The hospital feeding program

       I just want to say thank you everyone from the deepest reaches of my reclaimed heart, for giving me donations from the car wash and just the generous people from Lifeline, this is what YOU did for the people at the hospital and the people that made the food. The whole day was awesome, I went over to Georgettes' moms house and got to see the inter workings of the huge task in front of them, to make enough food for 250 people. In fact, all of them had smiles on their faces and enjoying each others company, knowing in their heart they were doing something special today. They would set aside some food for people around the neighborhood who was less fortunate
       They had so much food that they had to make it was pretty impressive, 3 large pots of rice and beans, tub of casserole salad, carrots, beets and  of course, chicken. They spread out a tarp and went to work on making the meals, it was a well oiled  machine, the Styrofoam containers where getting filled like clockwork, everyone had a station.
       Time to get the show on the road, the kids in the neighborhood helped loading all the dinners in the back of the truck, drinks in the cooler and we were off, speeding down the main drag of Jacmel, heading towards the hospital. In the back of us were the people from Georgettes church to pray for the people who needed prayer, got prayed for.

          The hospital was in sight, we got let in the gate, drove up to the hospital and the people from the church started to pray for the sick and injured, we started to bring the food in to everyone who was family or friend it didn't matter. We start handing out the food to who wanted it, whoever needed a meal( it was awesome). So we handed out all the meals, time to go home, The last thing Georgette said to me was, "I wish this feeding program could be more consistent". Off we went in the heat of the day, enjoying what we did for the LORD. Mother Theresa said " if you cant feed a hundred feed one, so we fed 250 people that would not have eaten today. Thank you Lord Jesus for this day!!!!!!!!!!

Georgette is hard at work

Georgettes Dad and her son

Three pots of rice and beans

Georgettes Mother

A whole lot of cooking

Not today Tom

The Meal

All the meals

The well oiled machine

Mike in the truck cooling down

Georgette needs a break

Haitian style sawmill.......unbelieveable

I am sorry about not blogging the internet is terrible in haiti 

      I woke up Thursday, had my cup of joe and at about 8:00 a.m a interesting noise came from the neighbors next door ( usually I never hear anything on that property except the annoying Haitian dog that barks for an hour right before I go to bed) And that is why it was interesting, it sounded like a hand saw, So I was at the table and looked next door, this Haitian guy was standing on a tree that was cut down. The log was suspended 15 ft up in the air, one side tied to a large standing tree the other side was held up by a network of sticks and logs shoved up against the bottom of the log.

They had an old time two man saw, just MAN power, on guy on top of the log and one on bottom, this human sawmill looked like very hard work ( its not for the faint of heart, not a light workout at Golds gym) . As I sat at the table sipping at my coffee, this sawing motion went on and on without stopping. At 10:00 still sawing, so I decided to put my video camera on this Haitian sawmill, ( this log was 20 ft long and about 40 in in diameter, They cut the log in 1” thick pieces, about 10 cuts). I put the camera on and started to time them, from start to finish one cut, one plank of wood 40 minutes. They had to cut almost to the end of the board and stopped, then started a new cut. I left at 11:00 and got back to the house at 4:00 and they were still working on the log, no breaks, It was unbelievable.

The only thing I can say is EVERYTHING in Haiti is MANual, it's like a setting back in the 1800's when everything was hand made without power tools. I give the Haitians credit they do know how to get the job done ( I know I would not last 30 minutes doing what they did!) I got up today they started doing the same thing today, Doing the Haitian sawmill, will not be the job I will have when I come down her long term! Scott

The tale of the nurses and drug runner Part 1

      Last week, I called Megan Haug, She is the co-founder of the  Leve Project, in Cayes Jacmel, about 10-15 miles from Jacmel http://www.facebook.com/leveproject. In our conversation, she mentioned she had 4 nurses coming down from Franklin, Tenn, which is outside of Nashville, So I offered whatever I had to assist her and the team, mostly my camera lens. So it came to be, I was made the Official Photographic Consultant, OPC for short, OK, I just made that up! I was picked to be the photographer, because I had a better camera then everyone else combined, plus I didn't know anything about nursing.
     On Monday morning, I drove out to the Bamboo club in Cayes Jacmel, Megan meet me there and followed her down a long dirt road until we stopped by a house and on the side of the house was a white Army wall tent that was donated by USAID . So everyone( Leigh, Kay, Lisa, Bronwen, Bronwens mother) started hiking up the Jungle until there was the first plateau, with a unfinished church and the house of the leader of the community, their front doors where facing each other. When we got to the church, we started to unpack all the suitcases, filled with medical supplies, medications and whatever else was donate for the trip, at the same time, people in the village started to come and gather around the church.
      A little side note, these villages are interesting, instead of roads connecting the community together, they have footpaths or trails that lead off in different directions. When you walk on these paths sooner or later you will come to your next door neighbor, uncle Larrys house or the bread lady, this is real community. It reminds me of the 1800's, were they had their plot of land and everyone in the family did whatever it took to provide subsistence for them and help out their neighbor whenever they can.
      The first day went great, they saw 40 people, nothing to serious, I had the best job of taking pictures of these sweet people, the kids were the best, I think I was the best entertainment than going to a movie on saturday night. I would take their picture, then run over to me, making sure I would show them the picture I took,  usually they would laugh and ask to take another, then the whole process would start all over again.So we had PB&J for lunch, than headed back to work and we worked until 3:00. We would be back in the morning at 9:00 am

Megan from the Leve project 

climbing up to the clinic

The church

The smile only a dentist would love

A hard day

my favorite picture

 I have been know to get the meds out for the ladies, that why the drug runner........You thought......I was....an actual drug runner!

The mountain of diapers

       Thursday was one of the best experiences I had since I been here Gwenn Mangine, from Joy in Hope ministries, asked me to go with her to Bwa Vital an improved tent city to hand out diapers. You really can't say it's a tent city because there are rows and rows of little houses (got two small rooms and a small living area around 150 to 200 sq ft) a community outhouses, what a improvement from a tent city. The section we went to was a new area so the people were living here for 2 weeks, so the people were settling in, getting used to there new homes.
        Gwenn does this every Thursday (they only get ten diapers per baby for a week or longer), so it's more than just the diapers, it's to build relationships and to make sure the babies are in good health. If the diapers are not donated, she spends about $1000 a month on diapers So before she hands out the diapers she needs to see the babies, and did we see some cuties, to make sure their in good health. Up one row of houses and down the other side asking if they had a baby, looking at babies, what fun work.
        We came to this one house and asked if we could see her baby and it was adorable 9 day old boy, Gwenn asked her to see his belly button ( she never asked this question to any other baby in the time we were  in the tent city) it had to be God, so she uncovered the crimped off cord and it was in pretty bad shape. If she didn't asked to see the cord the baby would have died from infection. Gwenn called Sarah, a midwife from the olive tree project, she came out and did what she could, so she will come back and check up on him to see how well he is doing, pray for this little guy.

          This whole experience plus all the other experiences I had down here made me realize the mountain of need is so great here no one can climb it but if we help one child from dying or fed one person who is hungry or hug a child who needs a touch we are fulfilling the law of Christ. Mother Theresa said " if you can't feed 100 people then just feed one.