Moving Ahead While Appreciating Our Loss

Today, I visited the Montana. The hotel is completely collapsed. I thought of the people I have met there and the people trapped under the rubble--one of whom is Board Member, Patrick Brun's niece. I sat in the exact chair at the pool where I have sat in for many a day over our years in Haiti. I taught Marianna (youngest daughter) how to dive there and swam races against Chilean/Argentinian military with Timothy. It was a place of relaxation for us and our volunteers.

I/we have lost many friends. The demolished buildings are tombs in many cases. This remains the context to each day, but life is the focus. So, I have been charging around to find what we need to make it happen at Louverture Cleary School.

Thanks to the hard work of many, we have had a great day.  We had a lot more organized activities at the school--thanks to the volunteers, especially.  We have a half-day of classes planned for tomorrow. The staff and volunteers are amazing.

We have given the Missionaries of Charity the Nissan Patrol to use as an ambulance. We will send one volunteer and 2 to 4 students to work inside--I repeat--inside the sisters' compound. They are handling a lot. We need to help as we can. They are simply amazing in their ability to highlight the dignity of life--even in the harshest of circumstances.

We met with Brad Horwitz and Bernard Fils-aime of Trilogy/Voila (Haiti’s largest cell phone company). They will provide two tents for classrooms and emergency housing. They also gave us 10 cell phones with minutes--ready to go. We talked about several cooperative projects. Watch for a Wall Street story on Viola written by Mike Esterl--more surprise there on Monday.

Thanks to THP architect, Scott Hill, his brother, Jack Talbott and Wassim --all three experts in structures and earthquake damage--we have been cleared to use most of our buildings. Viola will also send their structural engineer--who has just been flown in--to look over our buildings. We expect Gerry and Charles, our local architect/engineer, to be here tomorrow as well.  They will provide instructions on what to do with the one building that may need some repair.

Patrick Brun is amazing working machine. He patiently waits for me to bring his truck back [often hours late] and works away daily getting the Red Cross settled in. We hope he will also be warehousing soon for Catholic Relief Services (CRS).  He provides what we need and backs us up at every turn.

Peace,

Patrick