5Crawfords

This Sunday, September 4th, I fly out on my next project trip to Freetown, Sierra Leone! I described the project in my previous post so if you want to learn more about it, see below under 'Late Summer Update...". The 'Africa Mercy' - Mercy Ships' floating hospital that has been docked in Freetown, S.L. since January 2011. We'll be staying on the ship and heading into town each day to assess the three hospitals (pictured below). ...It goes without saying that our accommodations for this trip will be "slightly" more comfortable than on most other EMI trips. As always, please pray for Alisha and the boys who are left behind. In many ways, the sacrifice they make during these trips far exceeds anything I have to endure. The craziness of our Summer has now given way to the even crazier-ness of the Fall! School and soccer are both back in full swing so free time is at a premium and just getting through the day is an achievement. With me gon...

Summer Haiti Project Interns Brett and Stacy did a great job of finishing the project report in a very shortened semester. It was completed, bound and sent off to CEDAN by the end of July! The report will make it's way to Haiti in the coming weeks as a CEDAN team heads back to the site. Fall Project My fall project trip is to Sierra Leone to work with a well established ministry called Mercy Ships. Up until last week, it was looking like it would be postponed until early November. However, in the 11th hour, I found an electrical engineer to round out the team so we are back on schedule for departing September 4th thru 16th. We have a smaller team of 8 due to limitations on accommodations since we'll be staying on the Africa Mercy, Mercy Ships' primary floating hospital ship. Mercy Ships docks their ship all over Africa for months at a time, providing medical care for the local people with the help of volunteers doctors and nurses. They also provide training for the ...

The main highway that bordered our site - the line of buildings at middle left is the CEDAN compound. So lush and green and full of potential. (the rest of the pictures in this post are below, after the text) Saturday June 11th The only word I think I need to describe today is HOT. It was a clear blue sky all day for the first time and we suffered for it! The humidity is still alive and well though maybe a tad less, but the sun made it very hot. Nonetheless, we took a ride into the nearest town of Limbe, which is about 15 minutes up the road. We all piled into the back of the pickup truck again, which actually felt nice since it was at least moving air! The town seemed a lot like a typical African town, with lots of motorcycle taxis and a big market selling everything under the sun. We walked all around the town, visiting a local church, hospital, and lots of smaller little streets. It really was a good look at a typical Haitian town. One significant happening this morning was that the...

Part picture, part rendering looking into the site with the model of the new building shown. Wednesday June 8th Another good night of sleep in the tent makes it official – I’m glad I bothered to pack the tent even though we were limited on baggage allowances. The water tank was overflowing when we woke up, so apparently they just let the pump run all night. What a difference a day makes – feast or famine! Mid-morning, the contractors Kiki and Don returned to pick us up as promised yesterday. Structural Volunteer Brent and Architect Jim joined me as we piled onto motorcycles (I can’t help but call them bodas) to head out to their site. We drove up the road, which climbs a good sized mountain just a half-mile up the road from the site. The house they are building is on the other side of the mountain about 10 minutes from our site. It was fun to see more of Haiti, and doing so did nothing to discourage my opinion that it is virtually indistinguishable from Uganda (other than the roadside...

From the air, Haiti is a lush Island in the Carribean Sea, some of the most beautiful water in the world. The small agricultural crops mixed in with the dense bush in the low lying areas are a hint of the potential of this once tropical paradise... On the ground, sadly, it's a much different story. This is the view our team was greeted with as we drove through the Cap Haitien harbor on our way out of town to the CEDAN site. Part I of III Sunday June 5th The interns and one of our volunteers who lives in Colorado Springs showed up at our house at 7am to leave for the airport. For the first time, Alisha and the boys drove me to the airport since Alisha’s mom was flying in later that afternoon. It was nice seeing them for a little longer this time. After dropping me off, they parked and then came in just in time to give me another hug and kiss goodbye before I headed into the security line. They watched from above as I got selected for the ‘special screening’, and then as me and the o...