Thursday Afternoon Update

Well, this morning everyone was kept busy organizing and loading a pickup truck with relief supplies for Port-au-Prince.  We had a lot of clothes and shoes that had been donated from Canada, as well as food aid supplies used for the meal program at the school.  We were able to prepare packaged meals for approximately 200 people, as well as at least 100 individual packages with clothing or shoes and many plastic water packets.  Luckner, Karen, a police officer, and a couple of others loaded Luckner's pickup and departed at about noon time to distribute the aid to those in need.  Please pray for their safe return late tonight, and that the aid will reach those who need it.

We've been in touch with Canadian Foreign Affairs as well as Air Canada and are checking in regularly.  At this point we've been advised to just sit tight for at least the new few days while things are organized.  For now our flight is still scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, provided the airport is reopened to commercial traffic.

Work continues on the new apartment.  The Haitian work crew is doing most of that work at the moment, and making good progress.  The walls are complete and much of the basic form for pouring the roof (framework and plywood sheeting) is taking shape.

While that is going on, we've started working on some of the repairs to the school.  The newest part of the school had one wall crack significantly, so we've knocked one section down and started rebuilding and reinforcing it.

We're thankful that the compound escaped major damage.  The main residence, however, has sustained a number of cracks in the walls and/or supports.  The water supply for much of the compound, 4 large 500+ gallon storage tanks, is on the roof of the building.  As a result, although we use the building during the day, at night we've relocated our tents and mattresses to a single storey dining hall and some of the grounds just to play it safe: