Oasis Compound ready for use

David Short, site coordinator's last daily log for third team on site:

Bonswa...

Today is that bittersweet day of the trip...tomorrow we head home, how sweet it will be to be back with my wife and family. But we will be leaving behind our Haitian family.

The generator has not yet arrived, but we know it will arrive exactly when God wants it to be here. We did get all of the electrical setup and ready to connect when the generator does arrive. We even got our Internet satellite and wireless router set up.

A lot of today was focused on putting together the finishing touches and putting everything in storage for the next trip, which looks like it may be April 24 through May 8 with a team of 35 from the Iowa area.

This will be my last entry until after I get back. Thanks again for putting up with all of my ramblings. I know that the Haitian people sincerely appreciate your thoughts and prayers. Now that the Oasis Compound is ready for use we will start focusing on work in the community.

Another Good Day...

Bonswa...

Another good day. Both the construction and medical teams have been awesome to work with.

Each day way have started the day off with singing and a devotion. Today Marty did the devotion. He shared from John 13:4-15, which is about Jesus washing His disciples' feet. He ended the devotion by having us take the te to wash each other's feet. It was quite a humbling and encouraging time.

Today we (construction team) went out with the medical team to visit their clinic. The have been working at a compound in a city farther West from here. The compound is owned by a private individual who has let a Church of God congregation come in and set up a safe place to be. The medical team has been able to see at least 100 people each day.

After visiting the clinic the construction team went to Gressier to look at one of the churches that we will be rebuiliding on a future trip.

We continued on out to Leogaine, which is where the epicenter of the earthquake was. 97% of the city was destroyed. A lot has been done, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

From there we returned to the Oasis compound and got back to work. It looks like we will be able to leave with all of the second floor of the compound building completed, which means our next trip(s) can start focusing on working on the churches in the community. We have all of the air conditioners installed (we can't use them until the generator arrives), every room painted, all the electrical switches and recepticles replaced, and the plumbing working. Tomorrow we will finish with upgrading the lights and ceiling fans and doing some final clean up activities.

Day Five

Good Evening...

Today was another productive day. Jim and Dick got all of the wiring set up for the air conditioners. We will be installing five of them on the second floor, which will be predominantly used as our dormitory and dining room. Since they got that done the started going through the building and replacing the switches and recepticles with the new ones we purchased.

Marty and Gene finished the men's restroom, fixed a few more leaks and got the bathroom for the Haitian staff set up.

Franz finally got all of the needed parts to get the satelite dish set up for Internet access. He should be getting it locked in on the service provider later tonight or tomorrow. El Shadai, the local Haitian church planting ministry that MNA works with here in Haiti has a radio broadcasting station in Les Cayes so they have the technical staff to get this set up and running.

The medical staff had another good day. They have encountered a lot of cases of malaria. Here they are after a long day of work eating their dinner on the porch.

Tomorrow we hope to get all of the air conditioners installed and some ceiling fans installed. Still waiting to hear something on the generator.

Thanks for all of your support.

David Short's ongoing account...

Bonswa...

I have often heard that your third day on a trip like this is usually the day that you hit the wall. Well we hit it today. We still accomplished quite a bit, but we were all moving a little bit slower.

We got all of the drains on the roof set up so that they will now drain properly. It shouldn't be too difficult to get them set up to collect into 50 gallon drums at some point in the future.

Jim and Dick got busy with pulling all of the electrical wires for the air conditioners. This part should be pretty well done tomorrow and we will start installing the ac units. At least this part should be ready when the generator arrives. We ran out of 90 degree elbows and Jim ended up working with one of our Haitian hosts to heat up the conduit over a fire and make our own.

Marty and Gene continued to focus on the plumbing work, fixing leaks first and then getting the sinks in the men's
bathroom set up.

Gillian, one of the guards here at the compound was put to work painting today and quickly knocked out 3 rooms and a hallway. One thing that I have definitely learned about the Haitians it is that they are very hard workers. It is certainly a priviledge to work beside them here.

We were also able to get started cleaning up some of the grounds which will help in making the compound more comfortable. We also took the opportunity to go out into the street market behind our compound and it was quite an eye opener. We walked through the intersection of two streets where the garbage was filling up the entire intersection and smoldering. The vendors sitting next to the heap were calling out to us asking us to clean up the mess because they couldn't breathe. Their thought was that since we wer foreigners were there to solve these problems. It looks like the further away from the main streets that you get then the less you see of any foreign aid.

Once again we thank you sincerely for you prayers and thoughts...we definitely feel them.

Progress...

First of all...a correction on yesterday's post. Jim and Dick worked on the air conditioning and electrical and Marty and Gene worked on the pump.

As of tonight we have running water. Marty and Gene were able to get our shopping done with Franz...one of our hosts. They slammed through getting the pump working and then they had to run around finding all of the broken pipes and disconnected faucets followed by a lot of mopping. But it all turned out well with both the women's and the men's bathrooms having functioning showers and toilets. Tomorrow the should get the shed built around the pump, filter and tank.

Jim and Dick cranked on getting everything ready to install the air conditioners. They were able to find some scaffolding so that they could run the conduit around the outside of the building. They also put in an extra breaker box to power all of the ac and ran all of the conduits through the walls. Tomorrow we should be able to start putting the ac units in the windows. Unfortunately we won't be able to use them until we get our generator. The prognosis on the generator is Wednesday...keep praying.

While the guys were doing all their work I focused on the women's bathroom. I was able patch the door where the termites had gotten into the frame, replaced the toilet tank, applied two coats of paint, got the shower going and washed down all of the tile. We have one room completed...tomorrow we should be able to get the men's bathroom set up and painted.

The medical team shared that they had a good day and accomplished a lot. Tomorrow we will continue the plumbing, painting and electrical as well as install a satellite dish for an Internet connection. Franz will be setting up wireless and leaving two laptops here for team members to use while here.

Day Three Continued...

Bow Dye Bewiw (Lord Bless You)...

When we got back from church we had another great meal and then got starting getting ready for the week. The medical team took over one of the rooms and spent the rest of the day sorting out all of their equipment and materials and basically setting up a pharmacy.

The construction crew took the divide and conquer approach. Jim and Dick focused on getting the pump and tank up and running. We got quite a bit in place and after a supply run tomorrow we should be able to get the water running in the building.

Marty and Gene focused on laying out the electrical plans for getting some of the air conditioners set up in the pastor's room and dorm rooms. I spent the day organizing our supplies and being the general gofer guy (go for this, go for that).

Tomorrow things should get pretty busy so ease keep us in your thoughts and prayers. The temperature is getting up to the upper 90's with the humidity about the same so we are all pretty well drenched by the end of the day.