Greetings to all from lovely Jacmel. This was the second day of fence construction at the new orphanage site and a lot of progress is taking place. The BVU Spring Break AWOL group is pushing the Spencer old guys group pretty hard, but I must say they are all keeping right up with the younger crowd. I think everyone who has not dug post holes by hand has truly developed an appreciation for those who have. It is hot, humid and hard work yet everyone has kept very good spirits and seems to truly be enjoying themselves. Yesterday while working, about 3 neighbor children came to watch and interact, but today there were probably 25- I think the sharing of lunch had some impact, but also just the sharing of games and laughter certainly was the main draw. The Spencer group of Dennis Philips, Tom C Howe, Ronnie Hamrick and Todd Brockshus have done a ton of work and after tomorrow we will be taking the day to go to the Family beach, to visit Hope for Children (the new orphanage being built by our contractor/architect, Dave Bird), St Michelle Hospital and CCH where I have been working and downtown Jacmel. It is a holiday here, so no work!. This will give everyone a chance to see what LaConcorde will look like very soon. The work that he and his haitian crews are accomplishing is truly amazing!! Before I forget, because Dennis did until I reminded him this am, Happy anniversary to Dianne Phillips!! Don't worry Dianne, Denny only shared the card you sent with a few of us :-). The BVU group will be heading back to PAP one day earlier to catch their flight and will see some sites arranged for them in PAP.
To give a brief overview, I think I can say that for all in our group, the highlight of PAP was visiting the children at the current LaConcorde site. It gives everyone a very keen insight into the drastic change moving to Jacmel will make in the life of these wonderful kids. We then loaded up into 2 very full vans for the trip over the mountains to Jacmel. The good part was no one got sick and the bad part was the gait of the Spencer group was certainly impaired for a while. We arrived at the Isaiah House where we were warmly greeted and then off for a quick tour of the market, downtown Jacmel, the landsite, etc. Since then it has mostly been work and fellowship among one another. To all of you at home, be proud of your loved ones, they are truly special people! They have also developed a new love of walking from one place to another!
I also am fortunate enough to have with me Christina Olsen, a 4th year med student who rotated with me on ortho her 3d year. Yesterday we worked in the Community Coalition for Haiti clinic/OR getting ready for surgery today. Dr Mukkuaka Oda, an orthopedic surgeon I have been working with here in Haiti, had gathered a group of patients for me to consider surgery on. There were many interesting cases for us to review and schedule for surgery. CCH has a brand new set of OR's that was used about 3 weeks ago by a volunteer group for 2-3 days, but otherwise is really brand new. We inventoried the equipment available with Laura Schick, the nurse director for CCH, and scheduled surgery for today which went very well. Dr Oda arranged for anesthesia from PAP for us and things actually went very well with another day of surgery scheduled for tomorrow. Christina was a huge help being my assistant and scrub tech for all of this and did a great job! (Only if she would have decided on Ortho instead of Family Practice!).
I have been able to meet with and spend a lot of time with Dave Bird who has been arranging our fencing and has bid for the entire job for us. He and his wife are wonderful people and great host/hostess. Last night I went to their home for dinner and was able to sit down with Dave to make some final plans for the project. With the blessing of our very understanding LTR Board of Directors , we were able to arrange the site and dimensions of the buildings and discuss cost estimates, etc. It was decided that we would be moving a number of the buildings and due to the elevation of the property, adjust the size of the buildings. All in all we will be building 2- 20 X 60 dorms, a 28 X 64 kitchen, eating area, common room, pharmacy(required by the government), a 28 X 64 home for the Bastien family,and a Sukup storage building. This will all get started as soon as board approval with an expected finish date of late July. The fence will be up by the end of next week. The next phase of the other 2 dorms, the school and the med/dental clinic will start as soon as funding is available. The spot gets more beautiful each time I see it.
As the week reaches its midpoint, I find myself marveling at all the success we have ALL been able to reach in such a short time. Through the continued efforts of all of us, the generous donations of MANY, this will truly in the near future be reaching completion and we will be able to see all the work paying off. Thanks to all of you and God Bless!!
Rick
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