Today was a pretty good day. We started out today going to a village about 20-30 minutes away called Onaville and had a vision clinic. We had the Hatians get a small interview and asked about God, and then had them check if they had trouble seeing at distances or close up.
If they had trouble seeing close up they came over to my station where we had different strengths of readers ranging from +1.00 to +3.00. Depending on how good they could see we gave them the correct prescription. We had a few of them, who were checked, and didn't need glasses, and then came back after a little while saying "check me again" and the first pair they tried it was perfect. (they just wanted to show others that they got something new).
If they needed distance glasses than the process was a bit more complicated, they tested each eye at a distance, then recorded the correction needed. Then, from that information, they would select the correct strength of lenses for each eye, and then put it in a generic Harry Potter looking frames and give them to the person. One woman, when examined, was written down that she had 20/500 vision which is nearly all blind. They put the correct lenses near her eyes (+8.00) and asked if it was clear. She said no, and they tried the next notch down (+5.00) After she said it was still blurry, they tried the plastic no prescription lense and she all of the sudden could see better than ever! We let her have her excitement of "new glasses" and let her go.
After our long vision clinic, we all came back to the compound and chilled for a while. My mom gave me a short tour of the grounds, and then we had a good dinner of "stir fry" chicken over rice.(Stir fry is "" because it was chicken teriyaki long cooked in a pot) My mom made homemade fresh bread and chocolate cake to go with the meal. It was delishoush!
Tomorrow, we are going to help build the outdoor kitchen and maybe get some painting done as well.
Updates daily hopefully!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Getting there
So I decided to make a play by play of our trip down here.Using my FB updates.
You mean no one is on at 8am, a Saturday, the first day of Spring Break?
Landed in Dallas Ft. Worth. next flight boards in a few minutes.
Just landed in Miami, and we leave at around 8 am. Gonna use our free hotel vouchers for some sleep tonight! :)
So far everything has been okay, we found a quiet cool place in MIA to chill for the wee hours of the morning. Our flight so far is on time, and boarding at 6:30. Let's hope all goes well to get to Haiti on our final leg!
We are in Haiti! We made it safely, however, our luggage is delayed until tomorr
We left for PDX around 6am on Saturday morning. We arrive at the airport, check-in, and when we go to scan our boarding passes, the woman offered us 2 $500 American Airlines ticket vouchers, a hotel room for the night in Miami, and Lunch meal vouchers. (On account of the flight being overbooked and there was a group of 45French sturdents travelling to Paris) She told us that we would make all the same connections, and arrive in Haiti at the same time. We gladly accepted the generous offer and got to chill around the PDX terminal until 12:15 when our flight boarded.
We arrived in Dallas on time, and were supposed to have only 10 minutes to make our connection in the next terminal over. We rushed as fast as we could, and made it to the gate- to find that the flight time had changed to a half hour later. This was good for us, we just got a bite to eat and then got ready to board. Unfortunately there was a mechanical wire failure in the right engine that needed to be fixed. We finally boarded the scorching hot plane about 1 hour past our original flight time. After we boarded they STILL had not fixed the problem and the Captain informed us we would depart in around 30 minutes. We finally left the tarmac, engine trouble fixed, and arrived in Miami International Airport. Since we had hotel vouchers from PDX we wanted to use them. After being told to wait a few minutes while they contacted the hotel, a man became irate at the fact that he missed his connection. Finally security came and delt with him.
The rebooking agent told us that there were no more rooms anywhere, even with vouchers. We were given about $60 in food vouchers and told that there was some free snacks and a place to sleep in the "auditorium".
This so-called auditorium was a dark room with people sleeping everywhere, and a table with some sodas and granola bars. We decided that for our safety, we would find somewhere else. We found a cool quiet niche in a corner with an electrical outlet. My mom tried to sleep, and I watched How I Met Your Mother.
After several long hours of nothing, and many Subway pizzas later, it was time to go through security and head to our gate a bit early. Security took a while, only because of the sheer volume of people, but we still had plenty of time to spare.
The last leg of our journey was Miami to Port-Au-Prince which, traditionally in our experiences, are loud and very tight flights. However, the flight was almost half empty and we were able to move to an exit row to get more foot room. It was a quick flight, and then we arrived! Went through Immigration, and searched for our bags. (5. one was my personal items, the rest donations) None could be found. My mom talked to the baggage woman and found out they were still in MIA. So, i have no clothes, in the Caribbean. fun.
All in all a fairly decent trip! More updates soon!
You mean no one is on at 8am, a Saturday, the first day of Spring Break?
Landed in Dallas Ft. Worth. next flight boards in a few minutes.
Just landed in Miami, and we leave at around 8 am. Gonna use our free hotel vouchers for some sleep tonight! :)
So far everything has been okay, we found a quiet cool place in MIA to chill for the wee hours of the morning. Our flight so far is on time, and boarding at 6:30. Let's hope all goes well to get to Haiti on our final leg!
We are in Haiti! We made it safely, however, our luggage is delayed until tomorr
We left for PDX around 6am on Saturday morning. We arrive at the airport, check-in, and when we go to scan our boarding passes, the woman offered us 2 $500 American Airlines ticket vouchers, a hotel room for the night in Miami, and Lunch meal vouchers. (On account of the flight being overbooked and there was a group of 45French sturdents travelling to Paris) She told us that we would make all the same connections, and arrive in Haiti at the same time. We gladly accepted the generous offer and got to chill around the PDX terminal until 12:15 when our flight boarded.
We arrived in Dallas on time, and were supposed to have only 10 minutes to make our connection in the next terminal over. We rushed as fast as we could, and made it to the gate- to find that the flight time had changed to a half hour later. This was good for us, we just got a bite to eat and then got ready to board. Unfortunately there was a mechanical wire failure in the right engine that needed to be fixed. We finally boarded the scorching hot plane about 1 hour past our original flight time. After we boarded they STILL had not fixed the problem and the Captain informed us we would depart in around 30 minutes. We finally left the tarmac, engine trouble fixed, and arrived in Miami International Airport. Since we had hotel vouchers from PDX we wanted to use them. After being told to wait a few minutes while they contacted the hotel, a man became irate at the fact that he missed his connection. Finally security came and delt with him.
The rebooking agent told us that there were no more rooms anywhere, even with vouchers. We were given about $60 in food vouchers and told that there was some free snacks and a place to sleep in the "auditorium".
This so-called auditorium was a dark room with people sleeping everywhere, and a table with some sodas and granola bars. We decided that for our safety, we would find somewhere else. We found a cool quiet niche in a corner with an electrical outlet. My mom tried to sleep, and I watched How I Met Your Mother.
After several long hours of nothing, and many Subway pizzas later, it was time to go through security and head to our gate a bit early. Security took a while, only because of the sheer volume of people, but we still had plenty of time to spare.
The last leg of our journey was Miami to Port-Au-Prince which, traditionally in our experiences, are loud and very tight flights. However, the flight was almost half empty and we were able to move to an exit row to get more foot room. It was a quick flight, and then we arrived! Went through Immigration, and searched for our bags. (5. one was my personal items, the rest donations) None could be found. My mom talked to the baggage woman and found out they were still in MIA. So, i have no clothes, in the Caribbean. fun.
All in all a fairly decent trip! More updates soon!
Friday, March 16, 2012
1 week
So there is one weeks until we leave for Haiti. Making final preparations, and getting ready for my third and my mother's 4th trip to the beautiful country of Haiti! We still need plenty of support in every form! I'm so excited!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Getting Closer
So I totally forgot about this Blog! Some may know, but the Foundry was not able to make the commitment to go to Haiti at this time. However, me and my mom are still going over spring break! (we had tickets already) So we are making preparations and fundraising and all support is greatly appreciated! I will also be using this trip as my Senior Project, which I will present on March 22, which happens to be the day before we leave. We can use all support! If you feel lead, financially is great, but prayers and having us in your thoughts for My mother and I's 4th and 3rd trips (respectively) to the beautiful country of Haiti! We will both be staying at Nehemiah Vision ministries and working whatever we can do t help the teams that are there. Thanks all! Updates will hopefully keep coming around!
-Christian
-Christian
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