I apologize for the delay in getting started with Haiti Reports, but it has been a little of a struggle to get up and running! First, let me say all is well with us. I’ll try to start with our flight over and then catch up on some of our daily activities...
After getting our luggage we knew we should go thru Customs, so we ask a “local” and he said for us to go to the bright lights. That was about a quarter of a mile across the parking lot, so here we all go pulling and toting all of our heavy luggage. When we got there it was the front gate of the airport...guarded by American soldiers. They told us we had been told incorrectly and took us back across the same path and to the far side of the airport...to another wrong place! Finally we figured out that Customs was somewhere inbetween the two original places and had shut down! We finally got some unhappy man to check our Passports (not our luggage) and give us a green ticket to get back out of Haiti. We were escorted to the front gate of the airport but warned to not step out until our ride arrived as it was too dangerous. Finally a truck and a van arrived and carried us to a compound operated by Campus Crusade. (The Florida House, where we were supposed to stay was already full.) We rode over the most unimaginable roads...if you could call some of them roads that your mind could conjure up. We arrived a little after 11 p.m. and they escorted us into a bedroom almost full of men and found just enough empty bunks for us to spend the night. The next morning I couldnted 16 beds in that bedroom! Rather tight quarters. They served us a quick breakfast and we headed back to the airport and the emergency tent hospital.
Jim and Charlie in the CC Compound
At the hospital we checked in with Carla, the Logistics Officer and headed to the Supply Tent. Upon arriving a the Supply tent, it looked like a hurricane might have hit inside the tent. There were a few shelves up with a few supplies on them. Everything else was in the floor our on palets. Both the tent and a compund area outside were both full of palets full of supplies. We had a meeting, starting our day with prayer and then set some priorities. First priority was to get shelves installed and then get all the supplies off the ground. After one hot day, the doctors and nurses were amazed at how much we accompolished in one day. That made us feel good. We stopped work that Tuesday around 4 p.m. as our ride was there to take us back to the Campus Crusade compound. David Acres talked with us and we decided we had rather stay at the hospital in tents then to have to travel to roads back and forth to the Crusade compound. Not only was it rough, it was extremely dangerous to be out on the roads after dark. So we went over to the compound, gathered up our luggage and came back to the hospital.
David Acres gives directions!
First day in Supplies
First attempt at organizing supplies
We were given two medium size tents that would hold 3 cots per tent. Jim Wholwend, Ken Sheffield and Jack Henson are sharing one tent. Dave Acres, Charlie Jones and Tim Key are sharing the 2nd tent. Day 2 was over with exceptions that go on at trying to exist under these conditions. We were shown the outdoor portable johns, the 4 plywood portable showers that cover your midsecton and that’s all. Nice cold water to shower in too!
In summary, the work was hard, but the heat drained us more than the work, but God was good to us and after two days w were all still doing well and thankful to be here doing what we could to help. The hospital is extremely busy day and night and I don’t think I have to tell you how tragic some of the patients are and the situations are, so the doctors and nurses are having it rough too.
- Jack Henson
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