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June 2008 Newsletter
UPDATE: … we have two special prayer requests just in from Haiti. (1) the country has NO diesel, we need power for security and the clinic—pray we get diesel! (2) Our batteries for the inverter system are finished—pray we find 24 good batteries, we cannot ship them from the U.S. under the 9/11 changes! Also, the funds when we do find them as they will be at least $135 each—they are big batteries. Now, Back to Rob ?
Well it's beginning to get hot, both in Haiti and here in Florida! Summer is right around the corner, and you can tell it when you walk outside. Of course, the kids can't wait for summer to be here, so they can be off school for 3 months (two in Haiti). I wish I was back in school! Anyway, we made another trip to Haiti the last week in April 4/29 – 5/3. We decided (or maybe that's Eva allowed me) to take the “southern” route this time. We flew from Tampa to Miami then Miami to Port au Prince on American airlines, large jets the whole trip. Then we took a commuter plane for the short (30 minute) flight up to Cap Haitien. The benefits were that we were on large planes (with bathrooms!) for most of the trip, and since we were on the same airline for the international portion we did not have to worry about missing connections. However, it added an extra connection to the trip (3 instead of 2), and took much longer because of it. Everything went fairly smoothly, but we will use the route through Fort Lauderdale in the future. The riots and looting have quieted down for now. We spoke with one of the senior people where we buy rice. He had just returned from a conference at the Presidential palace involving the President and his senior staff with all of the importers in Haiti. They discussed how to stabilize the price of rice so that the poor will be able to afford it. It was agreed to fix the price of a bag of rice at $43, which translates to about $50 US per bag in the Haitian market. For the importers this is less than it cost them to purchase. The government (USAID according to a recent AP release) will provide subsidies allowing the importers to cover their importing, transportation costs, and administrative overhead of staying in business. However, the global cost of rice has not stopped climbing, and it is probable that once these subsidies run out, likely at the end of June, the cost of a 110# bag of rice could jump to $70US. There aren’t enough funds to keep rice at $43 bag if the open market price for the importers gets that high To put it in perspective, the average Haitian income is at or below $2 per day. A cup of rice purchased from a vendor is $5! So a cup of rice would cost more than 2 days wages. People are starting to stretch the rice by using it to make soup. Others leave it out of their diet completely due to the high cost. Each of the importers that attended the conference agreed to hold the price at $43 per bag. The importers are concerned about the subsidized rice going over the DR border where rice for over $100 per bag! We were told the President is going to impose a mandate that no rice is to be exported to the D.R. This should help, but the terrain is so rough it will be difficult to. Good news was rice is making it to the warehouses now. Here is a picture from our rice buying trip: 
As for the rest of our trip, it went well. The new security force is doing a great job, and we have implemented some additional procedures at the Headquarters to insure that everyone who comes in and out of the facility signs a log. This will allow us to monitor who is coming to the HQ, and also to know who was there if any problems arise. The food program is continuing, and is needed now more than ever, with the high cost of rice, even with the subsidies. You are all aware that rice is costing $43/bag, and we limit each month’s purchase of rice to whatever $3000 will purchase. We also supply the people in the food program with beans. When you add the cost of the beans, shipping charges, and customs fees, it ends up costing $33.68 per 100 lb bag of beans. We have also just received 38 pallets of food packs from Feed My Starving Children and 3 pallets from Kids Against Hunger. These 41 pallets contain a total of 48,708 packets, and each packet is supposed to contain 6 meals each. However, since Haitians do not get much to eat, nor very often, each packet is more like a single meal, and possibly the only food that person will get in a single day. The activity through the clinic was very brisk during the month of April, 526 patients! Of those, 351 were burn patients, and 110 of those burn patients were just little ones ranging from 0 – 3 years old. The clinic also had one very busy day which brought 10 burn patients all at once to the clinic. A motorcycle had hit a pot of boiling oil on the side of a street and splashed the oil over everyone that was close. Luckily, the patients all were taken quickly to the clinic and are doing well now. And just to keep you all informed on everything that is involved in a mission operation like this, I want to share some of the additional expenses and tasks we needed to address during this trip. FHL has a truck that is used for mission business, like transporting rice from the importers, getting diesel for the generator, getting propane for the HQ, and other tasks. Well, as most of you know, the roads in Haiti, and particularly Cap, are not even close to our roads in the US and other industrial countries. For the most part, our worst dirt roads are BETTER than most roads in Cap. All this causes a lot of wear and tear on a vehicle. This trip we needed to replace the battery in the FHL truck and also replace the tires; as well as purchase diesel and propane. The cost for 5 tires (4 plus the spare) was $675US, and battery was $110. That just leaves the cost to install the tires. The installation of the tires is not quite the same as it is here, it is all manual labor. The charge for un-mounting the old tires and re-mounting the new ones? A whopping $12.98. And that was for about an hour and a half of hard labor. This picture shows one of the men at work: 
And while we think that gas and diesel are expensive here in the US, the price of a gallon of diesel in Cap was about the same, about $4US/gallon, but the income of most people is only about 2$Haitian per day! Filling up the 55 gallon drum that is used to fuel the generator cost $220. And the 100 lb. Propane tank used to heat water and run the stove at the HQ was another $70. All of that adds up to additional expenses that your donations help to cover so we can keep the food program and clinic going, and also to build houses. Here is a picture of one of the primary uses of the truck, and one that causes a lot of wear and tear, transporting rice: 
With the completion of Pilgrim House 17, we are ready to begin another one! And we already have a matching gift challenge. We have a gift of $900 and a request for 9 more $900 matching gifts to build a home in memory of Diane Hromyak. Diane was the mother of Patti Greenleaf. She and her hubby Scott have catered our fundraisers in the past and have been great supporters of FHL for years. Won’t you join in this challenge? And finally, as we get the HQ ready for medical and dental teams to return, we need to complete furnishing them. Please consider sponsoring a bedroom or bathroom. Here is what we need: Sponsor-a-Bedroom — three for now... Sponsor-a-Bathroom—one for now, two have already been finished, one with dark and light blue, the other in greens, so please chose other colors I promised last month to share some of the experiences I had on my trip to Haiti and while I was there. Well, it is still too big for the newsletter, but I will spend the next couple months chronicling stages of the journey. This month, I will give you an insight to how I prepared for the trip to Haiti, and how we actually get to Haiti, and some of the experiences we had on the way. First glimpse of Haiti! 
To the right, and just off the edge of the picture, is the island of Gonave, and the pass we will fly through to get to the other side of the mountains you see in the middle of the picture. Also, on the far left side of the picture, you can see a white object. That is actually a Royal Caribbean cruise ship anchored off the beach at Labadie, which is a very beautiful white sand beach. The passengers are allowed to get off the ship and enjoy the beach, similar to stopping at an out island on some other cruises. We came in from the west over the island of Gonave, and through the pass. You can see the island on the right in this picture, and the pass above and beyond it: 
This picture gives you a glimpse back at the pass after we came through and were beginning to line up for the runway. 
Here is a shot of Cap just before we landed: 
And we are finally here, the Cap Haitien International Airport! 
Not quite as impressive as it sounds, is it? No matter, we were finally there. And here are Roseline and Eva deplaning: 
Once we were out of the plane, we needed to clear customs and immigration, claim the cargo that was shipped down with us, and then head for a bite to eat. At this point, we had all been up since 4:30 in the morning and were getting a bit tired. Immigration and passport control was not a problem, they just checked our passport and stamped it. Customs opened every box that had come down with us and the customs agent had dollar signs flashing in his eyes when he saw Eva and started to compute the customs fees. Lucky for us, God decided there was a better use for that money, as just after we entered the customs agent's office, all the power went out and he could not total up the fees on his adding machine! Presume went back later to settle with him and was able to get a more reasonable fee assessed. For an idea of how the cargo is treated, here it is all piled up on the terminal floor and waiting to be opened by the customs agents. 
Here is where we went to eat (it’s been like 7 hours since we had breakfast in Ft. Lauderdale). It is a small restaurant, called La Kay (which means house) across from the harbor. 
The La Kay has a mix of local cuisine and plainer fare, such as hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, etc. for those who don't want to be adventurous. I on the other hand wanted something that was more local fare. So with Roseline's advice, I ordered the fish. And I got the fish, all of it! 
It was prepared very nicely, with just a bit of spices, and served with some fresh vegetables and a plantain. Although it took me a while to finish it (all the small bones), I thoroughly enjoyed it. After dinner, it was up Beck mountain for my first look at the HQ: 
And with that, we were all ready to call it a night. So I will end with this chapter with a final picture of my bed, and my teddy bear waiting for me to come join him. 
Next month, I will continue my journey, with some shots of some local wildlife I ran into, some more pictures of the HQ, and some of our adventures while in Haiti, including a run-in with the police! Go with God and continue your support of FHL and its programs to help the Haitian people. God Bless, Rob Irons
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