It is good to finally be here...

Wednesday 17 February: Today went well. The people at MFI were able to make a good recommendation for me to get the tooth I broke on the plane Tuesday fixed. A Dr. John Byers from Vero Beach. I drove up from Ft. Lauderdale and was at his office by 12:30. He cleaned it up and put some kind of bond on it to protect it. I had thought it that the tooth broke was the same one I had broken before but it wasn't. It was a different tooth. So the new total for broken teeth stands at 3. 2 have been be patched and one is just broken not patched because it doesn't hurt. I will have get this stuff taken care of. I spent a couple of hours at MFI. What a place! There is so much going on. There were many volunteers helping load pallets and shrink wrapping them. MFI has been receiving many donations. You name it, it was in that warehouse! Wheelchairs, walkers of every size, crutches beyond number, generators, blankets, towels sheets, tarps, tools, clothes, grills for cooking, tools, and barrels of diesel fuel. We leave tomorrow at 7:00. I need to be there at 5:45. We should arrive in Cap Haitian between 12 and 1:00. Then fly with MAF to PPX. Air travel is a miracle. Imagine doing all this in one day! I'll try and take a bunch of pictures and then hopefully post them on Wednesday. I have been receiving comments on the blog so I know people are reading it. I also know that there are many people praying about this trip. I feel it. There is something unique about this trip because the Haiti I am going to tomorrow is different now. It is has a post 911 feeling. I just know this to be true although I have not felt it for my self. I am eager to see with my own eyes that which I have only heard about. Haiti has been knocked down but it has been knocked out. There is hope for Haiti. Thursday 18 February I left Ft. Pierce at 7:30 on a DC-3. We landed on Great Exuma island to take on some fuel. So we spent a whole 10 minutes in the Bahamas! Then we sped off for Cap Haitien. We arrived at 11:30. It has been raining heavily in Cap for the past several days. As result of the heavy rains MAF was hesitant to fly since all of their planes do not have the instruments for flying IFR. I sat at the airport until 5:00pm and just waited. Jenny arranged for a relative of Linda's to come and pick me up and take me back to his house. So I spent the night in the city. Haitians are very hospitable so I was taken care of well. Friday, 19 February I arrived back the airport at 8:00am I waited about 45 minutes then the MAF plane arrived. We boarded and left Cap at 9:30 for our 20 minute flight to Port de Paix. It was still raining but not quite as heavily. So we flew in right at 500 feet just below the clouds. It gave me a really good view of the coast line. I was able to get some aerial shots of the new property at Coco. Then we flew over House of Hope. I got some photos of that too. The rest of the day was spent getting all the gear that I brought in distributed. That took some time. It is good to finally be here. Some thoughts before I go... Everyone I speak to has a story of someone they know who was affected by the earthquake. I met a young woman here at the HOH who is recovering after having surgery at the hospital. She had gone into Port au Prince on the 12th of January to go the US Embassy to get a passport. She had no idea of what would happen at around 5:00 that afternoon. In a moment the earth began to shake violently and as she was fleeing for safety something struck her leg right at her heel. Whatever it was it severed her Achilles tendon and her foot was dangling off of her ankle. She had surgery here in LaPointe to repair her foot by a Dr. who had come in from Lancaster county. So now she is here recovering waiting for the Dr. to do a skin graft. The Doctor from Lancaster county had acquired a new skin graft machine called a Dermatone. I carried this machine in for the Doctor here to use in this procedure. Today I watched the nurses clean and redress the wound. It is not infected and it is healing slowly. She is ready for a skin graft soon. This is just one story, to think of 250,000 people dead and on top of that a countless number of people wounded. The suffering is unimaginable. Tent cities all over town. Cardboard for walls and tarps for a roof. Now the rains are coming. Shanties collapsed under the water weight. Whatever dented possessions remain are soon soaked too; bedding and mattresses too. No where to hide for shelter. I am working on a plan to go to Port au Prince on Sunday. It is coming together well. Please pray more for the people of Port au Prince than you do for me. But please pray for me too and for my family as we are apart from one another. Thanks for reading. Jeb