haiti update

well I have a lot to say... I wasn't able to get online because the router at the guesthouse was major funky until I installed the new one tonight.  it's like night and day... before you had to point your computer in a certain direction and sit in a certain spot.  Now you can get internet all over the house, and I'm guessing it's faster too... my computer wouldn't connect at all to the new one.

anyways... so we got to haiti.  the plane to Haiti had very few Haitians... it was strange... We got to wait at the airport for our ride and practice our Creole for like 2 hours.  The airport is way different.  It's first world now, or nearly... Before you got off and walked onto the tarmac... now you are just in a stinky hallway that isn't air conditioned and you go down some stairs to a shuttle that takes you to immigration.  After immigration you find your bags among a sea of pushing people - they are in a room and there is no little loopy belt thing... they are just thrown on the floor and all over the place.  anyways I was glad to get out of the airport - it's not one of my favorite experiences.  we kind of just hung out yesterday (Saturday) and relaxed... it was a pretty long ride to get here.  I was in the back of a white caged truck on the ride home, so my view of the destruction was limited.  I saw a lot of tents, but I think I am going to go closer to the downtown area tomorrow - which apparently is where it is worse.  It's really great being here and seeing all the kids again, I'm looking forward to what God has for us in this week.

Today I went to church... So of course, my tradition is to purchase a whopper for the pastor of PAP Fellowship... but most of the orphanage goes to a closer church to the orphanage now.  Thankfully one other guy here wanted to go and we got someone to drive us.  I really enjoyed the message as always.  The 3-day old soggy whopper was delivered.  We prepared for this week today, a lot of us will be filling positions at the school that need filling.  I will be supervising the new computer lab and hopefully taking pictures/video and Alicia will be teaching hip-hop dance... And Alicia will be doing some meeting with the staff and working out logistics stuff too!

Well, I wish I had a more exciting update - I do have pictures though which are kind of exciting.  The highlight of my day was probably getting the internet to work on this new router haha. For more check out my flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucastheexperience



Alicia learning Creole


The house behind the guesthouse

Haiti

warning.  this blog is not that exciting.

In just maybe 12 hours or so we will be in Haiti.  I don't know if my mind is fully prepared for what I'm going to see.  We've been so busy lately I feel unprepared for this trip in many ways.  I know it's going to be amazing and we will have a greater understanding of what is going on via Child Hope when going.  I just think how bad things were before this and I've seen all the pics of the devastation but I imagine witnessing it first hand is something different.  Our flight to Miami was somewhat uneventful.  Alicia and I pretty much stayed up all night last night doing stuff to get ready.  At 7:30 in the morning we had no clue if our bags were overweight - no reliable scale... so we did the whole weigh alicia, have her pick up a bag and subtract bag weight from Alicia's.  Not a reliable system... we very much guessed and took some stuff out... When we went to the airport they were all under 50 pounds, thank God!  I really am not a fan of the LA - to Miami flight but on this flight we LUCKED out and got the only row I think in the whole plane (in non-business class) with like twice the legroom.  Every other row had the normal video screen on the back of their chairs.  I was bummed to see ours didn't have that... but then I realized the video thing was in the armrest haha.  I fell asleep watching Planet 51 and then watched some documentary on people who were like real Indian Jones.  Otto Rahn searched for the holy grail for a long time and there was some other guy.  Anyways... American Airlines lost one of our bags because we had some construction stuff in there and it had to get some extra screening.  Now we are spending the night at Miami International until our plane leaves tomorrow morning at like 9 or 10ish.  Please keep us in ur prayers!

TR

Green shirt is ready to go.  Like 20 something hours until we go to the airport.  Haven't packed at all... it doesn't really matter.  I packed for 10 days and stayed for five weeks and it was fine.  I somehow even managed without my computer for that long.  Granted, there were a bunch more around me that served the same purpose but still... 

I hope your case of The Resentment is not too strong... The Resentment was born out of a team that Alicia and I took to Haiti.  Their lives were mostly ruined by Haiti in that awesome God way that made it so Haiti was 99% of what was on their minds.  They came back to America, and others went back to Haiti before them.  Thus, The Resentment was born.

keep checking back for updates from haiti

Check out this graph showing searches about Haiti.  

Green Shirt

I'm not a person who gets excited about articles of clothing very easily.  But, one of the many reasons I enjoy going to Haiti is wearing my green shirt.  It's like one of those safari-rei shirts that costs way more than you think it is worth.  The second time I went to Haiti one guy had one and I remember sitting at the one stop, 15  feet up in the air on top of the Manassero's giant white truck - the sun beating down on us - listening to this guy tell us of the wonders of his green shirt.  I kind of thought he was crazy for paying so much for a shirt.  Of course, they come in other colors but the green one is my favorite.  It is even better accentuated by a tan vest.  People will actually think you are a journaliste.  When we were in Haiti for 5 weeks and I came prepared for one week, green shirt saved me.  My other clothes were literally falling apart - but did green shirt fall apart?  No.  Did it stink after I wore it for a week straight?  Maybe a little.  It didn't feel dirty, which is the most important part of green shirt.  You're sweaty, you're icky, you take showers with 4 cups of water (my personal Spartan record) but green shirt is there to make you feel normal.  If you put it under the sink, ring it out and leave it for an hour or two it feels even better in the hot Haitian sun.  Green shirt is waiting in my closet  waiting to be sprayed with Permethrin to repel mosquitoes and is ready to repel sun for me with its awesome built-in UV protection.  Green shirt is even long sleeve, and it doesn't feel it.  Man how can you not have a green shirt if you are going to Haiti?

You may think these are ramblings of a mad man, but you get a green shirt and just wait and see...    

Tan shirt also exists, but eh.

Wow

BonDye li Bon.  Overnight, our trip to Haiti was fully funded.  Thanks to everyone for their support and prayers... It really means a lot to us when people show their support for our trips to Haiti.  We can't wait to be there and share stories and pictures of what we experience with you.  Please keep checking back for more updates you can also check http://www.twitter.com/loomtronic for periodic updates!

Lucas

We're going back to Haiti!

Dear Friends and Family -

It seems like a day doesn't when we are not asked the question "When are you guys going to Haiti?"  Well today, we have some exciting news.  From March 26th-April 3rd we will be going to Haiti!  Immediately following the earthquake, although our hearts desired to go, we were instantly involved in communications for the Child Hope orphanage in the US.  I was obviously working on the Child Hope website/twitter/facebook and Alicia was hired to coordinate relief for Child Hope full time.  Thus, we were stuck in America.

The door has finally opened and we are extremely excited to be reunited with our friends in Haiti and serve alongside them.  Lucas plans to develop new content for the website (pictures/videos/new features) and also help with the computer related issues they are having there.  Alicia plans to meet with the staff in Haiti to develop a better system of communication as well as assess supply and project needs.

We are going with high hopes and bowed hearts as we anticipate encountering the reality of the massive devastation in a country we dearly love.  We are very excited to reconnect with and encourage our dear friends as well as the wonderful children.

We ask that you would pray with us for our trip and for God to guide us and direct our steps.  Please continue to pray for Haiti, the hard working staff at the orphanage and the children there.

Due to the short amount of time we have before we go, and since Lucas works for eDivvy and developed the cool little widget you see below - we have set up an event on eDivvy.com to raise funds for the trip.  If you feel so led, you can support us financially.  Your contributions are tax deductible.



Lucas

Global warming: A surprising name

It seems no matter what side you are on, in the media they are always trying to make things extreme with politics.  Obama is going to destroy the world, Bush is going to do this or that.

Why do they call it global warming then?  That doesn't sound extreme.  Who doesn't like to be warm?  Here are some alternate names I think would have been better:

Global melting

Global incinerating

Global burning

Global it's so hot all the water has dried up and I am dying of thirst-ing

Please leave your other suggestions for me below.

Thank you technology!

Technology saved us so much time after the Earthquake in Haiti.  As most of you know, we do a lot of stuff with Child Hope - here are some ways we used technology to keep us from going crazy.

eDivvy.com - Within about 24 hours after the Earthquake we had a social fundraising event set up.  People could easily tell their friends go to edivvy.com/childhope and donate.  Of course, this was blasted all over twitter and facebook as well.  200k was raised in under a month.

Google Apps
Since the earthquake we have had about 400 people sign up on the website to go to Haiti.  Imagine trying to sort through 400 emails looking for specific skill sets, which is what we would have had to do before with regular email.  What a nightmare.  Thankfully, we just created a google spreadsheet and clicked create form and in under an hour we had a form on our website.  The alternative was some php/mySQL combination that makes my head hurt.  I would probably have more options that way, but I needed something simple and fast and easily shareable.

We also switched some of the key people at Child Hope over to Google Apps mail, eliminating archaic email systems - although we still miss the "You've Got Mail" sound when we login... We don't miss full inboxes.  Processes in email are now automatic and streamlined.

Documents can be shared without having to send attachments and everybody can update documents.

Calendars of important events/teams can easily be shared by everyone.

When Alicia's hard drive crashed - I set her up with another one in under an hour.  Most of her important stuff was in her gmail or on Google Docs already - I didn't even install Microsoft Office, we are going online in this house!  Google Chrome and Skype.  That's all she really needs to work right now.

Skype - Invaluable.  Sometimes email wouldn't even work, but Skype would to communicate with people in Haiti.

We are still looking at other ways to streamline our processes at home and for our friends in Haiti, but these were the ones that came to mind.

Let's Go! - Passport

Let's Go! - Passport
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Prayer for Haiti

Prayer for Haiti
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Keep praying for Haiti. Updates and how to donate and help are at http://bit.ly/5WmAdL

Worship and Prayer for Haiti

Worship and Prayer for Haiti
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

We had a time of worship and prayer at our church for Haiti tonight.

We are raising money for Haiti relief. eDivvy.com is giving 5% for everything we raise. To donate and get updates, see www.childhope.org/about/earthquake.html Please feel free to forward to your friends.

Earthquake in Haiti

Dear Friends -

I am sure that you have all heard about the massive earthquake in Port-Au-Prince.  We are trying to get updates from the Manasseros and the others on the ground, but cell phones and other forms of communication are limited.  We have heard from a few different sources that the Manasseros and the kids are all OK with only one minor injury.  This is definitely a huge praise report considering how much this quake hit the rest of the country.  We have also heard that the Manasseros are running a medical clinic out of the boys home. We will try to keep the Child Hope website updated with new information as much as we can.

We so appreciate your prayers, please continue to pray for the Manasseros and all the people of Haiti. 

If you would like to contribute to earthquake relief please go to http://www.eDivvy.com/childhope-haiti.  Your contribution is tax deductible.  eDivvy.com is offering a 5% matching contribution.


Lucas

Art

Art
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Flowers in Bergama, Turkey

Flowers in Bergama, Turkey
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Order the Child Hope 2010 Calendar here!

Click here to go to the Child Hope website to order

Christmas Time

Christmas Time
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Today we had some great French toast for breakfast and then pretty much just hung out with the kids all day and they got to unwrap their presents. We got to eat with the kids and we also had the feeding program. It was a great last day here. We leave tomorrow.

Warning: Shoots flaming balls with reports

Christmas Eve Candlelight service
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

This was the warning on one of the fireworks we set off today. Today we hung out and got ready for Christmas and practiced some stuff for the postponed Christmas outreach on Monday. We went to Christmas Eve service which was really great. Some of the kids performed a dance that Alicia taught them. The kids all love the candles and some of them always end up with a little bit of hot wax on their hands. Then we had a great turkey, ham and mashed potato dinner with some type of chocolate jello pie for dessert. As we were eating, the neighbors were lighting off fireworks. Christmas Eve is a big time to do fireworks. If you research the history of fireworks you will see they have nothing to do with Christmas, but it's still fun nonetheless. We then took a look at our fireworks. We had a bunch of "rockets" and some type of fireworks with German instructions. We headed off to the boys home for the safest out of country fireworks display I have ever experienced. They can get pretty crazy, but this one was pretty calm. We only have one day left and I am sure going to miss it here.

On a completely unrelated note: The Haitians have what to me is an odd sense of humor... But it's funny still because I have an odd sense of humor too. Here are the responses to I've got to when I've called a person crazy here:

I'm not crazy because I don't have a rock in my hand
I'm not crazy, I'm a refrigerator

Yah.  In other news my camera keeps showing an Err message when I take a picture.  I guess that means I need to send it in for repair.  Ugh.

Due to rain, Christmas has been cancelled

Due to rain, Christmas has been cancelled
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Today we woke up cold. This does not happen very often. The wind was loud last night and it was rainy. It was about 70 degrees, which is just kind of ridiculously cold here. I've never seen it rain like this here, normally it seems like it rains for 10 minutes or maybe an hour but no it rained the entire day so we couldn't do our Christmas outreach and there isn't a way to have it on Friday. It looks like the outreach is postponed until Monday which means Alicia and I won't be here to see it. It's sad, but we know it's time to go back at least for a little bit now. Hopefully next year it won't rain on our parade. It was a slow day. Tomorrow we just have Christmas Eve service planned.

My Princess calendars were kept safe by a man with a shotgun

1practice-4506
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Today we practiced for our big Christmas outreach tomorrow. It's really coming along great. After that we played the waiting game. We waited and waited for the big white truck so we could finish taking the kids to Delmas 2000 and buying for their family. I think we waited for 5 hours. That's just part of life in Haiti, waiting. It was kind of a lazy day and then at 5 the truck returned. We packed 30 kids into the truck and headed out to Delmas 2000. Once again, we were in and out in about an hour or so. Thank you Lord everything went so smoothly. Last year we took smaller groups and could easily spend 3-4 hours with one group. So I guess I am kind of recognizable... The guy who is kind of I guess the manager of the story, I say hi to him. I was pretty sure I had talked to him when we did this last year. So after passing by him a couple of times he calls to me "Sir!" I figure I must have dropped something, but he says "I want to give you some calendars, but put them in your car... don't show anyone" What kind of calendars are these, I think to myself. Anyways he gives me the calendars and I go out the door and realize I have no way of getting in the truck. He is close to the door, so I tell him I don't have the keys to the car, and I put the calendars outside real fast so I can get the keys. He whistles to a guard with a shotgun and instructs him to stand guard in front of my bag of Princess calendars. That has to be one of the most hilarious moments I have had in Haiti. He also gave us more calendars as we left that are shown in this blog.  I look forward to going there again next year!

Tomorrow is our big outreach program, so looking forward to it!