Container

 Nathalie doing some wishful thinking

A 40 foot container arrived last evening just after 9:00 PM.  We waited until early this morning to unload it.  There were two Honda motorcycles and thousands of pairs of shoes.  After months of stupid bureaucracy in Haiti's customs and $3,000 in fees, we were jubilant to finally unload that box.

The first

The first empty 20' container in one of the small boats arriving from the ship.  Now, how to lift it up onto a truck?

Containers into warehouse

Here are a couple of more photos of the work our welders and assistants are doing to transform two containers into a large warehouse space. The guys are working feverishly so that the work is done before the ship arrives. Parts of the container wall are cut out and then used as external walls. Very cool!

FINALLY !!

The truck hauling the long-awaited container from New Jersey arrived yesterday.

This is what we saw when the doors opened.

It took a lot of muscle to unload the hundreds of boxes, wood, tools...

Just a few of the boxes

Over sixty cots for the younger and smaller children.  The fact that they stack is great; that they are wash and dry is fantastic!

We are very grateful for our Rotary friends in Ridgewood, NJ and surrounding communities for this huge effort.  May God bless your generosity!

Container from Massachusetts Arrives

Wouldn't you know that the container from MA that we have been waiting on for many, many months finally arrived after dark last evening. We had to unload it first thing this morning and then get ready for church. It had tons of wonderful tools for our carpenters, some stuff for our well digging rig, a wheelchair, sewing machines... Thanks very much to the kind folks of the commonwealth.

Unloading

This is the only photo I took this afternoon of the guys unloading the container. It was filled with plywood, treated lumber, bunk beds and accessories for the well-digging rig. My camera battery decided to take a rest right after this photo. Above from left: Mackenson, Enold, Rousseau, Fritznel and Ilsonge.

Prep work

Here's Berthony directing the work this morning right after we got word that the container from New Jersey would arrive within the hour. We emptied out a forty foot container that we use for storage and consolidated its contents with another so there would be room for the new stuff.

All hands on deck !

This is one of those times when we are very glad to have an abundance of young people. Emptying a container in two and a half hours is hard work. "Ampil min, chay pa lou" is a Haitian saying which means many hands make for light work. We saw great tools, clothing for all categories of people, school desks, lamps, examination tables, chairs, toys, bicycles and lots of lumber. Our thanks to the wonderful folks of New Jersey, especially the Ridgewood AM Rotary Club, who found all this stuff, stored it and sent it to us. You are our special friends. God bless you.

Transfer

Most of the wood was transferred immediately to the carpenters' workshop to avoid having to move it later. The old military truck comes in real handy at times like this. That's Michelet in the foreground.