Wednesday, March 4, 2009

March trip to Haiti

Hi Everyone,

I want to give a brief (?) update!

The next trip to Haiti will be March 21 and I'll be traveling down with my brother-in-law, Jon Anderson!  We'll be meeting up with Anderson Thelusma (the first boy we hosted for heart surgery) at the airport in Port-au-Prince.  I'm anticipating that we'll also be meeting up with Nakysha (the 3rd Haitian child we hosted) and her mom/family at the airport so that we can spend some time at their place (which is very near the airport).  The next day (Sunday) we'll fly out and then drive to Pestel to meet up with Sister Fidelis!!  We'll also get to visit with Nelson (the 2nd child  we hosted for heart surgery)!! 

We'll be busy visiting a number of villages while we're out there, some of which I've been to in the past, but several new ones.  We'll be visiting with Alfred (you can read his story here ), going up to the village of Toma Elli where school benches (and a door for the school!) were recently built through donations from our family, friends and church members!  

We are partnering with Dr. Leininger to install 5 plastic cisterns throughout Pestel.  We've just purchased them.  The neat thing about this is that not only does it provide a way to collect water (which can be scarce this time of year) but it also provides some employment for people that Dr. Leininger has trained!  

We'll also be delivering all the bouncy balls, marbles, barrettes, OTC medications, and schools supplies that have been donated. 

This trip will be a special joy for us, thanks in very large part to all of you who have given, have been supportive and encouraging!!

 What do we hope to accomplish?   I've mentioned some of this above.  Beyond that we'll be visiting the new clinic in Abrico (you can click on this  and scroll down to see a video of Abrico) which just started up last year, talking with community leaders about furthering the initiatives of clean water, health care, and education.  Two particular interests that I have are potentially establishing a system of community health worker training (which would link in with my medical school) and exploring the land for a possible landing strip (so that we can fly straight in from PAP).  


Finally, I have been asked to meet with the Dean of my medical school (at his request) next week.  He wants to learn more about what I have in mind for global health at the medical center.  So please be in prayer about this as well.  I'll let you know how that meeting goes.  :)  This is really quite a huge leap in a short period of time.

Thanks to everyone!!!
Ben

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