It was with joy we received the latest of HATS many workteams who come to help – volunteering their time and their talents, and paying all expenses themselves. It was with sadness that we drove them back to Port au Prince and saw them go into the airport. Liette, Mariah, Josiah, Ariane, Tevan, Carol, Penny, Jan, Barry and his daughter, Heather, and Roger from Canada. On behalf of my children and employees I say thank you so very, very much for coming, for doing, for accepting, and for making a big difference. And Nichole, our token American on this team, thank you so very much too for all you did.
They were a fantastic team. Their jobs were many and varied plus they were a tremendous help with all the children. Of course for me having my daughter, Liette, leading the team was a huge bonus.
My grandchildren, Mariah, Josiah, Ariane, Tevan, and Heather, a friend of Mariah and Josiah, helped with many of the jobs , but were absolutely wonderful with the children. My kids are still missing them a great deal.
They did an exemplary job of painting both prescolaire classrooms inside and out at the school, and the inside of the Children’s Home. Some of them had not painted before but the completed work looks as it it were done by professionals. Roger and Barry worked through the ‘Honey Do’ list and made life a lot better for myself and my kids.
One job completed that was, and is, a tremendous asset for me was the photos and letters of all the sponsored students in our school being done. Students came from the school to this compound by grade – PS1, PS2, PS3 up to grade 9 where Liette took their photos, and she and Mariah helped the students get the letters written. Thank you, God!!! Liette handled that huge task beautifully and delegated the scanning of letters and resizing of photos to willing helpers on her team.
Another tremendous job and blessing was vaccinating 70 people against the dreaded disease Cholera that is sweeping Haiti. They raised a lot of money in Canada to purchase the vaccine, brought it down, and day after day proceeded to vaccinate people as they arrived. They were able to vaccinate Luckner, myself, my children, all employees of HATS, including all teachers (our full-time elementary and part-time secondary) and the construction workers who have been here most of the time since the damage to the mission from the earthquake, as well as the two policemen who are on-call to go back and forth to PAP with us. My heart aches to be able to vaccinate a lot more people but we used all the medicine that was brought down.
The number of people ill and dying of the dreaded Cholera continues to rise by the hour. Yesterday I had a visit from a Haitian family from a nearby town. They had just come from the funeral of their children’s teacher who had died with Cholera. Too, the uncle of the father had died from Cholera a few hours before they came here. Cholera has hit our school students, and their families, the surrounding community, and is now all throughout Haiti. I want to be able to help a lot more people but can’t. Dear God, send more help, send more vaccine, and show us what to do here.
The construction of our additional Children’s Home ‘Kay Timbrmart’ continues and is looking good. Before next weekend we hope to get the cement roof poured. In the photo of the house construction you will see workers digging a ditch across the yard for the plumbing of the septic tank. New septic going in and the present one needing repairs.
Ever dependable Luckner, along with his sidekick Coubano, came to the site this week, when almost dark, to repair a break in the septic line from the the Administration/Director’s and Volunteer Accommodations Building. For this I was, and am, extremely thankful.
The children here at the orphanage have all been vaccinated. They are all doing well and are continually learning about the importance of washing their hands with chlorox and water regularly on both compounds – the orphanage and at the school . Wish I could vaccinate more children but am unable. What I can do, however, is pray. And pray I will. Haiti needs help. Lots of help. The right kind of help and quickly. Please join me in prayer for the precious people of Haiti.
~Karen
