Author: bryan@bmeyers.net (Page 46 of 101)

Hi everyone,

School has started here in the US and starts September 3 in Haiti, or it’s planned on that date. The latest political unrest has calmed down and they have installed a new prime minister. After the price increase in fuels and the protests that followed, the person who was the prime minister resigned since he was also the person who was behind the increase.

I have included a couple of pictures of the work we are doing on Beaubrun’s school. If you remember, it was all tin and we have started building block walls, with the front first. Believe it or not, the blocks are much cooler, even though they still hold heat. It kind of depends on the direction of the sun; in the morning the east wall will be hot and the west side cool and as the sun moves, so does the heat.

But, the kids and teachers are happy it is being done and they feel it will attract more kids to the school. They are always looking for ways to make it grow.

We certainly appreciate all those who give for the schools in different ways. Our teacher from St. Charles, MO, has given loads of school supplies again this year and different places send them as well. The same person and her husband have also given to buy water purifiers for the villages. The kind we are buying are small, producing 40 gallons a day, but if we have 3 or 4 in each village, that is a lot of good drinking water.

As always, thank you for prayers for Terry and for all you do for our friends in Haiti.

Hi everyone,

It hasn’t made the news here much, but you may know Haiti is having problems again — this time because the government was trying to raise petroleum prices. Briefly, the price of gas went up by 38 percent, diesel 47 percent and kerosene 51 percent.

There are few things Haiti doesn’t need to import, which causes the price of those things to be much higher than we pay here. Major among those are petroleum products, from regular unleaded to diesel and kerosene. Many houses, especially in the villages, still use kerosene lamps. One of the largest local “industries” is tap-taps, Haiti’s form of public transportation. Raising gas prices causes one of two problems for everyone. One, the drivers can’t afford to buy it, or they pass that cost on to the riders. Two, no one can afford to pay for the ride, so generally everything just shuts down.

There are few peaceful demonstrations in Haiti and this wasn’t either. In fact, the country completely shut down for a couple of days. Obviously, that helps no one but it did get the government to remove the increases. But now, no one wants their kids going anywhere alone. So most of the schools in the villages haven’t been able to have their end of year classes, and our schools have not been able to give out their end of year report cards yet.

We had wanted to plan a trip down in August, but the State Department has a level 3 travel advisory, which means don’t go unless absolutely necessary – so we’ll wait!

Thank you for helping our friends in Haiti and keeping Terry’s health needs in your prayers.