau of peace (where flight plans are filed and landing fees are paid), the UN guys receiving the helicopter flights, airport police, shoeshine guys, money exchangers, merchants, folks in the restaurant across the street, Tortug baggage handlers, and Leo's brother who receives our MAF mail on our behalf. It was nice chatting with various folks. I handed out a few tracts along the way too.

Finally I heard the sirens of the police escort as the Minister of Justice arrived at the Cap Haitian airport, and I flew him and crew back to Port-au-Prince.

PATRICIA PULLS A MUSCLE

2007-10-01T23:59:00.000-04:00

Patricia was working out downstairs and really hurt her leg. She was warming up, doing step aerobics. She felt like someone hit her right leg below the knee. She turned around expecting to see someone, but nobody was there. It really was painful. At first she thought maybe she had kicked herself. No bruising occurred, and it became more evident that she had a stage 2 muscle pull in her calf. She elevated it, iced it and stayed off of it when she could. About a week later some pooling of blood could be seen below her ankle. About two weeks later it was still painful, but she was able to walk more normally. Pray that it will continue to heal.

FLIGHT STATISTICS

2007-09-30T23:59:00.000-04:00

For those of you who like numbers, here are some statistics gathered from October 1, 2006 to September 30, 2007. MAF-Haiti flew a total of 1348.3 hours. I flew 391.2 of those hours and 6 different coworkers flew the balance. We made 3067 flights and transported 9125 passengers and 409,820 pounds of cargo. The purpose of the flying was 41% for mission groups, 28% for community service, 26% for development with the balance for the national church, medical evacuations, weather deviations, test flights and pilot proficiency checks. May the Lord be praised for the work accomplished. We pray that the Lord will use MAF-Haiti in even a greater way in the coming year.

CELL PHONE SERVICE

2007-09-30T22:11:00.000-04:00

Every day, we are aware of how cell phones have helped this country in recent years. When I first came to Haiti, communication was very difficult. Even between the capital and the 2nd largest city in the country, phone lines would often be down preventing calls going through. Haitel started building the first network of cell phone towers. Then Comcel came. They have now installed digital service with their new Voila service. Digicel is the newest service provider, but is already the largest. Here is a quote from the Miami Hearld:

Digicel had projected signing up 300,000 users over two years. They signed up 100,000 in the first 100 days. They lined up 1 million customers in only eight months. Now they have 1.6 million customers. ''Haiti has been a phenomenal success,'' Delves said. ``Our experience has exceeded any of our initial expectations.''

Cell phones have helped the rich. They have helped the poor. Now inbound calls are free, and so many are able to hear from loved ones who live overseas. Families are being connected. Businesses have new options. Now service not only covers the capital and a few of the larger cities, it is spreading over more of the rural areas.

I thank God for this improvement in infrastructure.

GENERATOR MAINTENANCE - PRAYER MEETING

2007-09-26T23:59:00.000-04:00

I spent the better part of the day working on the MAF generator at the hangar. It is an old Onan. I believe it was bought at a military surplus store and shipped by a missionary to Haiti. It was old when we got it, and we've had it 12 years or so. Typically we don't run it a long time, but it plays a crucial role in our operation when there is no city power and the airport generators are down. So we are trying to keep it in good shape. A while back I made a list of parts we needed, and those finally arrived. It had a fuel leak from the fuel pump and I replaced that. I also tightened up a few fuel connections that might have been leaking. The air filter bracket was missing parts, and I got that put all back together properly. What took the most time though was the fuel run/stop solenoid. Electrically it works correctly, but when power is removed, the spring doesn't seem strong enough to turn the engine throttle to the off position. I still have to get that figured out.

Mark and Will did the flying. Will flew a UN group taking pictures in the Port-au-Prince area. Mark flew a Presbyterian group going out to the Mombin hospital. John spent a good portion of his day removing cylinder #5 from HH-FLY to clean out the gunked up rings.

In the evening the MAF-Haiti team met at the Whites house for a prayer meeting. He had requests from the various MAF regions around the world, and we also spent time praying for concerns of our Haiti group. That was good. Julie made some good apple pie for desert.

ERRAND DAY

2007-09-22T23:59:00.000-04:00

We had beautiful weather, like we do most everyday. It was nice to sleep in a little bit and not have to go to the airport. A knock at the gate did get me out of bed though, and it was the city employee who needed to come into the yard to read the electrical meter.

Before breakfast I opened up the generator and installed two new drive belts. The new ones arrived from the states yesterday. They seemed too long. I have the adjustment as tight as I can get it, and it seems alright for now. Hopefully they won't stretch much.

I made a trip to have another key made for the car, check on price and availability of 3/8" plywood, got a tire price quote for a MAF vehicle, bought 25 concrete blocks, and bought some fuel.

I changed the oil on the truck, and put in a new air filter. I cleaned the corrosion on the battery terminal. Eberle washed the truck, vacuumed it out, and I helped him wax it and clean the tires. I added some air to one tire.

Last year the fire somehow damaged our doorbell. I bought new parts, and made a new wood piece that serves as a cover plate for an electrical box and a mounting plate for the bell itself. I marked the rest of the holes, drilled them, and got it mounted. Now the doorbell at the front door works. I still need to work on an intercom at the front gate.

I worked on the living room ceiling fan. Sometimes it doesn't work. I double checked the electrical connections at the ceiling, and they seemed okay. I tightened the mounting screws and put it back together. It is working for the moment, but I haven't ruled out the possibility of some other problem.

I remounted light fixtures in the hallway that I had taken down for painting. The paint job looks good. Thanks Eberle.

Patricia did some cooking, worked at the computer, watched TV, studied for Tuesday's Bible study, read, etc.

I talked to Mother for a while. Sabrina was to have her birthday party today. The Cubs won over the Pirates in Chicago.

JOHN BOYD NAMED AS NEW MAF CEO

2007-09-21T21:36:00.000-04:00

It was announced Friday evening September 21, 2007 in Nampa at the board/staff dinner that John Boyd will become the next CEO of MAFUS. I got to know John and Tanya better when they served in Haiti for a year or so. We pray that God will grant them wisdom and strength in this special task.

PLANE DEDICATION SERVICE IN NAMPA IDAHO

2007-09-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

For some time now, it has been our desire to replace one of our Cessna 206's with a Cessna 207. Although the takeoff distance requirement is approximately 200 more feet, we feel that the added ease of loading the 207 is a marked advantage for the type of flying we do. The 207 has a longer fuselage and a front baggage compartment instead of the cargo pod underneath the 206. The bigger fuselage makes it easier to board a person on a stretcher during medevac flights, and it is easier to fly large trunks that many short term missionaries bring their supplies in. The Lord lead the aviation services team to purchase an airplane that had a single owner, had been kept in a hangar all of it's life, and has a fairly low amount of flight time. The airplane has been gone over with a fine tooth comb, had a new radio stack installed along with several other standard MAF modifications, and sports a fresh coat of paint. Today, the MAF staff in Nampa, along with the board of directors and about 100 supporters from the area gathered in the hangar to pray and commit the service of this airplane to the Lord. We are grateful for the Lord's provision, and look forward to it's soon delivery to Haiti. My coworkers plan to fly HH-MAF from Haiti to Florida October 1 for it's scheduled engine and propeller overhaul. At the end of the week, they hope to be flying this plane to Port-au-Prince. Rejoice with us!

HURRICANE FELIX

2007-09-03T11:31:00.001-04:00

Hurricane Felix is a category 5 storm, but passed well to the south of Haiti. We pray for those in other places who will be impacted by the storm.