Haiti - Day 4

From Haiti - Day 4

Today we started tackling some of the projects that needed to be done. Jared, Ken and Brian worked on some construction projects at the house we were staying in where the market was located downstairs, John was working on some electrical issues at a few different locations (the electrical conditions are sketchy at best. kudos to John for doing good work...i wouldn't go near it...John's an electrian, so it didn't scare him off), Joel helped sort and organize a pile of medical supplies that needed to be inventoried so that they could use them at the clinic, Jeremy went to the market & did some cooking for the team and volunteers at the clinic (as well as the patients) and Bill and I tackled some of the computer issues at the office. It was a bit of a tough day because we had a hard time making fast progress. One thing we have found about working in Haiti is that things move very slowly. If you need supplies you don't just run down to Home Depot and grab them, if you're cooking food you don't just run to Safeway, if you're working on computers the internet is very unreliable and slow...so no matter what the project there were obstacles in trying to get it done quickly. We were working on some big time virus and hardware issues that are time-consuming to resolve on a good, reliable connection so it was shaping up to be a pretty long process of getting these cleaned up.

From Haiti - Day 4

It was a pretty full work day for all of us and we were all pretty tired by the end of the day. It was a tough day for all of us as we were all working in our skills and doing the same type of work we do everyday at home. The good thing about this is that we were all using our abilities to help, but sometimes it is nice to do something different and (in our case) get out of the office. But this was something that has been a substantial problem for them as they run the ministry there and there really isn't anyone there that can take care of the problems for them. So, our skills were being used and we were able to help with something that makes a difference for them as they need this to be working to help keep everything running with the volunteers and their connections to the US. We'll be working on these issues more this week to get them all squared away due to the slowness of the systems and the internet.

From Haiti - Day 4

I finally got a better night's sleep last night as I'm feeling a little more adjusted to sleeping on the ground in 85 degree heat. It's crazy how hot it stays at night. At home it's still cool enough to sleep with blankets. Here it is so hot you sweat all night long sleeping on a mat and it makes it hard to sleep. I've had a couple nights that i haven't slept good, so last night i think i was finally just tired enough that it didn't matter. I haven't had any substantial mosquito bites yet (just a few) and have been trying to keep the bug lotion on as much as possible. There are mosquitos, but not an overwhelming number of them. Those of us sleeping outside are still being careful and sleeping under the mosquito nets, but everybody seems to be avoiding the bites pretty well.

Tomorrow we're planning to continue on the projects and hopefully be able to make some really good progress on things.