An update from Bryn .. February 2

An update on the two little boys I told you about yesterday. The boy who’s eye socket was crushed is doing well. He had surgery today and feels great. They boy who had vertebrae broken in his back had surgery was stabilized last night and they did surgery. He is doing well, and will be put on a flight to Ft. Lauderdale, FL tomorrow.

A day in Haiti for Dad…

They wake up at about 5 each morning.
It is so hard to sleep there because of all the noises around. Every night there are about “600 sets of dogs”. They bark all night long. No one cares; no one shushes their dogs around here. They also hear gunshots coming from the city during the night. Everyone around has chickens and roosters and they are also making noises. One noise that was new to dad was the sound of leaves hitting the ground. He said the leaves on most of the trees there are just huge, “bigger than basketballs”. They have huge stalks that hold them about a foot off each branch. They fall down during the night and make a big “POP” sound. Everyone just mills around for about an hour, they then start to prepare the medical supplies. They have to carry all the supplies about 500 yards from their locked facility to the medical tent, which is the clinic. They put the supplies in bins and put them up on their shoulders to carry them over. The clinic opens at nine. Dad sticks around the clinic until about 11. He then goes back up towards their stuff and has breakfast. His breakfast consists of MRE crackers and cookies. He said it’s a pretty good combo. :) He hangs around the tent for a while. He likes to stay central so that if anyone needs him he can see them, and get to them quickly. The other day, he was up by the tent and her heard a guy yelling angrily. He was above him on the mountain, but on their property. Dad run up to see what was going on and he saw this guy yelling at the two Haitian guards, posturing and slapping his chest. He was very upset, and so were the guards, as one started to load his shotgun. Dad said he though, “this isn’t going to be good!” He knew that at this point, the yelling guy wasn’t a threat to him. His hands were in the air, slapping his chest. He also knew the guard wasn’t going to hurt him, so he walked out in between to argument. When he did this, the guy stopped yelling for a bit, and dad asked him if he was ok. The guy looked at dad, and began speaking English to him. He explained that his mother lived in the apartment building that is on the compound. She was killed in the earthquake. He was frustrated because the guards wouldn’t let him get her things out of the rubble. Dad talked to the man for a minute and got him calmed down. They decided to let him get the things that were right on the surface. Yesterday, the man came back. He was yelling again, and was clearly still upset. Dad ran up again to calm the guy down and he just looked at dad and said, “You need to be here everyday!” Turns out, this guy lived in the apartment next to his mom. Some of the things he wanted to get out were his. He was upset because he had gotten up and gone to work that day. His mom stayed home, and she died in the earthquake. Dad says there is so much sadness in the eyes of the people there. Everyone around has lost someone that they loved.

He continues to do security for the remainder of the day and has dinner. Dad says dinner is the highlight of his day. Today they had rice and beans with some meat. The rice and beans weren’t like yesterdays and the beans were cooked in a sauce that looked like melted chocolate. The meat had chicken and fish with onions in it. He said it all was wonderful! Two people from their crew got sick today. They are in the clinic getting IV therapy tonight. They weren’t able to eat dinner with them, they are just trying to get some rest and get them re-hydrated and well. He said it is very hard to keep hydrated there. It is between 85 and 90 degrees every day, or at least that’s what it feels like, and its super humid. They are trying to drink as much water as possible, and dad guess he is drinking about 60 oz. Each day. This is usually the part of the day that we call dad. Its shortly after mom and I get off work, and they are settling down for bed in Haiti. We generally talk for about an hour or so. Tonight our conversation went a little longer. Cool for us, T-mobile has a plan that makes it so we can call mobile to mobile with dad for FREE, even with him in Haiti, but we think there is about an hour limit on the call because right when we get to 60 minutes, the call drops. We can call back, and everything is good, so we don’t mind too much. When I called dad back tonight, their power had just shut off. They have generators that supply the power, and also charge batteries. They can turn the generators off and the batteries will keep power up for about 24 hours, and the batteries had died. Turns out, the guy that runs the generator is one of the people who are sick. Luckily another guy had been helping him out, so he was able to turn the generators back on. Dad’s crew is good. They are very cohesive and they are hard workers. He enjoys the company of all of them and is glad he got put with them. Still no word on when they are coming home. No airlines will fly down to Haiti to pick them up. They have started negotiating with the 82nd Airborne(a division in the Army) to get them from Haiti and take them to Florida, where Delta Airlines has made a deal for $100 per person from Florida, home. Dad says he will stay as long as he is needed and as long as everyone else is staying. He is a great man!! :)