Haiti 2011

Mellier, Haiti September 2011 Kearney First United Methodist Mission Team

Carrying water from the well at the church is a daily task for the women and children.

Rubble, rubble everwhere!

After the work, there's always a game of soccer!  No rest for the weary.

Spreading the love! ♥

Mokattam Clinic ~ So much need!

The Mission team worked out of the Mokattam Clinic. Limited resources. limited help! The clinic serves the poorest area of Cairo ("Garbage City") by offering medical and dental care, medicine, eye glasses, education, attention, and hope.

The mothers there want the same things for their children that we want for ours. There is always a shortage of medicine. 

In the background is the steel door (light shining through). Throughout the day, we could hear children banging to get in. Only so many were allowed in at a time. It had to be that way in order to keep some type of control.  They love the clinic but not enough resources; not enough help.

Each day, the crowds grew larger. The word that the clinic was open was spreading. "Please let me in!"  "Please see my child!"

Mokattam, Egypt ~This is their life

T

The Children of Garbage City

Beautifying and Loving in Garbage City, Egypt

There was not room for the mothers to come in the shampoo room, but, they all wanted to see their children get their hair styled. They also wanted to make sure that their child was seen. They fight for their children just as we do.

Karen, owner of a salon in Missouri. She has worked with the clinic for 17 years! This is how she spends her "vacation." I would estimate that 95 percent of the children who came to have their heads cleaned had head lice. Often, we could see the lice on a head from across the room. Some of the children's ears were nibbled from lice. We also saw ringworm and scabies. 

Because the sinks are so high, we lifted many of the children like Karen is doing in the picture. The water was COLD. But the children did not complain. They were so thankful. Many have their heads cleaned once every six months (when "the team" from the states shows up).

Karen taught Debbie a lot about treating heads, with love and for lice.  The lice will be right back but the relief even for a few day and most importantly, the human touch and God's love was what it was all about.  As far as styling ... she faked it

Lisa is a nurse at Children's Mercy hospital in Missouir.  She worked mostly in the Clinic Pharmacy , but, she helped in hair care when she had time. She's a Jill of all trades. The little girls picked out clips for their hair. That was a highlight of their visit to the clinic.

She picked out that big white headband.  She loved it!

After their heads were cleaned, they were able to spend a short amount of time in a room where they could color and get lollipops and balloons. The little things were so important to them.

Heidi ... hanging laundry. The dryer was broken, so we dragged towels and capes up to the roof to dry. Can't say the air was that fresh, but the sun was bright. It didn't take too long for the towels to dry. LOTS of steps.

  

The waiting was never too long for these children. They sat with their little blue cards. Those were their "tickets." With a ticket, they knew they would be seen. The water was cold, the floor was always wet and slick, the towels were old and stiff. When the electricity went out, they sat quietly and calmly. All they wanted was their hair washed and a few hair clips. The experience is overwhelming.

...there is so much we take for granted.

Garbage City ~ Mokattam, Egypt ~ March 2010

Mokattam, It's a hilly suburb of Cairo called Garbage City. The Zabbaleen, a community of mainly Coptic Christians, live there. Since the '50s, they have been making a living by collecting, sorting and disposing of Cairo's waste.  There are 40,000 - 50,000 people that live in this city right here in this garbage dump!

Cairo's garbage is collected and then dumped here.  Residents of the dump then sort it for resale.  Children often play in the street since that is the cleared area and hang out on bags of garbage.

Appalachian Mission Trip ~ June 2009

Work Day 1:

Our assignment is to tear out and replace sheetrock in a kitchen for a couple in Eagan, TN. Their names are Clarence and Vicki.

 Also, next door is a trailer where we are finishing the skirt and adding a roof over a porch.We put in quite a bit of work this afternoon, 

completely tearing out the old paneling and 

putting in new insulation.

 Tomorrow we will be able to begin putting up new

 sheetrock. Clarence and Vicki are wonderful people and fun to get to know. They are giving us a true sense of why we are here. 
The skirt on the trailer is nearly finished, and the roof is coming along as well. Still plenty of work to do, however.

Work Day 2:  We continued our work on the kitchen and trailer today. We put some sheetrock up on the walls and did some mudding. The porch roof is mostly completed needing only a hand rail and the trailer skirt is nearly done as well. 

In other news, we had a large storm roll through tonight around dinner time. It had produced a tornado warning in the neighboring county, and here on the settlement a tree was knocked over. That caused a downed power line and a blackout he

re for several hours. Hopefully there was no damage to the homes that we are working on.  We are very worried for our new friends

.

Saturday. Heading home. Not sure what day number-wise this is! 

Anyway, on Wednesday there was another severe storm that caused major flash flooding and damage to trees and property. 

We, fortunately, were able to miss the brunt of the storm by being in a restaurant in Cumberland Gap, TN.

 But as a result of this storm, our internet was not working the rest of the week, so no more updates until today. We were able to complete our projects to the best of our ability. 

The porch looked lovely with its new roof and some new hanging flower pots. 

The skirt around the trailer got finished, complete with a "gate" for some under-trailer

 storage. And the kitchen got some holes patched in the floor, new sheet rock,

 a new sink cabinet, and a special loving touch by Penni, some hand-painted flowers and vines on the walls.  We installed a toilet at the Settlement and also, painted the inside of a barn for their new project, A Farmer's Market.  They have a greenhouse full of lovely flowers and also gardens.  

The Henderson Settlement is a great service to the poor in Southeast Kentucky and Northern Tennessee. There are workcamps all summer (all year, really) and they are constantly helping those in the area who cannot help themselves.
This morning we said goodbye to our friends from Nixa, MO and our adopted team member, Kate, from Ohio. It was a wonderful trip and all a mission trip should be.
Thanks to you all for your prayers and thoughts.