In the beginning...

Had a hard time sleeping last night thinking of the families out there.  This is definitely a new beginning for them and puts additional pressure on us to make sure at least their basic needs are met or can be met in some fashion.

The people were very excited to make themselves more at home and wanted to put up a tarp on the beams for church tomorrow.

They also made benches out of scraps from making the beds into doors.

Barbwire around new garbage pit, distrubuted a kitchen kit from USAID to each family.

Had our first community meeting.  Mostly about sanitation, we explained the water filters and rain barrels as well and discussed a name. Dr. Xiomara started meeting while Carter translated. They did amazing! One guy asked aggressive questions. We almost had our first eviction, but after the Pastor and President spoke with him, we reread him the contract and all is well. A misunderstanding of sorts.

To town to meet Michaelle from the Pierre Payan Food For The Poor Village. On our way in dropped off Carter. We met Michaelle across from the US Embassy (which is one of the bigger buildings in Haiti). I've been meaning to take a picture every time I pass by, but the security wall and traffic are always factors.

The meeting with Michaelle was perfect. She explained her philosophies -what has worked and what has taken time. Hearing her experiences were encouarging and we appreciated knowing that having that type of community in Haiti is possible. She uses food as a reward so families can use their money for more business/micro-enterprise opportunities. Not to create dependency, but to help them get started.  Michaelle is a very educated, involved Haitian woman. I love that she is working to better her own people and has been patient in doing so.

The mosquitos at the land have been extra terrible, so we headed toward Delmas 2 to pick up two fumigators to help with this problem. We also called IOM to see if mosquito nets were an option.

Johnbern and Kendra drove them back to the camp and dropped Xiomara and I off at the house on the way. They were gone from 6:30pm to 10:30pm. Xiomara made Mac and Cheese while I did computer work for Kendra, then the power went off, so I laid down for bed at 8pm.