The internet is incredibly slow, so this might be my last update, and I won't check email for awhile. No worries if you don't hear from me for a couple days, we are fine here. Schools are canceled, and people are having prayer vigils throughout the town. Neighbors and relatives keep coming over to see the pictures on the internet. I don't know what the runway in PAP is like. I leave the 29th, so we'll see what happens. The little MAF plane flies lands on the same runway in PAP as the international flights, and then JeanJean's brother Jehu gives me a ride for the 3 blocks it takes to get to the international airport. Jehu's son was trapped in a medical school all night. JeanJean hasn't heard from Jehu (he's in the photo on my 1st post). I think someone from JJ's family is going to PAP to try to find relatives.
I'm glad I am here so that friends in the U.S. can feel the impact of the devastation rather than it just being another news event. The atmosphere is much like that in the U.S. after 911. Half of the 8 mill. or so people live in PAP, so everyone has family there. On a positive note I will teach at another nutrition center tomorrow afternoon, and go on another bird hike Friday morning. Today I worked with Louiders to teach him more ecology. I gave up trying to explain pH (hydrogen ion concentration of pH)! Next year we'll work on that!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
First week in Haiti – birds, cement floors, and earthquakes
My first week with Pastor JeanJean and Kristie Mompremier has been a great cultural immersion. I am practicing Creyole on many people and they have all been willing to spend time to teach me. Louders, my pupil from last year, and I have had 3 English and ecology lessons, one 4 hour bird tour (including a sugar press), and a 2.5 hour market trip. Last year he hardly knew any English. This year he can successfully give bird tours on his own, though the market was a little confusing – we haven’t practiced market phrases yet.
Tuesday morning I went with Mike and JeanJean to 2 houses where concrete floors were being poured. It costs about $300 per house, and improves the standard of living as people no longer have to sleep on dirt floors and the houses can be kept much cleaner (i.e. easier to clean where kids pee, floors can be swept free of pests, etc.). While Mike helped with the floors I taught a lot of kids about birds and how to use binoculars. One little girl kept calling me ‘blan,’ their term for white people.
Tuesday afternoon was my first ecology lesson at one of the UCI* nutrition centers. 40 kids and 20 adults were there. Each kid received an English/Creole birdtract and a bird or insect sticker. They had fun learning the parts of birds in English and Creole. The adults got into a discussion about birds damaging crops. Saul the Haitian ag extension agent pointed out that the birds are forced into the gardens because so many trees are gone. I am equipping each center with a pair of binoculars and a French Birds of Haiti book. I will visit 5 more centers this month.
My 1st week ended with a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that shook Haiti at 4:53pm on Tuesday 12 January 2010 while I was in the house checking email. At first I thought it was the wind picking up and shaking the roof since it was raining, but it didn’t look windy out. Then I thought it must be a plane flying low overhead, but large airplanes don’t fly low here, then I realized the whole house was shaking, and still shaking as I went outside – all this happened in maybe 8 – 10 seconds. A 5.9 aftershock occurred about 10 minutes later. Everyone was outside and excited, but now the news reports are coming in and it sounds bad in Port-au-Prince (PAP). Almost exactly 1 week ago to the hour I was in a 4 story office building buying bird books in PAP. Phone service is down so JeanJean and his brothers can’t contact their family who live in PAP. Last night I felt 4 aftershocks. It felt like someone was in the dark room with me pushing on my bed! Exciting during the day but not so much at night, especially after realizing the devastation in the city. As I finish this blog the morning after the earthquake, JeanJean is sitting in his truck listening to the radio to find out information.
Photos of my trip through in the capital on 5 Jan. 2010, one week before the earthquake:
The presidential palace decorated for Christmas;
Houses on the hillsides of Petionville;
Rivoli, a fancy hotel in Petionville;
Houses in various stages of construction –
Tuesday morning I went with Mike and JeanJean to 2 houses where concrete floors were being poured. It costs about $300 per house, and improves the standard of living as people no longer have to sleep on dirt floors and the houses can be kept much cleaner (i.e. easier to clean where kids pee, floors can be swept free of pests, etc.). While Mike helped with the floors I taught a lot of kids about birds and how to use binoculars. One little girl kept calling me ‘blan,’ their term for white people.
Tuesday afternoon was my first ecology lesson at one of the UCI* nutrition centers. 40 kids and 20 adults were there. Each kid received an English/Creole birdtract and a bird or insect sticker. They had fun learning the parts of birds in English and Creole. The adults got into a discussion about birds damaging crops. Saul the Haitian ag extension agent pointed out that the birds are forced into the gardens because so many trees are gone. I am equipping each center with a pair of binoculars and a French Birds of Haiti book. I will visit 5 more centers this month.
My 1st week ended with a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that shook Haiti at 4:53pm on Tuesday 12 January 2010 while I was in the house checking email. At first I thought it was the wind picking up and shaking the roof since it was raining, but it didn’t look windy out. Then I thought it must be a plane flying low overhead, but large airplanes don’t fly low here, then I realized the whole house was shaking, and still shaking as I went outside – all this happened in maybe 8 – 10 seconds. A 5.9 aftershock occurred about 10 minutes later. Everyone was outside and excited, but now the news reports are coming in and it sounds bad in Port-au-Prince (PAP). Almost exactly 1 week ago to the hour I was in a 4 story office building buying bird books in PAP. Phone service is down so JeanJean and his brothers can’t contact their family who live in PAP. Last night I felt 4 aftershocks. It felt like someone was in the dark room with me pushing on my bed! Exciting during the day but not so much at night, especially after realizing the devastation in the city. As I finish this blog the morning after the earthquake, JeanJean is sitting in his truck listening to the radio to find out information.
Photos of my trip through in the capital on 5 Jan. 2010, one week before the earthquake:
The presidential palace decorated for Christmas;
Houses on the hillsides of Petionville;
Rivoli, a fancy hotel in Petionville;
Houses in various stages of construction –
they seem to just build on top each other.
Photos from my stay at UCI (above):
Louders my birding guide;
Sugar cane juice being boiled for rum production (the gov’t shut down the processed sugar mills so they can
collect the customs fees from imported sugar);
Men mixing cement for new floors;
Kids trying out the binoculars (the then carried water from the river for the cement mixing)
*United Christians International, the Mompremier’s organization LINK
Photos from my stay at UCI (above):
Louders my birding guide;
Sugar cane juice being boiled for rum production (the gov’t shut down the processed sugar mills so they can
collect the customs fees from imported sugar);Men mixing cement for new floors;
Kids trying out the binoculars (the then carried water from the river for the cement mixing)
*United Christians International, the Mompremier’s organization LINK
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Ti Zwazo Kote W A Prale - Kreyol bird book
My 1st day in Haiti and I found bird books in Kreyol! My guide Jehu (the brother-in-law of my hosts) took me on a tour of Port au Prince the capital & Petionville, and we stopped an office building that had bird books in Kreyol & French, so I bought some of both. One was the book I used last year that I bought from the author Florence Sergile who lives in Florida. But I gave them all away last year and she didn't have anymore in the US. I visited the Musee du Pantheon, a really nice museum tha
t tells the history of Haiti. It even has the anchor from the Santa Maria. We went to another museum at a Baptist mission that had a hodgepodge of displays. It would be a great project for one of my KU museum studies classes! Here's an interesting blog about it. The museum did have a map of the mammals of Haiti, which was a good find since there aren't many mammals & not much popular information about them. There was also a sad little zoo with a monkey, 2 goats, a crocodile in a tiny cement enclosure, doves, and lots of rabbits with 2 guinea pigs. Here's a picture of Jehu and me at Fort Jacques, as well as scenes from the drive up to the fort. The cool mountainous air felt good! My schedule is off from traveling, I think I'll try to go back to bed. In the morning my hosts here in the capital, Michael & Karen Broyles, take me to the MAF airport where Michael is a missionary pilot. I'll meet up with Mike W. and we'll fly to Pignon and stay with JeanJean & Kristie!
t tells the history of Haiti. It even has the anchor from the Santa Maria. We went to another museum at a Baptist mission that had a hodgepodge of displays. It would be a great project for one of my KU museum studies classes! Here's an interesting blog about it. The museum did have a map of the mammals of Haiti, which was a good find since there aren't many mammals & not much popular information about them. There was also a sad little zoo with a monkey, 2 goats, a crocodile in a tiny cement enclosure, doves, and lots of rabbits with 2 guinea pigs. Here's a picture of Jehu and me at Fort Jacques, as well as scenes from the drive up to the fort. The cool mountainous air felt good! My schedule is off from traveling, I think I'll try to go back to bed. In the morning my hosts here in the capital, Michael & Karen Broyles, take me to the MAF airport where Michael is a missionary pilot. I'll meet up with Mike W. and we'll fly to Pignon and stay with JeanJean & Kristie!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Thanks for the teaching supplies!
This is my final update before I leave for Thursday, November 19, 2009
How to ship items to Haiti
This is how to ship things to my friends in Haiti or to me while I am there. It only takes a couple days longer than it takes the supplies to get to Florida, as the supply plane flies directly to their town on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Ship items to them at:
JeanJean & Kristie Mompremier
Unit 1072--UCI
3170 Airmans Drive
Ft. Pierce, FL 34946
The shipping fee is $1.50/lb by a check made out to and mailed to Missionary Flights International at 3170 Airmans Drive, Ft. Pierce, FL 34946. Write Unit 1072 in the memo. This covers the cost of the missionary plane taking the packages to Haiti, where Kristie picks them up directly from the plane.
But then a customs officer weighs all her packages and charges a fee per pound, so to cover that a check for $0.50/lb needs to be made out to United Christians International and sent to United Christians International P.O. Box 51 Orange City, IA 51041
Sounds complicated, but easier than lugging items on the plane!
Ship items to them at:
JeanJean & Kristie Mompremier
Unit 1072--UCI
3170 Airmans Drive
Ft. Pierce, FL 34946
The shipping fee is $1.50/lb by a check made out to and mailed to Missionary Flights International at 3170 Airmans Drive, Ft. Pierce, FL 34946. Write Unit 1072 in the memo. This covers the cost of the missionary plane taking the packages to Haiti, where Kristie picks them up directly from the plane.
But then a customs officer weighs all her packages and charges a fee per pound, so to cover that a check for $0.50/lb needs to be made out to United Christians International and sent to United Christians International P.O. Box 51 Orange City, IA 51041
Sounds complicated, but easier than lugging items on the plane!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Birding update
My birding apprentice, Louisders, has been giving birding ecotours! (click to book your tour!) As well of tours of a nearby cave. I sent him some English/Creole dictionaries and ecology books, which he stayed up all night reading. Thank you everyone who donated binoculars and money for the books!I am planning my next trip to Caiman Haiti for January and am soliciting donations of binoculars. I found that wind-up flashlights are very useful too for the cave, and because most people don't have electricity. I gave Louisders my flashlight which must be how he was able to stay up at night reading.
On my last trip I visited a couple schools and left a pair of binoculars and a laminated bird guide at each (those are Bill Busby's binocs in the photo). Kristie said she'd hook me up with someone on a motorcycle who can take me to more schools and communities. So another goal is to raise funds to make more laminated bird guides to distribute, as well to photocopy handouts for afternoon ecology classes with the neighborhood high school students. Let me know if you'd like to donate, or use the paypal function on the right side of this blog. I'll make the photocopies at M. Amors copy shop in Caiman (that's him and his family in the photo).For another perspective of this effort, check out the blog post of Mike who went on the last trip.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Potential team - Itenerary
Day 1 - Fly out of Kansas City on a Sun., Tues., or Thurs. (~$500)
--------Stay overnight in Miami (~$80 + meals & tips)
Day 2 - Catch 8a flight to Port-au-Prince Haiti
--------Transfer to smaller airport - $10 plus possible taxi ~$5
--------Catch 1p flight to Pignon ($90 round trip) where Mompremiers pick us up
--------Relax rest of day in missions compound ($25 per night room and meals)
Day 3-8 - Work on missions project - must provide $ for supplies, see other posts for ideas
Day 9 - Back to Pignon airport for 2p flight
--------Transfer to main airport - $10 plus possible taxi ~$5
--------6p flight to Miami & stay overnight (~$80 + meals & tips)
Day 10 - Fly back to Kansas City
--------Stay overnight in Miami (~$80 + meals & tips)
Day 2 - Catch 8a flight to Port-au-Prince Haiti
--------Transfer to smaller airport - $10 plus possible taxi ~$5
--------Catch 1p flight to Pignon ($90 round trip) where Mompremiers pick us up
--------Relax rest of day in missions compound ($25 per night room and meals)
Day 3-8 - Work on missions project - must provide $ for supplies, see other posts for ideas
Day 9 - Back to Pignon airport for 2p flight
--------Transfer to main airport - $10 plus possible taxi ~$5
--------6p flight to Miami & stay overnight (~$80 + meals & tips)
Day 10 - Fly back to Kansas City
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