FROM THE BLOG:
Tuesday 2 March 2010:
This morning the team from UNICEF came at 7 AM to set up the 42 square meter tent they had given us last Saturday. It is quite a big structure and it took a whole team to set it up. They anchored it in the ground at several places to make it a safe sturdy home.
Sunday 28 February 2010:
Last night my very good friend Andrew Bigosinski from Cine Institute called me to tell me that there is a whole crew made up of gaffers and grip that came in from New York with a container full of donated generators and other electrical equipment. They call themselves Friends of Cine Institute, and are donating and installing full electrical systems to those who are in need for that. Andou (his Haitian nickname) asked me if we could use one.
A big YES on my end ofcourse. So today some students from the film-school came to visit us with Charlie Libin and Jim McCullagh from Friends of Cine Institute with a huge generator, Honda ES6500. They also brought a whole bunch of electrical cords, and light bulbs.
At the same time UNICEF gave us a 42 square meter tent yesterday, that they will come and set up for us tomorrow, monday. That tent will function for the time being as our dining area, kids safer play ground, and our home school.
The days will be so much better for us and our kids when they are not out in the open all day long. So when the tent is set up tomorrow the crew will come back and install our electrical system for us. The generator is full with gas, and they also donated a 5 gallon container full of extra gas to us.
I will keep you all posted, and needless to say we had a great Sunday with all these gifts, we are very happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday 23 February 2010:
This morning 2 engineers from the town of Jakmel came to inspect our house. They checked all the cracks and support poles of the house, and declared the house officially uninhabitable.
Something we already knew of course since the evening of 12 January 2010. ;-(
They also officially forbid us to enter the house.
We then created a ground cover with tarps and moved in our school, dining room, tv room and playroom / afternoon napping-time room. It feels so good to be “indoors” again.
Life will be a little less stressful for all of us.
A special thanks to our friend Carrona Lafond. He had taken it upon him to get us this special tent from Unicef.
Sunday 14 February 2010:
Happy Valentine’s day everybody.
We spend the day today working very hard to give our kitchen staff a better workplace. Since the earthquake made our home unsafe, we had moved our kitchen outside into the front-yard, and the area was covered with a big piece of tarp. But wind and rain really created many problems for our staff to cook the meals to feed our children and staff.
So today we hired a Boss and asked some friends to come and help us take the roof of our laundry department behind the house down, (we cannot work in that area anymore, to risky if the house decides to fall down) and move it to the front-yard to create a better cover for the kitchen.
The structure is very heavy since it is wood covered with corrugated sheets, and getting it through the narrow pass-way next to the staircase was very tricky , but we made it to the front. The next step was to lift it high enough so it could sit on the side wall. This turned to be too impossible for us, to heavy, not enough people, but right at that moment 2 Canadian army trucks pulled up next to our camp to come and check on us. I asked the Canadians if they could please help us lift the roof, and it still was a lot of work to get it high enough and at the right place so it could sit on the sidewall, but it worked out.
Boss Frito then put all support poles in place, and when the structure was secure we pulled the tarp over the whole area and we have a new kitchen. Our kitchen staff was happily surprised when they came in Monday morning!
------------------------------------------
LTEL SPOKE TO DIRECTOR 2/9/10:
CURRENT URGENT NEEDS:
GENERATOR
Solar Powered Lanterns
Battery Powered Lanterns
Flashlights
Batteries
Shoes - Kids Sandals
Per the director, a large dome tent is being brought in for sheltering purposes.
----------------------------------------
UPDATE FROM SITE BLOG:
Sunday 31 January 2010:
The last 2 days I spend going to the bank and back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! None of the banks in Jakmel have opened their doors yet, since the earthquake.
Our bank, BNC bank has big cracks in the walls and word has it that this bank might stay closed for some time. The Western Union is open, but they are not able to serve their clients, since they have no money and are also waiting for their bank to re-open.
-----------------------------------------
1/27/10 Update from FACEBOOK:
Wednesday 27 january 2010:
This afternoon we have moved into our new home (tents on the site). It has been a lot of hard work, the last 2 days setting up this new home, but it looks and feels great.
We made it that we have shade the whole day long over our new playground. And our kids are finally back in a place that can feel like a real home after 15 days. A much safer, cleaner and healthier place than the dirty, dusty street we have been living in for the last 15 days.
We are all super tired, but it will be much easier, less tiring, with our new set-up to care for our kids. Getting some sleep has been very, very difficult for the last 15 days for most of us. So hopefully in the next couple of days when we all will have a feel of “normalcy” again, we can start to rest up a little.
---------------------------------------------
1/25/10 LTel:
Spoke to stateside contact and the only current need is:
Generator
Tents
There are 15 children on site.
They were able to get food/water recently.
Their building/orphanage is a complete loss. They are sleeping outside on mattresses pulled from the rubble and have sheets. Two children are getting sick because there is a lot of dust/dirt and they are getting skin infections.
They have their small medical clinic in a tent on their site currently that they used to have in-house.
They aren't sure if they will attempt to move or rebuild at this point. They need to do something very soon because hurricane season is coming in 5 mos.
Provided contact with Danita's Children/Hope for Haiti Children's Center info by email as they are taking in temp/permanent orphans and have medical staff and facilities to care for the kids.
-------------------------------------------------------
Hi Everybody,
We are all alive and none of us is injured, by a miracle, mere timing kept us alive, a few minutes earlier or later and most of our kids and me would have been dead. But………. we are homeless, The orphanage is still standing, but totally unsafe.
---------------------
Orphanage Contact Info
Kay Lia
Lia van de Donk
Rue Albert Jean-Louis
Jacmel, Haiti
011-509-3748-6055
Administrative Contact Info
WeCanBuildanOrphanage.com
Gala Calisto
P.O. Box 1306
Topanga, CA 90290
310/455-2400
Facebook-
http://www.facebook.com/#/pages/WeCanBuildanOrphanagecom/73744112352?ref=mf