Snow and Haiti

Who would have thought a week ago that the 4-5 inches of snow we got then would close school for eight days so far (including tomorrow)?

AN UNPRECEDENTED WINTER EVENT. I know I’m just repeating what I wrote last time, but we have gotten a snow the likes of which we haven’t seen in 12 years--even if it really didn’t pan out to dump as much snow on us as originally predicted. What’s been really odd is the consistently colder temperatures that we’ve been having this late in February. And given that Robertson County simply isn’t equipped to remove snow and ice from its back roads we continue to be out of school. Since I work a 220 day contract, I’ve been told to burn some of my summer this week, so I’ve enjoyed all this time off with the kids.

We had a bit of a warmup over the weekend. The temperature shot up into the 40s on Friday and we got a lot of rain. This melted a lot of snow, but with ice damming and frozen ground the water had nowhere to go. Then the temperature fell back down below freezing, creating more of a mess that night (and delaying the Haiti Team’s return home). We also had a short lived ice storm early Saturday which took our power down for about 90 minutes.

As day broke Saturday, the temperature rose helping the snow melt but not the flooding. I went to church to help clear the parking lot for services the next day. That afternoon we went to the airport to pick up Jenna. And then that evening we were back at church cleaning up water from leaks in the flat part of the roof and a sump pump that had frozen. We had services Sunday, but fans were scattered here and there in the hallways to help the carpet dry.

Since then our temperature hasn’t gotten much above freezing and the only melting that has occurred has been due to radiation. This means those back roads that are shaded by trees still have ice. While this is a far cry from what folks up north experience in a normal winter it has been quite a week and a half for us. Jenna has just been glad to have some snow days while she is back home from Haiti. And with a little more snow a possibility for tonight (anything from a dusting to a half inch) it’s anyone’s guess if we’ll even return to school this month!

THE HAITI REPORT. As I mentioned above, Jenna and her team have arrived safely home from Haiti. Since I have just reported on all the snow, I’ll discuss their trip home before reporting on Jenna’s experience in Haiti.

Jenna and her team had no problems flying from Jeremie to Port au Prince and then on to Miami as planned on Friday, but American Airlines, watching the weather here, had canceled the flight from Miami to Nashville before they even left Haiti. This meant the team had to spend an unplanned night in Miami and try to get home the next day. It worked out that all 17 of them got to fly together the next day on a trip that bounced them to Dallas, Texas, before getting them home that afternoon. We met a bunch of tired people who were glad to be back and have people with warm coats waiting for them at the airport.

Jenna said she enjoyed this trip more than the first trip she made back in May, though she didn’t name one particular reason why. I think this trip just ran a little smoother than before.

I realize I am repeating myself from the last time a bit, but the purpose of the trip was to provide a medical clinic and do some construction projects there at the orphanage. On the medical front, we had a doctor from our church who was part of this team so this allowed them to do more than last time. They gave all the kids at the orphanage a check up one day (the kids were all healthy and had grown a lot) as well as hold a clinic for the general public for two days. I don’t think they have an exact count of how many people they treated, but the estimate is at least 300 people.

Thanks to our team the orphanage is starting to be a little more kid friendly. They were able to repair two swing sets and set up a basketball goal for the kids which were hits. They also built a chicken coop. They don’t have chickens yet, but they should be delivered from Port au Prince soon. This along with the goats delivered by one of our previous teams helps them to be more self-sufficient with their food. The good thing here is that in the last 18 months since we’ve gotten involved with the orphanage, the kids have gone from eating one meal a day to three meals a day. The kids are definitely thriving.

There’s also a new church building near Emmanuel Orphanage. The first service was held in this building back in December when Kenny was part of a team to bring Papa Noel to the orphanage. Naturally, our team went to this church the Sunday they were there. One twist on their trip was that the week they were in Haiti happened to be the same week as a Voodoo event called “Karnivall” (pronounced “Car-ni-vall”) as we understand it. This is a religious holiday in Haiti that closes school. As a result the church has a lot of meetings as alternatives to Karnivall. This meant that our team interacted with more kids than the ones at the orphanage because all the kids were out of school. Our team has no idea what lives they may have impacted in the larger community during this week even though they work through a language barrier.

Jenna has seen far more in life at 16 than I did at her age. She has a global awareness that I didn’t get for another ten years. I’m proud of her for stepping out and testing the waters to see what a difference she can make in the wider world.

Joe