Sunday Report from Haiti

Hello from Haiti. It is Sunday and we will have completed our first week tomorrow! It was a nice cool night so we all slept better. Today is cloudy and cooler, but still humid. Jim, Jack & Ken thought they were going to the UN and do their laundry...as we had been told we could. A fellow Disaster Relief friend got us an interpreter and we took off to the UN. Of course the ride was an interesting experience in itself. We arrived and after explaining why we were there we followed our guide to where they told us to go, but it was only a toilet with a tiny wash basin in it. We finally found the head man and he told us there were no facilities for non-UN personnel to use, but they were working on it. He showed the laundry services being built to our guide and we thanked him and left. Our guide said we would not want to wash our clothes there even if it was finished. By then we had walked over a lot of the UN compound and were tired of toting bags of dirty laundry around. We loaded back up and came back to our hospital compound. We had purchased some kitchen size garbage cans, so Jack started washing and rinsing clothes and hung them on lines he had stretched from tent to tent. He took pictures, but didn’t have his chip in his camera, so they are not available to show. He will catch Jim or Ken washing and get pictures later.

We are supposed to go on a tour of the area at 1 p.m. so we’re hoping it goes better than our trip to the UN.

Ken has taken on a project of building braces to elevate the heads of the beds for the patients. He also got up at 4 a.m. yesterday and added a line of electrical lights that he spliced and created for one of the hospital tents.

Charley is helping Dave daily put more and more supplies up on shelves as we can get new ones made. The US Airforce sent some men over yesterday to help us and they brought a front-end loader to move pallets around and also did a lot of man power in unloading boxes, ect. for us. The Supply Tent is shaping up more every day. Jim and Jack have inventoried everything that has been put on the shelves and labeled all the shelves and made a data base to use in helping the doctors and nurses find what they need. They think we are the greatest and keep our spirits high bragging on us. Since it is Sunday the men building the shelving are not working, so that slows us down a little today. We were told there would be devotional services for everyone this afternoon...both non-denominational and Catholic. That may be an interesting service to attend.

Medically we all seem to be existing fairly well. Jack caught poison ivy and had to have a shot yesterday. David’s fingers became swollen and he had to have his ring cut off, but it hasn’t slowed either one of them down.

We’ll report later on how our tour experience goes. We almost feel like we’re taking our life in our hands just to ride anywhere on these streets, so it should be an experience to write home about!

Thank you for your continued prayers!

Message from Jack

HERE IS A REPORT AND PHOTOS THAT WE RECIEVED FROM JACK...CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR EVERYONE SERVING IN HAITI.

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...

We left Morristown Morristown at 3:30 a.m. on Monday, March 1^st and had no problems getting to Atlanta, changing planes and getting to Miami Int. Airport by a little after 9 a.m. All is going well as we are supposed to leave for Haiti at 1 p.m. For “unknown” reasons, our chartered flight was delayed from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. then 6 p.m. and we finally left for Haiti at 7:05 p.m. That means we spent around 10 hours visiting and eating 3 meals in at the Miami Int. Airport. We had a nice flight on to Haiti and arrived a little after 9 p.m. Getting our luggage was a new experience too as they simply start unloading the plane outside of both passengers and luggage.

Getting luggage at the Haiti Airport

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 2^nd 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

URGENT NEED ! !

Jack Henson indicated their most urgent need to help in the development of systems for this operation is for pharmacists to be able to identify medicines and put them in proper categories, and also RN’s to help the pharmacist and doctors. If you are a Pharmacist or an RN and are Disaster Relief Trained and would have an interest and desire to go to Haiti, a second team is now being organized. SEE BELOW!

Limited Call-Out for Disaster Relief Volunteers

Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief (TBDR) has been asked to assist a hospital currently working in Port-au-Prince, Haiti with logistical and warehousing support of medical supplies. David Acres and four other Tennessee Volunteers are currently in Haiti as an advance team making arrangements and plans for future teams. The hospital and warehouse are actually tents located within the Port-au-Prince airport compound. Conditions are very, very, primitive. The work is extremely hard and all manual.

TBDR is currently seeking volunteers to staff the medical supply warehouse on a 24/7 basis in teams of 10 people for one week at a time. The first team will be led by Terry Webb of Maryville, a retired pharmacist, and will need to arrive by Friday, March 12 and can expect to leave on Saturday March 20. Additional teams are being formed to follow on a similar pattern of arriving on Friday and leaving the next Saturday. At this point, this is a limited call-out. Once things get settled and the work standardized, we will broaden the call-out.

Volunteer Requirements: All volunteers going to Haiti must complete a “Volunteer Application Packet.” Because of the unique nature of this response, it is necessary to ensure that we send only spiritually mature and physically fit volunteers. We cannot stress enough the extreme physical requirements of this work nor the emotional and spiritual drain it will have on the volunteer. Please note that there is no guarantee of electricity for CPAP machines or other medical necessary equipment. Because of the housing situation, at this time, we are requesting that only male volunteers be recruited.

Travel: TBDR has made arrangements with Wilcox travel to assist our teams in making travel arrangements. Included in your payment for airline tickets will be the required purchase of travel accident insurance through Adams and Associates. Once teams have committed to go, additional information on this will be sent. Prices are fluctuating wildly at the moment, but expect tickets to cost between $500 and $1,000.

Accommodations: Teams will be sleeping on cots in a tent on the airport grounds. There will be limited access to showers and it will require a bathing suit.

Attire: Please do not wear jeans or shorts. Khaki pants or lightweight pants are recommended.

NOTE: Teams are limited to one laptop and 2 cell phones (only works if they are global phones).

Contact: If you have volunteers who can go, contact Elizabeth Holmes, 615-371-7926, eholmes@TNBaptist.org. If you have further questions, contact Elizabeth or William Maxwell, 615-371-2023, wmaxwell@TNBaptist.org.

Please be in prayer as these teams are formed.

Thursday Morning Greetings

Our team in Haiti is off to a flying start. Jack Henson called (3-3-10) and gave an update on their situation. Here is his overview:

It’s hot, the misquotes are thick, supplies are stacked everywhere and organization is non-existent. That being said, he went on to say that the Doctors and Nurses are praising them (our team) for in the short time they have been there (one and a half days) they have already made a big difference. In other words what was taking hours to find in all the mess is now being found in minutes. The guys are staying in pup tents with three people to a tent. They have no hot water to shower in and they will be doing their laundry in a five-gallon bucket.

In a followup email this morning, Jack says they will try to keep in better touch now, but the Internet is VERY slow! It rained hard in the middle of the night so it is VERY muggy this morning!

Phone Update from Haiti Team

Due to primitive conditions, the team is currently unable to blog from Haiti. Below are clips from some phone conversations we have received today.
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David Acres called in and said the team was doing great. There is a lot of physical labor involved. (He sounded tired, but he said he was doing well.) The team is staying in a tent on army cots. Only physically fit people need to volunteer for future trips. He said they were getting enough food and plenty of water; everyone is taking their medicines.

Jack called after finally getting the satellite phone hooked up. He said they are sleeping on cots in 3-man tents (he, Jim and Ken are sharing a tent) just outside the main medical supply tent. They do have access to showers (no hot water) and port-a-potties, but no laundry facilities. Their main priority right now is to help organize the supply tent. He said the supplies are in huge piles inside and outside the tent, and the doctors and nurses are constantly needing help finding things. It hasn't rained since they got there so that is a blessing. He will try to get the computer hooked up tonight or tomorrow so he can send emails and pictures.
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Continue to keep these men in your prayers- please pray for their health and safety. Hopefully they will be able to get an Internet connection and will be able to actually blog from Haiti.

Tuesday Report - Arrival in Haiti

WE RECIEVED THIS VIA E-MAIL AT 6:52 THIS MORNING

I have about 30 seconds to write this. Please pass the word to all that we got here safely...a little after 11 p.m. last night. It's a LONG story you may not believe, so I'll tell it later.

We still don't know where we're staying or whether we'll have electricty, etc. Very rough conditions. We had 16 men in one tiny room last night!!

I've got to run grab a snack and get out of here as we don't have time for breakfast or don't know about lunch!

Share with all!

- Jack

Monday Report - Departure to Haiti

The TN Baptist Disaster Relief team flew out of Tennessee early this morning and had a lay-over in Miami. Unfortunately, the flight from Miami to Haiti was delayed and as of 5:00 p.m. ET, the team was still in Miami. Everyone is safe and well and ready to proceed to Haiti and begin their mission endeavors. Please keep the team in your prayers- that God will give them provision and strength in all that they encounter.

Please check back tomorrow for more updates from/about the TN Baptist Disaster Relief team in Haiti.

Thank you.