Mission Trip Report - 16-23 June 2016
Overall Missions Goal: Serve God’s beloved poor.
Mission Focus
1. Continue to build sister parish relationship and understand current status of ongoing projects.
2. Reunite Jean Aymond (9 year old boy) to his family in Gandou, Haiti after spending 5 months in Batesville, IN for skin burn care at Shriners hospital in
Cincinnati OH.
3. Meet prospective new University program students and start them on the process to fill out their application.
4. Investigate plan for water holding tanks and water supply for new water purification system.
5. Determine plans on micro-loans and get projects moving towards beginning.
6. General generator and electrical maintenance and repair.
7. Use our rental trucks to pick up sea container items that were previously transferred to Jacmel.
8. Organize patients to go to Lavallee for surgery/specialist checkout/testing.
9. Transfer extremely sick and malnourished child to Jacmel for admission to the Missionaries of Charity hospital.
10. Discuss referral to Port-au-Prince and how that process is working.
11. Design and build a bunk bed in the rectory for use by our team.
12. Provide health care for the people of our sister parish in the following ways:
a. Run medical clinic/pharmacy and provide the best possible medical care to the greatest number possible.
b. Run dental clinic and provide cleanings, extractions, and restorations.
c. Create ID cards for patients for best possible patient tracking.
d. Continue with our referral program and referral patient tracking which provides the support for the people in our sister parish to get health care in the cities
of Jacmel or Port-au-Prince when we are not in Haiti.
e. Transport emergency cases from Gandou to city using our truck.
f. Continue to build and improve our program for malnourished children.
g. Continue to support, train, and encourage breast feeding.
13. Provide opportunity for our team to experience, poverty, sacrifice, life in Haiti and especially our sister parish.
Focus Area #1 - Sister Parish Relationship/Status of Ongoing Projects
Earthquake Rebuilding/Construction projects
Church
On the previous trip, Father has set two goals for working on the church in 2016 before the December 2016 celebration of their patron saint. The two projects
were:
#1 to put doors/windows on the Church. Father said without doors on the Church everyday dogs walk into the Church and poop on the floor. He said it
happens every day. Also he said they can’t keep anything in Church because without doors nothing is secure. This includes Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament. Father included in his report a quote for adding doors and some security windows (metal bars) to the Church. There are 11 in total. The total
came to $6,077 US dollars. However he also reported that he has $2,203 left over in the Church account from the Church construction. So he only needs
$3,874 to complete this work. We had previously sent this amount of money for this project. Father reported that they plan to start on this project in
August or September.
• The windows and doors will have steel frames and these will be built on site in Gandou. Our understanding is that the upstairs windows will get glass in
the windows and the downstairs windows will only get steel frames with steel designs in them. The doors will be all steel.
• Father expects this project to take 1 month after it is started.
• After the project is done Father will begin to keep Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in the new Church.
#2 Father wants to complete on the Church is coating the cement blocks on the outside of the Church with a smooth cement. This is done to protect the
blocks and all the mortar joints. Father was working on getting us a quote on this. This will be significantly more money. Father has not yet got us this
quote.
We ask everyone to pray that we find a way to continue to build God’s Church for the poor.
Home Building/Rebuilding Projects for the Extremely Poor
1. Father has several families that have no house to live in. One poor mother of many small children asked us directly for help to build her a house on the last
trip 6 months ago. Again this trip she was begging for us to help her. Father confirmed that her house is terrible and she should be one of the first people
that we build a house for.
2. On Sunday several members of our team went out in the community to visit some houses that need rebuilt and to see the house that was rebuilt for a poor
family since our last trip.
3. While we were out we took many pictures. The pictures above show this new house that was rebuilt. Never before have we been able to get a house
completely built within 5 months time. Truly Father is very organized and motivated worker. It is an absolute pleasure have situations that work this well and
to see a family move from a home of misery to a nice 2 room home. We told father we wanted to continue on with more home projects like this.
4. This home cost about $7000 to build but it was right on the main dirt road. If the house would have been further away from the Church and road it may have
cost more. Many of the houses we build in the future will likely be 1-2 thousand dollars more than this.
5. The pictures of the home below is one of the next ones that Father wants to work on.
6. Father has a list of people who need house and he confirmed he has several for repairs and many for complete rebuilds. Rebuilds should be less than ½ the
cost of a new rebuild.
Sleeping Area for Our Team
1. For this trip, Father gave us 2 of the 3 rooms downstairs in the rectory to use and 1 of the 2 rooms upstairs in the rectory to use. The other room downstairs
was being used by the seminarian. The other room upstairs was used by the translator San Louis and a young student that was helping around the rectory.
2. Just like the last trip we were able to use the house near the rectory as an extra area for the translators and the dentists to sleep in. This works very well for
us and really for the team.
3. This trip it rained nearly every day. In 10 years of work in Gandou in the month of June I have never seen as much rain as we saw this trip. We found many
problems with the roofs on the rooms on the top of the rectory. In the first room the roof leaked in the top center of the roof and also on the side where the
two rooms join. This was causing the people sleeping in this room to get wet and also some of our dental storage containers to get wet.
4. In the 2nd room the roof was leaking between the two rooms and dripping on Dr. Ryan Stone’s head until he moved his bed in the middle of the night. Also
the water started coming in under the walls onto the floor where a couple of us were sleeping. This caused Ben the most trouble because his bed got wet
and the ants that were staying on the wall in the room were getting wet on the wall so they migrated onto Ben’s arm and started to bite him in the middle of
the night. He found some window cleaner and fought back the ants and finally got back to sleep for a few minutes before he finally gave up and got up for
the day.
5. During the week several times when it rained very hard and we had one of the team members run up to our room to move the beds off the floor so they did
not get wet.
6. In one of these rains it rained extremely hard down pouring maybe 7 inches of rain in like 40 minutes. During this rain some of the team members were
trapped in this little room and they said that the rain was coming into the room everywhere. It did not sound like fixing the room to deal with this much rain
was a possibility.
7. During the week Ben was able to climb up on the roof and fix a few nail holes that were leaking and to add some silicone to seal the room. This seemed to
help a large amount, but still not fix the issues.
8. We still believe that much of the issue with the roof if the design of having two arched roof coming together in the middle with a low spot. We think we need
to change this design to fix the issue.
9. Later in the week after we were able to pick up the supplies we had sent to Haiti on the sea container, then several members of our team were able to build
a bunk bed. This got 2 people off the floor and sleeping on a dry area. See the pictures below.
10. We did not have enough 2x4s to build a second.
11. For the short term the goal should be to build a couple more bunk beds as a fix to this issue.
12. Longer term we need to do more work to these rooms.
13. Father reminded us as he did the previous trip that the next thing he wanted to do on the rectory was to add a bathroom onto the girl’s room that sleeps 7
women. Currently these 7 or 8 women that sleep in this room share a bathroom with the other women’s room which sleeps 5 or 6. So that means we have
14 or so women sharing one inside bathroom and one outside bathroom.
14. We again we pulled together some of the women from this trip and talked to father about adding this bathroom onto the girls room and none of them wanted
to spend any money on this. They all very humbly said that the current situation was fine and that all money should be spent on the people of Haiti not on
improving their stay in Gandou. We praise our women for being so saintly.
15. We again told him we would likely have trouble finding funds for this project. He said to keep it on the list as low priority.
Refrigerator/Freezer in Gandou
1. On previous trips Father told us about a need to add a true freezer to be able to store frozen meat for the school kid’s lunches.
2. He said he would like a solar powered freezer with batteries. He has seen some at other rectories and said they work very well.
3. We asked if Father had the quote and full description of the unit he is proposing and he did not have this yet.
4. Father reported he would get a quote on this and send it to us. He expects it to be about $3500.
5. We will wait on him to provide this information so we better understand exactly what he is proposing and how much it will cost.
Education for our Sister Parish People
1. On the Summer mission trip school is not in session so much less is done with the school than on the winter trip.
2. However Father spent a significant amount of time talking about some improvements he would like to make to help out with the school.
3. First he needs 40 new desk/benches for the kids at school. These hold 4 to 5 students each. They are used all day by the students for the place they do all
their work.
4. The cost estimate Father had for these was $200 each. The total cost of the project would be $8,000.
5. Second he really wants to add 3 more classrooms to the school. The main reason for this is that currently they are forced to do two school sessions per day.
The reason for this is because we don’t have enough school rooms we must do the lower classes in the morning and then shortly after noon the lower class
kids go home and the upper class kids come to school. Basically school runs from 6am to 6pm.
6. In order to get two sessions in per day they must start early in the morning before it is even light outside.
7. Also by the time the second session stops it is getting dark outside again.
8. This means the little kids are walking to school in the morning in the dark and the bigger kids are walking home after school in the dark.
9. There are many kids that come to the school in Gandou that walk from more than 1 hour to get to school. The problem with this is that they are walking on
very steep, rough, rocky, and often muddy mountains to get to school. It would be very easy for someone to fall a very long distance or slide right off the
side of the mountain. Father told us where some of the kids come from to go to his school and it is way out to a location that some of our team visited on
Sunday. Our team could barely get there in the dry during the day. We could not image sending little children out on this dangerous and difficult path
malnourished, without breakfast, in the dark each day.
10. The second problem with having school start in the dark and finish in the dark is that there is not lighting in the school classrooms. We worked in the school
classrooms late on this trip and we agree if it is dark outside, the school rooms are very dark. Very little school work could be done.
11. If we were able to combine all the school sessions into one session then it would not be necessary for school to start so early and it would not be necessary
for school to end so late.
12. Father felt he could do this if we have 3 more class rooms.
13. The 3 new classrooms would go near the current school very close to the location of the old latrine.
14. The rough estimate for the construction of these three classrooms would be $30,000 (in a large part because of the huge challenges for getting materials for
building to Gandou).
15. Father has a detailed estimate for this work and he said he would provide it to us.
16. These 3 new classrooms would also need desk/benches. Father estimates 30 of them so an additional $6,000.
17. Furthermore Father is still asking for something to be built as a teacher area for the school. A place for the teachers to go and work in preparation for
classes and to grade papers etc. He also needs something built to store books and supplies in (a little library). Father did not have an estimate for these
things but we roughly said $11,000. Ed asked Father to go ahead and get us a quote on these things as well.
18. We quickly and roughly estimated we need something like $55,000 to do all these projects for the school.
19. We really need everyone to pray for the Lord to provide these funds. We entrust this project to the Lord.
20. Father also reported that he plans to add a 10th grade to the school next year.
21. We told Father that any of the high school students that we were supporting in Port-au-Prince because there was no 10th grade in Gandou should now
come home to go to school.
22. Father is going to get us the names and grades for all the high school students sponsored in Port-au-Prince so we can better track them.
23. We expect the number that needs sponsored to be dropping significantly each year.
24. Father did report that one finished this year and that 3 or 4 of them have 1 more year.
25. Father also reported that he had 2 new students for the University program. He had an application from one these students. The first student is a son of Mr.
Augustin who we have known for years as he has done the readings at mass and helped organize the music for daily mass. The other student was the
health care worker Elimine’s son. Father had not talked to him much about the program. However later in the week he showed up in Gandou and we talked
to him. He wants to be a teacher and Father was going to give him an application to be filled out. See the picture below.
26. Previously in emailing San Louis about our University program he had made suggestions on different ways that we might help speed up the process for
sending money for the University student tuition, however during one of our meetings this trip we talked about this in length and he said there was no
problem and no need to change anything.
27. During this mission we asked for a status update from San Louis on getting us the grades for the University students. He said he has asked the university
students to provide them, but they have not provided them yet. We said this was not acceptable. Everyone felt that sufficient time has passed for us to have
gotten the grades from the first semester, but we have not yet got them.
28. One of the key things we are paying San Louis to do is to get us these grades. In the meeting we decided that we need to have clear expectations on when
we need the grades from the students and expect San Louis to deliver them to us by that date each year. The nursing student grades will be on a different
schedule than the others. We need to write up these expectations so everyone knows what to expect and then push San Louis to provide them on time.
29. On this trip, there were 4 more laptops taken to Gandou. The 2 new college students will each receive one to use while in college.
30. One was as replacement for Wilson’s lapto, which had been stolen.
31. One was for Germain who had asked for one as a raise for the year since she has been working with us for the same amount of money for 4 years.
32. During this mission Ed looked into the Satellite internet speed for skyping back with the St. Louis school kids. He found the internet speed was not fast
enough for this. However the nurse and San Louis both do Skyping from their laptops by using a hot spot. They said it works very well.
33. Ed is looking into this for the next trip.
Water project
1. Water projects are always very complicated projects because the amount of water needed is so large and because they require constant maintenance.
2. We have been talking to Father Voltaire about different options for a water system for a number of trips now.
3. We have been trying to sort out some way we can have a water system that doesn’t require people to carry huge amounts of water to the system.
4. During this trip we discussed a proposal that Father Voltaire had relative to a water system.
5. Father Voltaire would like to take the water off one side of the Church roof and pipe it across the road to the rectory. At the rectory near the area in front of
the rectory where the trucks are typically parked Father would like to dig a big hole in the ground and pour a cement cistern for water storage. Father talked
about something that is like 3,000 gallons.
6. Father then said the water should be purified in this tank.
7. Father then was requesting a pump to pump the water out of this tank and up to supply all the rectory with water.
8. However, this would require a very significant amount of electricity. More than the current solar system could provide.
9. If we were to use a water purifier like the one we currently have we would need a couple tanks rather than just one.
10. This would also require new plumbing throughout the rectory.
11. Clearly this is a complicated and expensive project and it really only feeds the rectory.
12. It feels like this proposal needs lots more discussion because the proposal takes water from a very high source (the Church roof) and drops it to the ground,
then pumps it back up to the top of the rectory. We need a better way that keeps the water at a higher elevation and feeds the down hill water consumption
sites without a pump.
13. For the other side of the Church roof Father would like to create a public water supply system.
14. The system would require some tanks as well and a purifier and these would need to be secured and daily attention be given to the purification and
distribution of the water.
15. There are many more details to be worked out here.
16. One thing however is clear the Church roof is a great source of water. During the 6 days of this trip there must have been 3,000 or more gallons of water that
came off the Church roof. It would have been way more than our team could have ever used even if everyone bathed everyday (which no one did). So there
is much potential here, but many important details to work out.
17. See the picture below which shows the gutter drain at the edge of the Church roof.
Truck for our Sister Parish
1. Father’s truck is 9 years old and is very worn form the terrible rough road.
2. One of Father’s top priorities is to get the truck replaced.
3. We need to work with the German organization that helped us get the last one and paid for 75% of it.
4. Likely the cost of a new one is something like $40,000. We likely need to prepare to pay something like $10,000.
5. We need to start knocking at the door of the Lord asking for help for this project.
General Relationship Information
Next Trip
We discussed the dates for the winter mission. We have previously sent Father a request to come from 1/26/2017-2/3/2017. However Father repeated what he
told us in the email that he cannot confirm these dates until he knows the dates of the priest retreat that takes place in January.
Seminarian from Gandou Project
1. Father reported that it is easier for him to get letters from the seminarians during the winter mission.
2. Our goal should be to connect the seminarians to their sponsors by email.
Sea Contain Shipment
1. We praise God that the sea container items arrived in Port-au-Price just a couple weeks before our trip.
2. The parish twinning program that shipped the sea container items for us has little room to store these items and so they called Father Voltaire and asked
that he very quickly find a way to pick them up.
3. This is a huge challenge for a priest who lives and works in a place like Gandou.
4. However somehow Father took care of the situation and got all these items (and we had sent a very significant amount) to Jacmel and put them in storage
until our mission trip.
5. During our mission trip we were able to use our rental trucks to transport the sea container items to Gandou.
6. In order to do this we sent Father’s Driver and one of our translators to get these items on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. This took them all day. We were
able to use Wilson the college student to continue with translations in the clinic each day.
7. We praise God for sending such wonderful University Students to us. Wilson is studying language and is a very capable translator.
8. Once the sea container items arrived in Gandou we had even more work for our support people to do and they were able to start the shelving, bunk bed,
and bike projects.
9. Furthermore since the dental clinic ran out of toothpaste they borrowed some of the toothpaste from the school supply of toothpaste that came up in the sea
container.
10. See the picture below for sea container items that were transported with our trucks.
Micro Loans
Goat Project
1. Father had previously worked with Caritas on a goat project. 5 families each received 5 female goats. The families each paid back 5 goats within 1 year.
2. We would like to expand the goat project. The cost of a goat has increased from $50 per goat to $75. Father will wait until September to purchase the goats
for the next project because many people sell goats at that time to pay for school tuition.
3. Currently there are enough funds for 5 additional families to each receive 5 goats. They will receive 1 male goat and 4 female goats. They will have 2 years
to repay 6 goats (one more than they received). By giving additional time and collecting 1 additional goat, the hope is the program will be able to expand to
help even more families in the future.
4. We really want to get the goat microloan project going because everyone agrees that once we get a family going with a goat microloan project we can take
them out of the poor families assistance program.
5. The next step is for our team to write up what we think we came to agreement on with father and send it to him so he can confirm that what we think we
heard is correct. We will include in this who is responsible for each step and the estimated timing.
6. We also need to try to raise as much funding for the goat project as possible so we can start the project with as many goats as possible.
7. On a side note, 1 year ago a sponsor for one of the grade school students wanted to purchase some goats for the students family. Money was sent down
and the purchase was made.
8. Some people from this trip went to visit the family and check on the goats.
9. They found the goats doing very well. There was a baby goat added and one of them was currently pregnant. See the pictures below.
10. We praise God for this success and it gives us great hope in the good potential for great success as well in the goat microloan project.
Shoe Project
1. In March 2016 Daniel Noel distributed 80 pairs of shoes between 10 women for them to sell. As of the June 2016 trip, 50 of these pairs of shoes had been
sold for $200 total. The women will receive 75% of the funds from the sale. The other 25% will be used to pay Daniel for his assistance with the micro loan
projects.
2. An additional 200 pairs of shoes were given to Daniel to distribute for sale.
3. A couple more very large totes of shoes were sent on the sea container and should have been available for Daniel to include in the microloan project.
Sewing Machine
1. We were able to locate a woman who was receiving money from the poor families’ fund who previously supported herself and her family by sewing.
2. When her sewing machine broke, she was unable to provide for them. Since she already knows how to use the machine, no training was needed.
3. Now that she has a sewing machine again, she will no longer need assistance from the poor families fund in the near future.
4. Below is a picture is the woman who received this sewing machine.
5. She was so happy to have received the sewing machine.
Wedding Dress
1. The wedding dress sent on this trip was giving to a woman who said she was willing to rent it to other people if Father made an announcement at church so
people would know it was available.
2. Since she was not sure if she could make a living with this, it was agreed that she would continue to receive money from the poor family fund for the next six
months.
3. Another person in the community that tried to rent wedding dresses said she was not able to.
4. We will use this as a trail and see how things go with this. We confirmed with this person that on our next trip we want to discuss how this is going.
5. Below is a picture of the mother who took the wedding dress in order to try to rent it. She is one of the poorest mothers in our sister parish. Father reported
her house is terrible.
Christmas Gifts
1. Father has a celebration each year on December 28. He invites all of the school children and gives them gifts.
2. The sea container shipment this year included gifts for 400 children. We sent a T-shirt, coloring book, crayons, and either a stuffed animal or matchbox car
for each child.
3. Father was overjoyed to hear what was sent, since he was not expecting these things.
4. We discussed what would make a good gift for the children next year. It was decided that a backpack with school supplies would be the best.
5. We will work with the teachers to decide what type of paper and other school supplies they would prefer. An email will be sent out at that time with more
information. We plan to send this email in July, since school supplies are on sale at that time.
6. The red totes in the picture below are all Christmas supplies.
1. Continue to build sister parish relationship and understand current status of ongoing projects.
2. Reunite Jean Aymond (9 year old boy) to his family in Gandou, Haiti after spending 5 months in Batesville, IN for skin burn care at Shriners hospital in
Cincinnati OH.
3. Meet prospective new University program students and start them on the process to fill out their application.
4. Investigate plan for water holding tanks and water supply for new water purification system.
5. Determine plans on micro-loans and get projects moving towards beginning.
6. General generator and electrical maintenance and repair.
7. Use our rental trucks to pick up sea container items that were previously transferred to Jacmel.
8. Organize patients to go to Lavallee for surgery/specialist checkout/testing.
9. Transfer extremely sick and malnourished child to Jacmel for admission to the Missionaries of Charity hospital.
10. Discuss referral to Port-au-Prince and how that process is working.
11. Design and build a bunk bed in the rectory for use by our team.
12. Provide health care for the people of our sister parish in the following ways:
a. Run medical clinic/pharmacy and provide the best possible medical care to the greatest number possible.
b. Run dental clinic and provide cleanings, extractions, and restorations.
c. Create ID cards for patients for best possible patient tracking.
d. Continue with our referral program and referral patient tracking which provides the support for the people in our sister parish to get health care in the cities
of Jacmel or Port-au-Prince when we are not in Haiti.
e. Transport emergency cases from Gandou to city using our truck.
f. Continue to build and improve our program for malnourished children.
g. Continue to support, train, and encourage breast feeding.
13. Provide opportunity for our team to experience, poverty, sacrifice, life in Haiti and especially our sister parish.
Focus Area #1 - Sister Parish Relationship/Status of Ongoing Projects
Earthquake Rebuilding/Construction projects
Church
On the previous trip, Father has set two goals for working on the church in 2016 before the December 2016 celebration of their patron saint. The two projects
were:
#1 to put doors/windows on the Church. Father said without doors on the Church everyday dogs walk into the Church and poop on the floor. He said it
happens every day. Also he said they can’t keep anything in Church because without doors nothing is secure. This includes Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament. Father included in his report a quote for adding doors and some security windows (metal bars) to the Church. There are 11 in total. The total
came to $6,077 US dollars. However he also reported that he has $2,203 left over in the Church account from the Church construction. So he only needs
$3,874 to complete this work. We had previously sent this amount of money for this project. Father reported that they plan to start on this project in
August or September.
• The windows and doors will have steel frames and these will be built on site in Gandou. Our understanding is that the upstairs windows will get glass in
the windows and the downstairs windows will only get steel frames with steel designs in them. The doors will be all steel.
• Father expects this project to take 1 month after it is started.
• After the project is done Father will begin to keep Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in the new Church.
#2 Father wants to complete on the Church is coating the cement blocks on the outside of the Church with a smooth cement. This is done to protect the
blocks and all the mortar joints. Father was working on getting us a quote on this. This will be significantly more money. Father has not yet got us this
quote.
We ask everyone to pray that we find a way to continue to build God’s Church for the poor.
Home Building/Rebuilding Projects for the Extremely Poor
1. Father has several families that have no house to live in. One poor mother of many small children asked us directly for help to build her a house on the last
trip 6 months ago. Again this trip she was begging for us to help her. Father confirmed that her house is terrible and she should be one of the first people
that we build a house for.
2. On Sunday several members of our team went out in the community to visit some houses that need rebuilt and to see the house that was rebuilt for a poor
family since our last trip.
3. While we were out we took many pictures. The pictures above show this new house that was rebuilt. Never before have we been able to get a house
completely built within 5 months time. Truly Father is very organized and motivated worker. It is an absolute pleasure have situations that work this well and
to see a family move from a home of misery to a nice 2 room home. We told father we wanted to continue on with more home projects like this.
4. This home cost about $7000 to build but it was right on the main dirt road. If the house would have been further away from the Church and road it may have
cost more. Many of the houses we build in the future will likely be 1-2 thousand dollars more than this.
5. The pictures of the home below is one of the next ones that Father wants to work on.
6. Father has a list of people who need house and he confirmed he has several for repairs and many for complete rebuilds. Rebuilds should be less than ½ the
cost of a new rebuild.
Sleeping Area for Our Team
1. For this trip, Father gave us 2 of the 3 rooms downstairs in the rectory to use and 1 of the 2 rooms upstairs in the rectory to use. The other room downstairs
was being used by the seminarian. The other room upstairs was used by the translator San Louis and a young student that was helping around the rectory.
2. Just like the last trip we were able to use the house near the rectory as an extra area for the translators and the dentists to sleep in. This works very well for
us and really for the team.
3. This trip it rained nearly every day. In 10 years of work in Gandou in the month of June I have never seen as much rain as we saw this trip. We found many
problems with the roofs on the rooms on the top of the rectory. In the first room the roof leaked in the top center of the roof and also on the side where the
two rooms join. This was causing the people sleeping in this room to get wet and also some of our dental storage containers to get wet.
4. In the 2nd room the roof was leaking between the two rooms and dripping on Dr. Ryan Stone’s head until he moved his bed in the middle of the night. Also
the water started coming in under the walls onto the floor where a couple of us were sleeping. This caused Ben the most trouble because his bed got wet
and the ants that were staying on the wall in the room were getting wet on the wall so they migrated onto Ben’s arm and started to bite him in the middle of
the night. He found some window cleaner and fought back the ants and finally got back to sleep for a few minutes before he finally gave up and got up for
the day.
5. During the week several times when it rained very hard and we had one of the team members run up to our room to move the beds off the floor so they did
not get wet.
6. In one of these rains it rained extremely hard down pouring maybe 7 inches of rain in like 40 minutes. During this rain some of the team members were
trapped in this little room and they said that the rain was coming into the room everywhere. It did not sound like fixing the room to deal with this much rain
was a possibility.
7. During the week Ben was able to climb up on the roof and fix a few nail holes that were leaking and to add some silicone to seal the room. This seemed to
help a large amount, but still not fix the issues.
8. We still believe that much of the issue with the roof if the design of having two arched roof coming together in the middle with a low spot. We think we need
to change this design to fix the issue.
9. Later in the week after we were able to pick up the supplies we had sent to Haiti on the sea container, then several members of our team were able to build
a bunk bed. This got 2 people off the floor and sleeping on a dry area. See the pictures below.
10. We did not have enough 2x4s to build a second.
11. For the short term the goal should be to build a couple more bunk beds as a fix to this issue.
12. Longer term we need to do more work to these rooms.
13. Father reminded us as he did the previous trip that the next thing he wanted to do on the rectory was to add a bathroom onto the girl’s room that sleeps 7
women. Currently these 7 or 8 women that sleep in this room share a bathroom with the other women’s room which sleeps 5 or 6. So that means we have
14 or so women sharing one inside bathroom and one outside bathroom.
14. We again we pulled together some of the women from this trip and talked to father about adding this bathroom onto the girls room and none of them wanted
to spend any money on this. They all very humbly said that the current situation was fine and that all money should be spent on the people of Haiti not on
improving their stay in Gandou. We praise our women for being so saintly.
15. We again told him we would likely have trouble finding funds for this project. He said to keep it on the list as low priority.
Refrigerator/Freezer in Gandou
1. On previous trips Father told us about a need to add a true freezer to be able to store frozen meat for the school kid’s lunches.
2. He said he would like a solar powered freezer with batteries. He has seen some at other rectories and said they work very well.
3. We asked if Father had the quote and full description of the unit he is proposing and he did not have this yet.
4. Father reported he would get a quote on this and send it to us. He expects it to be about $3500.
5. We will wait on him to provide this information so we better understand exactly what he is proposing and how much it will cost.
Education for our Sister Parish People
1. On the Summer mission trip school is not in session so much less is done with the school than on the winter trip.
2. However Father spent a significant amount of time talking about some improvements he would like to make to help out with the school.
3. First he needs 40 new desk/benches for the kids at school. These hold 4 to 5 students each. They are used all day by the students for the place they do all
their work.
4. The cost estimate Father had for these was $200 each. The total cost of the project would be $8,000.
5. Second he really wants to add 3 more classrooms to the school. The main reason for this is that currently they are forced to do two school sessions per day.
The reason for this is because we don’t have enough school rooms we must do the lower classes in the morning and then shortly after noon the lower class
kids go home and the upper class kids come to school. Basically school runs from 6am to 6pm.
6. In order to get two sessions in per day they must start early in the morning before it is even light outside.
7. Also by the time the second session stops it is getting dark outside again.
8. This means the little kids are walking to school in the morning in the dark and the bigger kids are walking home after school in the dark.
9. There are many kids that come to the school in Gandou that walk from more than 1 hour to get to school. The problem with this is that they are walking on
very steep, rough, rocky, and often muddy mountains to get to school. It would be very easy for someone to fall a very long distance or slide right off the
side of the mountain. Father told us where some of the kids come from to go to his school and it is way out to a location that some of our team visited on
Sunday. Our team could barely get there in the dry during the day. We could not image sending little children out on this dangerous and difficult path
malnourished, without breakfast, in the dark each day.
10. The second problem with having school start in the dark and finish in the dark is that there is not lighting in the school classrooms. We worked in the school
classrooms late on this trip and we agree if it is dark outside, the school rooms are very dark. Very little school work could be done.
11. If we were able to combine all the school sessions into one session then it would not be necessary for school to start so early and it would not be necessary
for school to end so late.
12. Father felt he could do this if we have 3 more class rooms.
13. The 3 new classrooms would go near the current school very close to the location of the old latrine.
14. The rough estimate for the construction of these three classrooms would be $30,000 (in a large part because of the huge challenges for getting materials for
building to Gandou).
15. Father has a detailed estimate for this work and he said he would provide it to us.
16. These 3 new classrooms would also need desk/benches. Father estimates 30 of them so an additional $6,000.
17. Furthermore Father is still asking for something to be built as a teacher area for the school. A place for the teachers to go and work in preparation for
classes and to grade papers etc. He also needs something built to store books and supplies in (a little library). Father did not have an estimate for these
things but we roughly said $11,000. Ed asked Father to go ahead and get us a quote on these things as well.
18. We quickly and roughly estimated we need something like $55,000 to do all these projects for the school.
19. We really need everyone to pray for the Lord to provide these funds. We entrust this project to the Lord.
20. Father also reported that he plans to add a 10th grade to the school next year.
21. We told Father that any of the high school students that we were supporting in Port-au-Prince because there was no 10th grade in Gandou should now
come home to go to school.
22. Father is going to get us the names and grades for all the high school students sponsored in Port-au-Prince so we can better track them.
23. We expect the number that needs sponsored to be dropping significantly each year.
24. Father did report that one finished this year and that 3 or 4 of them have 1 more year.
25. Father also reported that he had 2 new students for the University program. He had an application from one these students. The first student is a son of Mr.
Augustin who we have known for years as he has done the readings at mass and helped organize the music for daily mass. The other student was the
health care worker Elimine’s son. Father had not talked to him much about the program. However later in the week he showed up in Gandou and we talked
to him. He wants to be a teacher and Father was going to give him an application to be filled out. See the picture below.
26. Previously in emailing San Louis about our University program he had made suggestions on different ways that we might help speed up the process for
sending money for the University student tuition, however during one of our meetings this trip we talked about this in length and he said there was no
problem and no need to change anything.
27. During this mission we asked for a status update from San Louis on getting us the grades for the University students. He said he has asked the university
students to provide them, but they have not provided them yet. We said this was not acceptable. Everyone felt that sufficient time has passed for us to have
gotten the grades from the first semester, but we have not yet got them.
28. One of the key things we are paying San Louis to do is to get us these grades. In the meeting we decided that we need to have clear expectations on when
we need the grades from the students and expect San Louis to deliver them to us by that date each year. The nursing student grades will be on a different
schedule than the others. We need to write up these expectations so everyone knows what to expect and then push San Louis to provide them on time.
29. On this trip, there were 4 more laptops taken to Gandou. The 2 new college students will each receive one to use while in college.
30. One was as replacement for Wilson’s lapto, which had been stolen.
31. One was for Germain who had asked for one as a raise for the year since she has been working with us for the same amount of money for 4 years.
32. During this mission Ed looked into the Satellite internet speed for skyping back with the St. Louis school kids. He found the internet speed was not fast
enough for this. However the nurse and San Louis both do Skyping from their laptops by using a hot spot. They said it works very well.
33. Ed is looking into this for the next trip.
Water project
1. Water projects are always very complicated projects because the amount of water needed is so large and because they require constant maintenance.
2. We have been talking to Father Voltaire about different options for a water system for a number of trips now.
3. We have been trying to sort out some way we can have a water system that doesn’t require people to carry huge amounts of water to the system.
4. During this trip we discussed a proposal that Father Voltaire had relative to a water system.
5. Father Voltaire would like to take the water off one side of the Church roof and pipe it across the road to the rectory. At the rectory near the area in front of
the rectory where the trucks are typically parked Father would like to dig a big hole in the ground and pour a cement cistern for water storage. Father talked
about something that is like 3,000 gallons.
6. Father then said the water should be purified in this tank.
7. Father then was requesting a pump to pump the water out of this tank and up to supply all the rectory with water.
8. However, this would require a very significant amount of electricity. More than the current solar system could provide.
9. If we were to use a water purifier like the one we currently have we would need a couple tanks rather than just one.
10. This would also require new plumbing throughout the rectory.
11. Clearly this is a complicated and expensive project and it really only feeds the rectory.
12. It feels like this proposal needs lots more discussion because the proposal takes water from a very high source (the Church roof) and drops it to the ground,
then pumps it back up to the top of the rectory. We need a better way that keeps the water at a higher elevation and feeds the down hill water consumption
sites without a pump.
13. For the other side of the Church roof Father would like to create a public water supply system.
14. The system would require some tanks as well and a purifier and these would need to be secured and daily attention be given to the purification and
distribution of the water.
15. There are many more details to be worked out here.
16. One thing however is clear the Church roof is a great source of water. During the 6 days of this trip there must have been 3,000 or more gallons of water that
came off the Church roof. It would have been way more than our team could have ever used even if everyone bathed everyday (which no one did). So there
is much potential here, but many important details to work out.
17. See the picture below which shows the gutter drain at the edge of the Church roof.
Truck for our Sister Parish
1. Father’s truck is 9 years old and is very worn form the terrible rough road.
2. One of Father’s top priorities is to get the truck replaced.
3. We need to work with the German organization that helped us get the last one and paid for 75% of it.
4. Likely the cost of a new one is something like $40,000. We likely need to prepare to pay something like $10,000.
5. We need to start knocking at the door of the Lord asking for help for this project.
General Relationship Information
Next Trip
We discussed the dates for the winter mission. We have previously sent Father a request to come from 1/26/2017-2/3/2017. However Father repeated what he
told us in the email that he cannot confirm these dates until he knows the dates of the priest retreat that takes place in January.
Seminarian from Gandou Project
1. Father reported that it is easier for him to get letters from the seminarians during the winter mission.
2. Our goal should be to connect the seminarians to their sponsors by email.
Sea Contain Shipment
1. We praise God that the sea container items arrived in Port-au-Price just a couple weeks before our trip.
2. The parish twinning program that shipped the sea container items for us has little room to store these items and so they called Father Voltaire and asked
that he very quickly find a way to pick them up.
3. This is a huge challenge for a priest who lives and works in a place like Gandou.
4. However somehow Father took care of the situation and got all these items (and we had sent a very significant amount) to Jacmel and put them in storage
until our mission trip.
5. During our mission trip we were able to use our rental trucks to transport the sea container items to Gandou.
6. In order to do this we sent Father’s Driver and one of our translators to get these items on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. This took them all day. We were
able to use Wilson the college student to continue with translations in the clinic each day.
7. We praise God for sending such wonderful University Students to us. Wilson is studying language and is a very capable translator.
8. Once the sea container items arrived in Gandou we had even more work for our support people to do and they were able to start the shelving, bunk bed,
and bike projects.
9. Furthermore since the dental clinic ran out of toothpaste they borrowed some of the toothpaste from the school supply of toothpaste that came up in the sea
container.
10. See the picture below for sea container items that were transported with our trucks.
Micro Loans
Goat Project
1. Father had previously worked with Caritas on a goat project. 5 families each received 5 female goats. The families each paid back 5 goats within 1 year.
2. We would like to expand the goat project. The cost of a goat has increased from $50 per goat to $75. Father will wait until September to purchase the goats
for the next project because many people sell goats at that time to pay for school tuition.
3. Currently there are enough funds for 5 additional families to each receive 5 goats. They will receive 1 male goat and 4 female goats. They will have 2 years
to repay 6 goats (one more than they received). By giving additional time and collecting 1 additional goat, the hope is the program will be able to expand to
help even more families in the future.
4. We really want to get the goat microloan project going because everyone agrees that once we get a family going with a goat microloan project we can take
them out of the poor families assistance program.
5. The next step is for our team to write up what we think we came to agreement on with father and send it to him so he can confirm that what we think we
heard is correct. We will include in this who is responsible for each step and the estimated timing.
6. We also need to try to raise as much funding for the goat project as possible so we can start the project with as many goats as possible.
7. On a side note, 1 year ago a sponsor for one of the grade school students wanted to purchase some goats for the students family. Money was sent down
and the purchase was made.
8. Some people from this trip went to visit the family and check on the goats.
9. They found the goats doing very well. There was a baby goat added and one of them was currently pregnant. See the pictures below.
10. We praise God for this success and it gives us great hope in the good potential for great success as well in the goat microloan project.
Shoe Project
1. In March 2016 Daniel Noel distributed 80 pairs of shoes between 10 women for them to sell. As of the June 2016 trip, 50 of these pairs of shoes had been
sold for $200 total. The women will receive 75% of the funds from the sale. The other 25% will be used to pay Daniel for his assistance with the micro loan
projects.
2. An additional 200 pairs of shoes were given to Daniel to distribute for sale.
3. A couple more very large totes of shoes were sent on the sea container and should have been available for Daniel to include in the microloan project.
Sewing Machine
1. We were able to locate a woman who was receiving money from the poor families’ fund who previously supported herself and her family by sewing.
2. When her sewing machine broke, she was unable to provide for them. Since she already knows how to use the machine, no training was needed.
3. Now that she has a sewing machine again, she will no longer need assistance from the poor families fund in the near future.
4. Below is a picture is the woman who received this sewing machine.
5. She was so happy to have received the sewing machine.
Wedding Dress
1. The wedding dress sent on this trip was giving to a woman who said she was willing to rent it to other people if Father made an announcement at church so
people would know it was available.
2. Since she was not sure if she could make a living with this, it was agreed that she would continue to receive money from the poor family fund for the next six
months.
3. Another person in the community that tried to rent wedding dresses said she was not able to.
4. We will use this as a trail and see how things go with this. We confirmed with this person that on our next trip we want to discuss how this is going.
5. Below is a picture of the mother who took the wedding dress in order to try to rent it. She is one of the poorest mothers in our sister parish. Father reported
her house is terrible.
Christmas Gifts
1. Father has a celebration each year on December 28. He invites all of the school children and gives them gifts.
2. The sea container shipment this year included gifts for 400 children. We sent a T-shirt, coloring book, crayons, and either a stuffed animal or matchbox car
for each child.
3. Father was overjoyed to hear what was sent, since he was not expecting these things.
4. We discussed what would make a good gift for the children next year. It was decided that a backpack with school supplies would be the best.
5. We will work with the teachers to decide what type of paper and other school supplies they would prefer. An email will be sent out at that time with more
information. We plan to send this email in July, since school supplies are on sale at that time.
6. The red totes in the picture below are all Christmas supplies.
