othersomethings.com

So things aren’t great. Is anyone surprised? No.

Of the efforts we’ve been involved with, we’ve had as many fails as wins.

Win: there is clean water for the Ruuska villiage.

Fail: of all the leads we’ve had on structural engineers, none will commit. So we haven’t sent one down yet.
Update: change this to a win…an engineer is going in on Thursday.

Win: Don and Christine Ames agreed to go down and be on hand to oversee things at the orphanage since they need a steady “on site” contractor type, and an administrator type. Don and Christine fit the bill, and their hearts were open to it.

Fail: from the Ruuska orphanage, two private flights of about 7 already adopted orphans each have made it to the U.S., and have been detained and some even seized by INS and DCF. Their paperwork is correct and in order, they have visas, they are accompanied by their legal guardians, and their adoptive parents are sitting there waiting. The 7 children being held right this minute, as I write this, are detained because of lack of “official” creole translator to read their documents. Understandable, but frustrating for every person involved. Especially the children who don’t know what’s going on. And the one little girl who has been held for almost two weeks now…yeah. Retarded. That one is absolutely not understandable.

I spent yesterday helping pack 6 100lb cases of food and supplies to go down, and then repacking them because those flights fell through but a new one opened up that could take 4 50lb bags. Kelly and I packed a regular sized backpack with exactly 50…it was a work of art.

My brother decided to stay down there til he has to come back and pay bills. His wife said that on TV and random people are mailing them checks. So I guess he’ll be there longer.

There’s a lot more. Much more. Haiti.

God help them. We sure are trying.