From One Town to Another

The kind folks in Rome, Georgia put together a 40 foot container filled head high with donated items for people in the area.
Shoes, snacks, beverages, hats, a coloring book
and a Creole Gospel of John and Romans to pack
in boxesThey sent clothing, shoes, hats, toiletries, items from the Rome Braves gift shop, soup, snacks, beverages and other items for distribution. Previously, HAFF had received shipment through MFI volunteer Stan Curtis of a Creole translation of the Gospel of John and Romans and a coloring book called “Color Me Happy”.


Barb and Gabi Van Schoyck and Gabriel Mompriemer spent Tuesday, April 13th starting the process of clearing the container through customs. Unbeknownst to anyone at HAFF, the container had been on the dock at Cap Haitien for a number of weeks. Barb, Gabi and Gabriel spent a frustrating day being shuttled from government office to government office and feeling like they weren't getting very far. Colin Wilson, HAFF driver Elizert Vilbon, Elizert's assistant Fordnet Cadet and Gabriel returned to Cap Haitien Wednesday the 14th. They spent that day and a good bit of Thursday being shuttled to more offices, paying fees and getting documents typed and finally getting the contents of the container released. They came home with the Mitsubishi Canter and Elizert's full size Ford dump truck full of about half the container load. They got in to Bohoc just after dark Thursday evening and we unloaded the trucks in about an hour or so.

The guys started out Friday before daybreak to go back down to Cap Haitien for the rest of the load.
Some of the original 90 boxes packedThe rest of the American staff, Carla, Becky and Jonathan, started sorting what had already arrived and packed over 90 boxes to be distributed. Those boxes were moved to a second depot to make room for the second half of the load. The men arrived again just after dark with trucks, if anything, even more heavily laden than Thursday. The boxes were unloaded, the depot secured and thanks returned for everyone's safe arrival.
Packing boxes and the third depot -- filling up!Saturday the 17th Barb and Gabi spent some time working on the new boxes that had come in and during the week of the 19th, the rest of the staff, members of the CRC and some graduated Young Leaders continued to sort the contents of the container. The intern house had to be pressed into service as a third depot to hold all the packed boxes. By Saturday the 24th, there were another 130 boxes packed in addition to the original 90. The packing continued this week and boxes will be distributed to at least 290 families in at least 13 communities starting Saturday May first.