Exploratory Work

Rona returned from his first two-week exploratory trip to Haiti. He had found his family members and visited with them both in Cap Haitian and Port au Prince. They are all doing fine and are waiting to see how the government will remedy their housing situation. Finding food is still a difficulty and most people spend many hours waiting in lines for coupons and for groceries.




Rona's objective on these trips into Haiti is to make contacts to see about the viability of starting a group in one of the cities. He handed out many copies of "The Promise" in Creole and in French. When he goes back on future trips, he will see if he is able to locate these people again (besides his family). The people in Port au Prince may be relocated by the government into smaller and more manageable "tent cities" so finding them again may be difficult. Cell phone service is still unreliable and electricity is also frequently out.


In other news, we made a trip down to Santo Domingo this past week to renew some of our legal papers. To be legal, we need to maintain an ID card and also a residence card. The residence card is a must for entering or leaving the country. The ID card is usually needed for banking or credit card transactions. The whole process, including the two hour trip (one way) to the capital, took eight hours and cost about $100 each. This is really quite smooth in comparison to other countries where we have lived and we were thankful there were no complications. These cards are valid for another two years.