Friday, July 23, 2010

sea container

Tom , Bob , and Patricia Larkin arrived in Cap Haitien, Haiti yesterday. They were met by Fr.Dorcin and traveled to his parish in Roch Platt. On the way the truck broke down ( a usual occurrance in Haiti), but fixed it and after crossing 2 rivers made it to Roch Platt. Fr. Dorcin had already received the container and had gotten it thru customs and all the way to Roch Platt and offloaded. The container itself had to go back to Cap Haitien. Tom said he cannot imagine how they were able to get the 40 foot container to Roch Platt, but they did! I'm sure there was a large audience as nothing that large has ever been there before. Today they will begin organizing everything for delivery to Jacquesyl, Pilette ( our soon to be new clinic), Haiti Hospital Appeal, and St.Anthony's clinic. Carwyn Hill of Haiti Hospital Appeal said it is like waitng for Christmas Morning for the arrival of a desperately needed Xray machine. Besideds distributing all the medical, dental and school supplies, Tom and Bob have many meetings lined up to check on the inventory of medicines in the clinic since there has been an influx of people from Port-au-Prince since the earthquake, plans for the building of the school, salt project, sewing project progress, and meeting with the new Cap Haitien Health Network liasons. They are bringing tools for the carpenter who will help with building projects needed in the town ( school benches and desks). They will be talking with the teachers to see how the first year of the book program (made possible through a donation from St.John's Parish in Wellesley MA) went. This program ensured that for the first time every child had a full set of books to use in school. Patricia Larkin, who will be a nursing student in the fall at Marquette University, will be assisting in an art project between Jacquesyl children and the Haitian students from the Brooklyn Art Incubator Project. She will also be the photographer of ongoing projects. With the help of a translator, Brunel Louis she will be interviewing students for educational grants for the 2010-2011 school year. Our phone line connection worked well last night for about 5 minutes, then we were disconnected, but hopefully I will hear more during their stay.