Hey Friends,
I have not been as successful at keeping this blog up to date as I had hoped, but there's not too much to report lately--besides that near-hurricane that blasted us a couple weekends ago! Our staff and property here at MTI took the storm quite well with hardly any negative effects. The wind never reached a level where it was extremely scary, but it was definitely a bit breezy. There were many folks who did feel ill-effects though, particularly people living in tent cities or temporary shelters. About 9,000 people had to be evacuated in total in Port au Prince and 8,000 families are without homes throughout the country. The MTI Country Director and myself made a trip out to Canaan to assess how folks were doing there, and we were very thankful to see that there was minimal damage. Although a lot of folks live in tents/tarp shelters there, there are also a fair amount of semi-permanent materials used. I think the real difference maker was that Canaan was just far enough outside the eye of the storm that it was less severe there. The government actually did a reasonable job of informing people ahead of time to evacuate tent shelters, and most who chose to stay did so to prevent theft. The government also coordinated ahead of time with the UN and NGOs (non-governmental organizations, aka non-profits) to provide mobile clinics at tent cities and food/necessities through the World Food Program, so kudos to them and the UN mission here. I encourage you to check out the "Medical Teams International - Haiti" Facebook page as there are a lot of photos that I posted there. If you're not on Facebook and would like to see photos just email me and I will happily send them along!
If you are wondering what I do on a daily basis lately, it's not too exciting by most people's standards. There's a lot of office and logistical work that goes into running an NGO and I've taken up a few different projects to help out since we don't have any teams right now. I considered inventory to be my initiation project into the office, as it was the first thing assigned to me and it was quite annoying. Since then I've developed a security manual for our operations here and have even become a used cars salesman! (If anyone's interested in a Toyato Prado SUV we have a sweet deal for you! Seriously this would be an instant buy in the US!) I also continually work on our Reflection Guide for medical teams that come down, although it doesn't look like I will be with a team again until October 1st. One of my favorite projects I've worked on so far is a community health survey of Canaan, which is really fascinating and insightful to health issues there. I'll have more to report on that once we finish the survey.
Anyway enough of the rambling--I hope everyone is enjoying the end of summer since summer will never end here! I've included a picture of the moon because the night sky is exceptionally beautiful here in Haiti and I always try to look at the stars for at least a couple minutes each night. It is nice to know all my friends and family are looking at the same stars. Peace to you all.
I have not been as successful at keeping this blog up to date as I had hoped, but there's not too much to report lately--besides that near-hurricane that blasted us a couple weekends ago! Our staff and property here at MTI took the storm quite well with hardly any negative effects. The wind never reached a level where it was extremely scary, but it was definitely a bit breezy. There were many folks who did feel ill-effects though, particularly people living in tent cities or temporary shelters. About 9,000 people had to be evacuated in total in Port au Prince and 8,000 families are without homes throughout the country. The MTI Country Director and myself made a trip out to Canaan to assess how folks were doing there, and we were very thankful to see that there was minimal damage. Although a lot of folks live in tents/tarp shelters there, there are also a fair amount of semi-permanent materials used. I think the real difference maker was that Canaan was just far enough outside the eye of the storm that it was less severe there. The government actually did a reasonable job of informing people ahead of time to evacuate tent shelters, and most who chose to stay did so to prevent theft. The government also coordinated ahead of time with the UN and NGOs (non-governmental organizations, aka non-profits) to provide mobile clinics at tent cities and food/necessities through the World Food Program, so kudos to them and the UN mission here. I encourage you to check out the "Medical Teams International - Haiti" Facebook page as there are a lot of photos that I posted there. If you're not on Facebook and would like to see photos just email me and I will happily send them along!
If you are wondering what I do on a daily basis lately, it's not too exciting by most people's standards. There's a lot of office and logistical work that goes into running an NGO and I've taken up a few different projects to help out since we don't have any teams right now. I considered inventory to be my initiation project into the office, as it was the first thing assigned to me and it was quite annoying. Since then I've developed a security manual for our operations here and have even become a used cars salesman! (If anyone's interested in a Toyato Prado SUV we have a sweet deal for you! Seriously this would be an instant buy in the US!) I also continually work on our Reflection Guide for medical teams that come down, although it doesn't look like I will be with a team again until October 1st. One of my favorite projects I've worked on so far is a community health survey of Canaan, which is really fascinating and insightful to health issues there. I'll have more to report on that once we finish the survey.
Anyway enough of the rambling--I hope everyone is enjoying the end of summer since summer will never end here! I've included a picture of the moon because the night sky is exceptionally beautiful here in Haiti and I always try to look at the stars for at least a couple minutes each night. It is nice to know all my friends and family are looking at the same stars. Peace to you all.
