Haiti 45 Trip    19 missionaries have returned from a great trip to Haiti.  The team included 11 Sigma Chi’s from the University of Cincinnati, 6 folks from Aley United Methodist Church in Beavercreek, OH, John Crabb a FOCAS Board member and me.  Activities included work at Callebasse on the new retaining wall, the new interim clinic building, and clearing thousands of rocks to make way for the new clinic at Pastor Moliere’s Callebasse center.  There were also visits to FOCAS supported schools, including the challenging trip to the top of Mont Marre Roseaux, an orphanage with precious little girls, and the Sigma Chi’s had several opportunities to get soccer lessons from Haitian young people.  See http://haiti45.tumblr.com/ for the Sigma Chi blog with some photos and text.

Maybe you should go with us on Haiti 46, Nov. 5-14.

Dick Taylor

GREAT HAITI TRIP –  I returned to the States from Haiti on March 6 with a small team – me, Don Seela, Rich Herndon and my son Rick.  I am very pleased because we accomplished all of my major goals for the trip, many funded by earthquake relief donations:

1. At Callebasse, Rick wired the new Interim Clinic and had time to also add wiring to get lights and outlets to the rooms under the church being used as the clinic right now.  The original clinic was badly damaged by the earthquake and then finished with the propane fire.
2. Great opportunity to meet with Jack Cope, the Nashville Architect who is designing the new permanent clinic for Callebasse.  Don Seela came up with a new approach to building the retaining wall which Jack and his engineering advisor liked that will save many dollars and allow us to start on the wall right away. A real breakthrough!
3. Don & Rich went to Mont Marre Roseaux and inspected the church/school.  Both ends of the building were badly damaged by the quake, but the ends have been replaced – better than new!
4. We purchased a one-bag cement mixer to be kept at Callebasse by Pastor Moliere.  This will be much more efficient than the standard mix on the ground technique, but more importantly will provide much stronger cement.
5. Pastor Moliere and I had an excellent meeting with Gary Juste the head of Contracts at USAID in Haiti. USAID will have extensive reconstruction funding very soon and we received some encouragement and good information on the process.
6. We hired Elise Nicholas to replace Maxeau as Child Sponsor Coordinator.  He seems to be highly qualified and motivated with very good English.

Praise God for His faithfulness and help!

Dick Taylor