Happenings

Well, here we are 10 days after our last blog post. After looking at that date, I've been trying to remember what's happened since then. The biggest recent event is me getting malaria. It's not official as there was no blood test, but the symptoms seemed like malaria and the course of treatment isn't too long so I figured I would play it safe and take the chloroquine. (You may ask why I just don't take chloroquine all the time. I guess it just comes down to convenience and not wanting to take a drug regularly for 3 years when, if you do get malaria, the treatment is quick and effective. So that's that.)

The Depps have been letting us stay at their house as we are still working in Port-au-Prince (and will be for the next few months). They're coming back from stress leave on Wednesday, so we've been trying to find alternate digs so as not to overcrowd them. MCC has rented a house in Kenscoff, which is up a cooler and greener mountain overlooking P-au-P -- and is a mere 45-minute drive from the office (it seems we are just not destined to live in this city proper, sigh). This house will serve as a retreat for MCC staff and a space for groups that are coming to Haiti. Sharon and I will be staying in this house for the next few months, so it will be our new temporary home. Since it's almost totally empty, this weekend we're getting some things from our Desarmes house to make it livable. Two good things about this move:
- just maybe there is good mountain biking in the area and I can get out once or twice in the next few months.
- there are almost no mosquitoes.
(I'm trying to talk MCC into a fireplace and a hot tub, but I'm skeptical they'll agree. But here's to hoping.)

A couple of trucks will be delivering material relief in the next few weeks to us here in Haiti. This is great news, but our one big challenge now is receiving all of this aid and consequently getting it to those who need it. The volume of material may not look like a lot, but when it gets here each big pallet that is loaded by a forklift in the U.S. must be unloaded by hand and carried into our makeshift warehouse. Once there it must be loaded by hand again into our mid-size truck to go out to all the communities we are helping across this, unfortunately, traffic-snarled city.

Still we have no photos! Maybe we can get around to taking a few photos of something interesting one of these days. We're headed out to Desarmes tomorrow to get a few things and take a team of engineers to evaluate a school near there, and then we'll spend the night, pack up our stuff, and head back on Saturday.

On a sad note, our friend and former MCCer Josh has been here for the past few weeks but is headed home to Canada tomorrow - this is sad for us but great news for Marylynn. Here's hoping next time they can both come.