[ProjectKIDUpdate] Update from Jim Smith May 13, 2010
Phyllis Kalifeh
Paige and Jim Smith traveled to Haiti on Monday, May 10, 2010 to continue the work of Project K.I.D. Below is an email from Jim on the status of their work this week.
FROM JIM SMITH:
I talked yesterday with Bellinda's (our Project K.I.D. Coordinator in Haiti) brother Stanley, an architect, who decried the fact that his generation of architects had been trained without any consideration of earthquakes. I suppose that the focus on that is relatively new, so it may just be an unremarkable lag time between adoption of building standards in the US and here. The more I see of the scope of the destruction, the more I see that the process will take a very long time. .
The jump to modernity isn't trivial here. It took quite awhile to find a computer that would handle a pdf file of an English document, a working printer and working electricity all in one place at the same time. So Haiti is a place that really requires some mental recalibration -- we take for granted technical capacity that isn't a given here, and things just take longer than I'm used to.
But it had all come together by late morning, and Paige was ready for the planned 2 o'clock meeting . In another of those "meant to be" occurrences, instead of waiting until 2, we ended up at the UN offices while the customs broker worked on prying our shipment loose. (our PlayCare materials have been held up as the relaxed customs processes have now been tightened once again). But for the fortuity of Paige's being there when she was, today's deadline for renewing the February flash appeals would have come and gone, and PKID would have joined the ranks of the other Feb appeal writers whose appeals will be dropped from the list. So things stalled on one front, but PKID's hat stays in the ring for the flash appeal funding prospects.
That was barely wrapped up before 2, but because Joann was delayed, we had time to visit Medishare. Pray for them as they're going through some tough adjustments after losing their pediatric ward tent to a lightning-induced fire. The PlayCare site has been displaced in the resulting shuffle, and staff had been redeployed to Tabarre for now.
The meeting with Joann from the U.N. went very well. She had no suggested changes in our revised proposal and was impressed with the product -- but even more so with Bellinda and Waldeck who are slated for lead training roles if the UN proposal is funded. So by late in the day, PKID has two irons in the fire, not a bad consolation prize for the lost PlayCare setup days.
We got word while leaving the UN that the customs broker has arranged for both shipments to be released at 1:00 tomorrow. We're scheduled to fly out at noon so it'll be a near miss. But we're blessed to have wonderful local PKiD staff and they'll coordinate with Angels of Light on setup of the next sites or storage of the kits.
Your scribe has had time to pen (ok, nobody actually writes anything anymore, but it sounds so much better than hunt and peck) this because he was not invited to the ladies dance and exercise class at the church tonight. Thanks be to God!
Best,
Phyllis
Phyllis
Kalifeh
President / CEO
The Children's Forum, Inc.
2807 Remington Green
Circle
Tallahassee, FL 32308
Phone:
850-681-7002
Mobile: 850-322-8053
http://www.thechildrensforum.com
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