Haiti~part 3

These houses were recently built and are used as transition homes while waiting for the permanent homes to be completed.

The Lambi site's official name is Grace Village.

One of the temporary homes on Lambi. .

YWAM permanent housing project

One day was spent helping unload building supplies from delivery trucks. These materials will be used to build houses. 

Building materials are stored at the Hospital. A new shipment came in while they were there. Should be enough for another 50 homes.

Below are pictures of a farm operated by Double Harvest

http://www.doubleharvest.org/where/haiti/haiti/ which they were able to visit.   

 Double Harvest ~ Haiti.
This is their Tilapia operation.

Double Harvest ~ Haiti
Beautiful Crop of Chard. Their 500 Student school is to the right. A nice view of the workers harvesting the crop.

Double Harvest ~ Haiti
chicken farm

Going to church at Wane in Carrefour. 

Everyone looking their best for church.

Inside the temporary church. 
Their building was damaged in the quake so the tent was errected to accommodate over a 1000 people but they still had several hundred outside the fence peeking in. Maybe it was because of the "blondes", which is what they call caucasians.

These are two of their new Haitian friends, Ginette and Michael.

Fun Fact: 

 Michael was a top 15 finalist on American Idol, season 4! 

 

This wraps up the news on Ron's trip to Haiti. 

To read about the entire Haiti trip see: Haiti~part 1 and Haiti~part 2

Haiti~part 2

It's hard to believe it has been over a year since the devastating earthquake in Haiti. The tent villages are massive and widespread but seem to have a system and organization about them. 

Grace Village IDP (internally displaced people) is recognized as one of the most well run camps and is operated by local community members. They have a central trash depot and pick up by commercial trash haulers, showers, latrines, water distribution and a paid security force.  

This is the second largest tent city in Carrefour. About 15, 000 people currently live here on 7-8 acres.  At the height of the disaster approximately 20, 000 people lived at this location. The goal is to relocate all of these people within two years into new homes, both temporary and permanent shelters

Much of the coastline is covered in trash. Old tires are used as a water barrier for erosion control and to protect their living areas. 

About 4 blocks from Grace Village

This is a feeding program provided by Grace International called The Lord's Kitchen. They provide nutritious meals to the children of Grace Village.  

The Lord's Kitchen is well run and organized. They divide the kids by gender, age and size and then only let 20 kids in at a time. This keeps the line orderly and  prevents a stampede at the gate. 

A huge open air market in Port au Prince. 

Pejonville open air market

Pejonville open air market

The following pictures show just a glimpse of the earthquake destruction. 

Demolished buildings are everywhere. 

 The rebar supports are all that remain of houses that once stood here.  

More homes that were destroyed. 

 This was a Cathedral. 

Presidential Palace

Presidential Palace

Presidential Palace

to be continued.....Haiti~part 3 and Haiti~part 1

Haiti~part 1

I promised to share a little about Ron's trip to Haiti and will do my best to give you an abbreviated version of what they experienced there along with a few of the many pictures they took. 

 Ron and our friend Frank have recently become involved as volunteers with Forward Edge International http://www.forwardedge.org/ in an effort to help with a sustainable business venture in Haiti. The goal is to start a profitable venture such as a chicken farm, tilapia farm, cement brick production, alternative charcoal for cooking, etc.  that would provide food and jobs for the Haitian people. FEI is working with Grace International http://giinc.org/Home.asp who is well established in Haiti. The purpose of this trip was to meet the parties involved, survey the property and surrounding area and get an understanding of the size and scope of the project so they can develop a plan. 

Before they left for Haiti they spent two days in New Orleans to attend a Tilapia Conference on raising Tilapia in Haiti. The conference was very informative and worthwhile. This was the first time Ron had been back to New Orleans since hurricane Katrina. 

Jackson Square, aka Place d'Armes, in the French quarter

Bourbon Street

They spent their first day in Haiti at YWAM (Youth With A Mission) http://www.ywamhaiti.org/ while they waited for the team from FEI to arrive. The YWAM campus is located in Saint Marc. The staff at YWAM took them on a tour of their projects and also the surrounding area, all of which was very interesting and helpful. 

YWAM~Haiti
The building in the distance is an old vacant school on the campus that they use for storage now. 

YWAM~Haiti
campus dining area, church and multi purpose building

These are students from YWAM making bricks by hand using molds as seen here. These bricks will be used to build houses. They do this to supplement the support they need to raise for DTS school.  

 The Grace International hospital dorms in Carrefour, just outside of Port au Prince, is where they stayed while in Haiti. Doctors without borders used part of the facility when they were there assisting the victims of the earthquake but the medical team was gone by the time Ron and Frank arrived. 

Grace International Hospital
Construction on the hospital is not complete although portions of the building are in use. 

Grace International Hospital

Grace International Hospital dorm
This is the room they stayed in along with the others that arrived later.

View of Grace Village from their window in hospital dorm room

View of Grace Village from their window in hospital dorm room. The building behind the tent village was damaged in the earthquake.

The pick-up trucks below are called "Tap~Tap's" which are similar to taxi's in that they are a private, pay-to-ride form of transportation. They are called tap~tap's because you tap the driver's assistant on the shoulder to signal you need a ride. He then collects the money and hops in the back until the next stop where he jumps out and waits for more taps on the shoulder. There are several benches in the bed of the truck to sit on and most of the trucks have covers over the top for shade. Everyone piles in back and travels at their own risk. Apparently they like to drive fast and are a bit heavy on the brakes. They also do a lot of honking but there is such gridlock in some areas that all it seems to do is relieve tension and make lots of noise rather than get traffic moving. 

Tap~Tap (taxi) and drivers assistant

This Tap~Tap (taxi) is completely full! 

Tap~Tap (taxi)

to be continued... Haiti~part 2 and Haiti~part 3

PDX~"Arrivals"

Getting ready to leave for the airport to pick up Ron, AKA "Haiti Hubby"!! I will share more about his trip to New Orleans and Haiti later this week.