as an expat, friend of the UN and more...

Last night in Les Cayes, Haiti, four Haitians, one Nigerian MINUSTAH guy, one Ethiopian MINUSTAH guy and three Americans sat in the dark to watch the Bears lose to the Colts. Thankfully, the satellite box was working, though EDH (Haitian electricity company) failed on the power end so beers were warm and trips to any other part of the house beside the fluorescent sitting room were treacherous. The inverter kicked enough power in for the TV and satellite box to last all through pre-game, game and post-game.

This morning, my last morning in Haiti for a couple of weeks, Nick removed most of my bandages. As the doctor in town was very busy and the UN doctor was in Port-au-Prince, Nick and the nurse out at Castel-Pere teamed up for an hour and a half to peel various sized gauze patches off of my scabs and scars. As we worked in the back room of Klinik Espwa, Fr. Marc came by with an Uruguayan MINUSTAH guy. He didn’t speak any French or English so Marc wanted me to figure out what the guy was saying.

Turns out that MINUSTAH showed up with the potable water tank for our kids. They said they don’t have enough to supply endless amounts for all the kids so the guy I spoke with wanted to convey that we should ration carefully. They will be replacing it again later this week so I cautioned him to bring a translator for English or French, as I would be out of the country for a bit.

We are still plagued with a long-term water source issue but the UN has been great in helping us out with the short term. We look forward to getting them back on the soccer field and challenging them to a rematch, as our last game was tied 1-1. Nick and I also owe a personal debt of gratitude to our UN friends, since they were instrumental in getting us out of Cayes and to better medical care last week.

Life outside the U.S. continues to fascinate me and I already look forward to my return.
Thank you for all your prayers, attention, love and kindness. I can’t wait to see some of you later this week and to chat with others on the phone for less than $1.50 a minute.

I'll be headed back to the States to recover my sad road burns for a couple weeks. If you are in the area, come pay me a visit or help me raise more money for this project! The kids still need clean water, electricity and better housing.

See you soon!

the good the bad and the germy

About a week ago, MINUSTAH (the name of the United Nations mission in Haiti) came out to test our primary well from which we procure water for all things including drinking. Today they returned with the bad news: Our water is not potable nor will this source ever be - it's contaminated. Our "germ" and e. coli levels are above the normal standard.

Our short term solution is to borrow a potable water tank that the UN has generously offered. Our long term solution is yet to be determined but it may involve the expense of moving our well to a new site. Tomorrow I'll meet with MINUSTAH again to discuss other potential solutions and to give them a formal request letter for the tank.

We love working with the MINUSTAH guys and look forward to challenging them in another game of soccer.