(update Thursday, January 28 - 10.35 p.m.)
Lot's of news. Team 2 arrived safely and unloaded all of their medical and other supplies, including $800 worth of food, water, gasoline, etc. from the DR stop. Our clinic and health and wellbeing center has been in desperate need of food for the past few days. 

Jim Doucette, On Ground Coordinator, called tonight and said, "This team is so gung-ho. We all feel good and are ready to go." I might mention he called on his AT&T cell phone, the cost of which is being covered by his boss, Mike McKnight at the Yankee Courier in East Windsor, CT. No small thing! Thank you Mike. Jim also said, "Thanks Gia, Gus, & Coulette for making the arrangements. Everything went like clockwork." Jim also said he was incredibly impressed at how well organized the clinic is. Everything is set out on tables.


When they arrived the clinic was closed. That said, 10-12 people showed up, including a boy who needed stitches. Dr. Patty Jorquera went to work and cared for the child. And, that's just the way it is at our clinic in Carrefour.


I had asked Jim before he left to see what he could learn about the 180 children who had been enrolled at the School. This evening he said we know 23 of the 180 are alive. Tomorrow, our team and our Haitian friends will try to find our 10 teachers with the goal being for them to fan out into the community to learn about the rest our children. We want them and their families to return to the School for medical care and health and wellbeing care. As an on-going service to the community, we continue to serve whoever comes in need of medical care or food the best we can.

Jim and his team are putting together a "ticket" system whereby each week the families of our children get a ticket for a week's worth of food. As a parallel, they will also get a clothing ticket so they can come for other things once a month.


Gus and I worked long and hard to hatch a plan to ship supplies through the bus company independent of being accompanied by a team. The idea is to get our bags to Santa Domingo on JetBlue, have them picked up at the airport by a reliable contact person, put on the bus to PaP, delivered to the US Embassy staging area, and then transported to Carrefour by Luc Louisgene. The bus shipping costs are actually pretty reasonable. Plus, we would pre-arrange for the bus to stop at the DR market to pick up an additional load of food, water, and other supplies. We'll see how it works.


Volunteer Coordinator, Coulette Lioce, has redesigned our volunteer contact form. This is important because we need to know who has what skills, when each volunteer is available, citizenship and more. If you would like to volunteer, please contact her at pockets1020@gmail.com. We are also working to have a much better list of what to take and a brief on what to expect as a volunteer.


I hope you heard about Minouche Gilles from Stamford who traveled with Team 1 to Haiti. Congressman Jim Hines arranged for her to accompany us because she needed to pick up the 3 year old girl she was in the process of adopting. Minouche had hired a nanny to care for the child outside the orphanage but when the earthquake struck, she disappeared. Minouche found little Angela with others from her family sleeping on the streets. Now, Minouche and her new daughter are safely back in Connecticut.  


OK, I'm tired. More tomorrow. Blessing & Peace to all who are making this effort such a success and especially to our dear Haitian families who are in such need right now.