Special events at Espwa

Here is a recap of some of the activities we had planned on doing while we are visiting at Espwa... we sent money ahead of time to Free the Kids for paint to be bought in order to paint one (or two) of their houses in the main village. We also brought paint supplies with us to use... like brushes, rollers, pans, etc. On Wednesday most of the group went over and spent the morning painting the inside and outside of one house. I was working on the laptops while they did that so I missed out... but on Thursday, I broke away and while the girls treated the various housemothers to a 'spa day', us 4 guys went back over to the village and while we expected to put coat #2 on that house... but the older Haitian kids who were directing us brought us to house number 2 for its paint job. While it could have used another coat, to them the house looked great and it made more sense to put our paint and efforts toward painting a second house. The houses are fairly small, they have three rooms, and are loaded with beds. The only belongings we saw were the kids' backpacks. To me, the houses seemed  small and cramped, but that is a western perspective and we are obviously so much more used to compartively luxurious accomodations. BTW: only painting in the morning... it is too hot in the afternoon for that activity.
On Wednesday evening, we filled over 1,000 water balloons in preparation for the water balloon fight with the kids. Sometime after lunch on Thursday, we climbed up on the roof of the second floor and prepared for water war! The kids started swarming (most of them rembered the activity from the last time our group was here) and we counted down and started throwing them. We all had a blast... the boys were trying to catch the water balloons and throw them back at us. It probably lasted for 20 minutes and we were all soaked!

Daily Activities at Espwa

The people who really know me... know that I (1) never ate peanut butter as a kid and even though I like it as a flavor in candy and cookies, I don't eat PB&J sandwiches as a rule. I was initiated into that well-known delicacy on a recent scout campout when there was nothing to eat but PB&J sandwiches. (I really struggled to admit this... but I liked it.) and (2) I don't drink black coffee. When I started drinking coffee when I started working in Manhattan in 1977, I have been loading it up with cream and sugar or French Vanilla creamer (YUM!!!); Well I am seeing a few 'firsts' on this trip already... (1) I am intentionally eating peanut butter toast in the mornings with my other breakfast items; (2) I am drinking their coffee with nothing added. They do have sugar on the table, but I figured that while I am experiencing new things in life, learning to drink (and even like it) would be a good thing to do. The coffee down here does seem stronger than the usual brew at work.

Tuesday
Our week started out by unpacking the 1200 pounds of goods and organizing, sorting and documenting what we brought so they know what they have to give to the kids when it is required.
Personally, my week started by gathering the 12 laptops and going through them again (I already did this before our trip at home) and uninstalling any existing antivirus programs, installing their preferred Antivirus (free) program, some version of MS Office programs so their office and school personnel can be productive with these computers and setting the proper time and time zone, while I am documen ting the specs for the inventory list. I probably spent more than three full days on and off working on this task since there are several daily challenges working in Haiti; their power is intermittent and they use satellite Internet so they are limited in bandwidth. I am actually surprised at how dependable both of these have been... considering the conditions, but it seems that just as something was finishing downloading, there would be an interruption. I also ran into laptop hardware limitations and issues... but that is what you have to deal with when you need to rely on donated goods. (I will be a much more fervent fundraiser for Espwa in the future so we can provide more updated equipment.)
I also now know what specific programs they require so in the future, I can do more prep work beforehand. I setup my IT workstation at the dinner table, which was very central to all activities and people, but as meal time got closer, I would have to shift everything elsewhere to make room for the kitchen staff to do their thing. I started doing one laptop at a time but started multi-tasking as things sometimes went a bit smoother. They also had a broken laptop they wanted me to look at, so I didn't want to start troubleshooting a broken unit until I got past these initial laptop tasks.

Daily life for visitors at Espwa
The guest house is called "the Quad" and they have 8 guest rooms available. Most have two beds, a few have three. They have a 'drink plan' here... last year I was told that you kept track of what you drank and paid $1 per pop... or beer... or drink (rum and coke). This year they changed it so that they just charge a flat fee of $50 for the group for the week. That fee seeems extraordinarily low (especialy considering how much is consumed at happy hour and evening relaxing time), so I am pretty sure we will pay much more than that when we depart on Monday.
The meals have been great. Sometimes we have local style meals, and sometimes it is an American type meal with a Haiti twist. The pasta meal we had the other day was spaghetti with no sauce but other additives, which was superb. There is usually rice served with something... usually cheese and crackers and there is always peanut butter. :-) I was hoping to shed a few pounds on this trip, but I now fear that I will gain a few instead.
We are all taking Malaria medicine, although it seems the dosage and instructions vary wildly. They issued me 6 tablets... one a week before I entered the country, one to be taken the day I enter Haiti, and then one a week for 4 weeks after. Others are taking one pill a day for 15 days, others have a different pattern. It seems odd that it differs that much, but as long as we are taking it, I am sure we are all protected.
("I am not a doctor, but I play one on television.")

For health reasons, all the water we use is bottled water. A large office-style dispenser is in the kitchen for our daily use and the kitchen staff uses the same large bottled water when they prepare and cook meals.  All but one of our rooms has a sink in them for brushing teeth, etc., but we need to remember not to put that water in our mouths. I keep my travel water bottle near the sink for that purpose. The bathroom/shower room is a dorm style setup... stalls for each purpose and all guests use the same facilities, but there is sufficient privacy.  The showers are cold water only, but due to the ambient temperature, the water is not very cold; so I consider them 'cool' showers, which is usually exactly what you need to cool off and feel refreshed after a hot, sweaty day.

They do have a woman here who will do laundry for you for a few dollars per load. I packed 'fairly light' but I think I brought enough to get through the week. So far, I have not noticed that I failed to pack anything. I usually don't worry about it when I travel because I figure I can always buy it when I get to my destination... not so much here. I am happy that I seemed to remember to bring everything I needed... and more.

The people here are amazing... polite, happy to see us, patient... as we struggle to remember names and words and try to learn (and usually butcher) their language, Creole. Some of the older kids are very good at English and are sometimes fluent in Creole, French, Spanish and English. One of the older kids, Junior is his name, promised to stop by the Quad and help me learn some more Creole. I am starting to put names with the faces I see regularly, but some of the woman that were here last year have a great recollection of the people they developed relationships with and those folks are ecstatic when you do remember them.
We did some visits to the girls' houses, the mainvillage and various parts of the compound. A brief 'Bon Jour' or 'Bon Soir' will evoke a big smile and a sweet response... usually the same greeting.

Now that I have been here and started establishing relationships with some of the folks, I experienced some frustrations in not be able to communicate. There is a great iPhone app for learning French Creole, there are some great resources for learning the language on the web, plus there is always Google Translate. :-)
I am vowing to learn much more Creole (and French) before I come back next year.

Working in Haiti

(I didn't know blogging would take so much energy after full days of whatever we had planned.)
Monday
We all congregated at the American Airlines check-in counter... but my frustration started mounting real quickly... it didn't seem that any of the AA employees knew where we should go.  I started in line #1 and was told I needed to move to line #2... then was redirected to line #3, and brought back to line #2. At that point an AA employee oversaw our group since he was Haitian (and lived in NYC for a number of years, so I sucked up to him as much as possible) and helped expedite our check-in process. We had plenty of time at our gate so we got our lattes and bagels... or whatever before we boarded.
We got on the flight just fine and had an uneventful flight and landed in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti on time. The trip through customs was interesting and having our custom green Espwa shirts really helped keep our group visible and together... we rented 8 carts with three of our 50 lb. totes stacked on each cart, and had this train of carts going through customs. (We were hard to miss!)
We had a misstep of paying a guy to 'handle' us in customs and Sue paid him $50, but it was the wrong guy. we found the right guy and paid him to 'help us' with our luggage and were able to start getting processed. They started going through the first few of our group's luggage, but they got bored real fast, so the last three or four of us were waved through without a notice.
We wheeled our carts about a 1/4 mile to the parking lot  and found our drivers, so we started loading the vans. Our group was able to fit in one vehicle (13-passenger van) and the 24+ bags were loaded into van #2.
We finally departed the airport at 9:15 am and the trip from Port-Au-Prince was a 4 1/2 hour drive with a short stop for gas (200 Haitian Gordes = $4.75 USD per gallon). While they were filling up, we took a restroom break (I opted not to experience that activity since I didn't have the urgent need!) and a quick purchase of bottled water for most of us.
We arrived at Espwa (in Les Cayes) at 1:45 pm and started getting settled. We unloaded the luggage and found our personal belongings and chose our rooms. The guest house is beautiful, nicely decorated and well protected by security guards. We met Deacon Peter, Natalie the finance person, Jean Lexima (Director) and his wife Willeta the house manager (and dietician who plans the meals) in addition to the many young men (who are housed at Espwa) who work at the house in the kitchen by serving the meals and whatever else the guests need. 
The usual pace is pretty slow, but at 4 pm each day the pace slows down even more and the guest house turns into happy hour, and we choose our drink of choice and sit around chatting and anticipating the dinner bell at 5 pm.

We spent the rest of the evening discussing the plans for the week and what each of us will be doing and when they will take place.
My plans (as the IT guy) were to get working on configuring the twelve laptops we brought... just the way Deacon Peter wants them... and to take a look at the broken laptop I was warned about two weeks before.
It gets dark real early (at least it seems so) and my body is ready for bed earlier than usual. I think I was ready for bed at 7:30 the first night, but was awoken at 9:30 when we had additional guests arrive. Doctor Jerry is a Pediatrician who came from Achorage on his annual 3-week trip and the coordination and communications must have gotten crossed and he did not have a ride to get him from the airport. He somehow managed to get a cab ride from Port-Au-Prince to Les Cayes and then came across a gentleman who knew of Espwa and he escorted him to our place. They put this gentleman up in our room (since we had three beds) and Doctor Jerry got his room assignment.
I went back to sleep only to be awoken  by the rooster who crows at several times of the morning... usually 4:00 and several times throughout the morning. Some mornings, he would crow continuously... I started using my ear plugs on day 2, but the rooster actually helped me to wake up in time for morning church service at 6:45 am.
I will post again in the morning...

It's hard to believe we are really here. Going back a couple of days...

Monday morning - Our trip started out smoothly enough in Minneapolis... our team of 7 all congregated at the gate after getting our over-priced lattes and boarded our plane to O'Hare. The problem started by a delayed start (of course!)... which got us into Chicago (on the ground) about 45 minutes late. The plane then taxied for an eternity and got us to the gate 8 minutes before our connection was scheduled to take off. I had hopes of grandeur that our connection was also behind schedule. Since I ewas the closest to the door, I ran (O.J. Simpson style) to gate K-8 only to get there in time to watch our plane start rolling away from the jetway... a full 3 minutes before the scheduled departure time of 12:10 pm!!
Once all 7 of us gathered again, i found a gate agent who directed me to the reservation phones. She had looked up our options and saw only 2 seats on the  2:20 flight but was confident we could all get on the 4:25 to Miami. Well, once I got the reservationist on the phone and a little sweet-talking and a small tear (which didn't translate well over the phone) we all somehow got booked on the 2:20. We had lunch then got on our flight for a relaxing flight to Miami. 
The other 5 members of our group met us there and we started retrieving our twenty-four 50 pound totes. Well, 23 showed up. We spent the next hour waiting in line and explaining our situation to the guy at the lost luggage desk. After another search and a description of the wayward tote, we started completing a claim, when one of our team started scanning the various lugage conveyors (yet again) and lo and behold, it showed up. Hallelujah!
We all got checked into our rooms and most of us met for dinner in the ritzy restaurant in the hotel, and found that in lieu of the pricey entrees they agreed to make us burgers and club sandwiches. Things were finally going our way!
Off to bed for an early morning flight 6:15 am (check-in 4:15) to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.
Updates to follow.

The day to start our trip has finally arrived!!

Well, the day has finally arrived. I bought my airline ticket and travel insurance over 8 months ago and in-between the usual 'life' stuff like eating, working, sleeping and family activities... we have been fundraising and preparing for this trip.
We have also been talking about every aspect of the trip so I have a mental image of what to expect but I am sure my expectations are inaccurate, as usual. I am told the sights, sounds and smells of Port-Au-Prince are 'different'. I have been to poverty stricken areas, often where cruise ships usually dock in third-world countries, but this trip will be vastly different. 
I am trying to keep my expectations in check as we start our journey.
These bags are just mine... the two larger ones are my 'pack mule' bags, filled with 48 1/2 pounds of donated goods each, and the smaller ones are my personal belongings, including the donated laptop we are leaving at 'Espwa'. Our group is traveling to Miami in two groups... one group left at 6:15 am and our group is leaving at 9:45 am, changing planes at O'Hare.
We are all meeting at Miami and staying overnight, then we depart together for Port-Au-Prince on a 6:15 am flight Tuesday. Then, the adventure really begins.

Preface to Trip to Haiti - November 2012

My posts for my Haiti trip from 11/12/12 - 11/19/12 will be on these pages.
I am part of a 12-person team visiting Haiti and Vilaj Espwa (Hope Village) in Les Cayes, Haiti.
Free the Kids is the organization that runs the orphanage that houses over 600 kids.
Here is my post on Facebook detailing Project Hope (Pwoje Espwa).


To all my FB friends... in case you don't already know, I am going a mission trip to Haiti (beginning on Nov. 12) as part of a group of 12 dedicated, caring people (headed by Sue Valiton).
Our mission is to visit an orphanage in Les Cayes (Hope Village or Vilaj Espwa in Haitian Creole). http://www.freethekids.org/
Our trip is for 8 days, and will be working with the 600+ kids who are housed, fed, clothed, schooled and trained by the staff there. Each person in our group will be bringing two-50 lb totes filled with donated goods as requested by the staff, in addition to a used laptop in a backpack.
We have been fundraising for more than 6 months to help raise enough funds to provide these kids with things they desperately need. If you haven't already given and have the means to and would like to donate to our cause, there are various ways to help.
1. You could send me a cash donation via Paypal to tom@tomandrosie.com which would be used by our team to fill the bags we are personally bringing to the kids.
2. For a tax deductible donation, you could donate via their website. On the main page, there is a secure link found in the upper right corner "Donate - Click Here".

Again, thanks for all the donations, good wishes and most of all prayers for our safe journey, and especially prayers for the kids; and especially the staff and Father Marc for all that they do on a daily basis to help the people of Haiti.
Thanks and God Bless you.

The program that Father Marc Boisvert started in 1998 is a heartwarming story of hearing God's calling and acting on it... he is truly making a difference in a country that needs more help today than ever before; especially due to the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated the country on January 12th, 2010.

You can follow Father Marc's blog and watch the great things that go on in the Les Cayes community of Project Hope.

I am the official IT guy for this trip... taking the 12 donated laptops and preparing them to be personally transported to Haiti by our 12-member team and handed off to the staff at Project Hope.

We are planning a webcast from Haiti to St. Hubert's the weekend we are in Haiti ( 11/17, 18) so the donors in our Catholic Faith Community can see first-hand what we are doing and the human impact of their donations and to see the kids LIVE via the Internet. (Of course, this is all dependent on the available bandwidth and the various components of cyberspace properly working at the time we need them to be working.)

I will also be doing some computer and software application training with certain identified 'technicians' (I presume some of the older students) at Project Hope and helping in any other way that I can during our brief stay. We will also be helping with the painting of the girls' dome houses so that some of the boys can earn money doing the work.

The twelve of us are staying at the guest house on the compound and have several activities planned for the kids throughout the week we are there.

I will plan on updating this blog through the week whenever possible.

Tom

Planning spring break 2012

Because of the upcoming wedding of my niece Kate in June, her bridal shower is the weekend of March 30th, which is smack dab in the middle of our spring break.
Rosie has decided to go back east and spend 5 days with my sister and have a NYC, D.C. experience while Kyle and I go to the opposite coast and spend time with my nephew Kevin.
It should be fun. Updates to follow soon.