Thursday Report from Haiti

Today has been a very different day as it relates to work. We have had 15-25 people helping us in the Supply Tent. Most are doctors, pharmacists, our Haitian crew and some US Airforce soldiers. It is totally hectic as they are now reorganizing all the supplies into subject and/or alphabetically on the shelves which was our next step now that the shelves are up and the products are on them. They have the help to do it and know the technical and medical terms so we have just backed off, told them to do their things and let us know where they move it to and we’ll have it right back on the Master Sheet for everyone to use. I’ve pretty well taught them to look on it when we aren’t here to show or tell them.

David, Charley and Ken took off at 1 p.m. for an afternoon tour of the city. We hope they make it back! I know they will see the scenes that Jim and I saw the other day of which it’s hard to describe or take pictures because of how personal it is to the Hatian people as they watch us tour their devestated city.

Jim and I have held the fort down. I slipped off and did 3 loads of laundry, two for me and one for Jim. It is so hot and dry with a light breeze today so everything is drying quickly. It is so hot I’m glad we are not doing a lot of physical work today.

I took a moment to go by the nursery to get a picture of the US Airforce guys tenderly caring for the preemies. One young man was holding one when it died and he left crying. Another one with a little more experience in there took the baby and washed it and dressed it after it had died. I couldn’t do that very easily, so I’ll stick with the supply tent. I did slip into the children’s play tent where parents can drop off their kids while they are in the hospital. It’s neat and the kids love it. It made me think of Tim Thompson’s dream of using our newly wrapped bus on Disaster Relief trips for the children.

I got a picture of Jim trying to give away all our free food that another lady had left us when she left last week. I tell you, Jim makes more friends that all the rest of us put together. This lady came by this morning and saw us in the tent trying to scrounge up some breakfast and said something to Jim about food, so he invited her right on in and started pulling all the food our of the storage bag. He’s our TN Disaster Relief Ambassador!

Ken is feeling much better today. He was really dragging yesterday but I didn’t say much about it as he was working through it. I had a rough day yesterday with an upset stomach but that seems to cleared itself up too, so God is good to us and keeps us up and going no matter how rough it seems to get. You might not think having an upset stomach is a big deal...but as Jim says , when it’s over two blocks to the toilet, it can become a big deal! Ha ha!

I hope you enjoy today’s pictures that were taken around the hospital. We may have more from down town when the other three get back later this evening or tonight.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers and know we appreciate every one of them.

- Jack