Tracking Ed Monroe as he travels to Haiti and other exotic(?) places

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Early Tuesday April 1

Good morning. Happy April Fool’s Day! I am reading a new book called “A New Earth” and the chapter I am on discusses ways we gain attention. So today, I will try to pass up the temptation to pull some April Fools jokes on my team mates and do just a little less teasing. The author is trying to get me to let go of my ego and to find my inner Presence. So far, I am enjoying what I have read. My thanks go to Oprah for her recommendation.
The power is back on, using our CAT generator, so I’ll go and make the coffee and come back in a moment. Due to the power fluctuations, I write this in Word and paste it to the blog when I am able to get out on the internet. Ahh, I do enjoy the Haitian bleu coffee here. I slept well after I got to sleep. I quit trying to post pictures around 8 PM and showered. There was a Scrabble game going on in the kitchen so it did not quiet down until the game was over. That gave me time to reflect on the day, say some prayers for the deceased man, for this team, for my family, and for myself. That is a good thing.
A note to Mike: Thanks for the comment on my blog. I had some fun with Renee by telling her it was from a fellow by the name of Dave and she could not figure out who Dave was until she read the comment. I appreciate also your kind words. Also this is a note to Lori Ann, our David’s friend, who was inspired by my blog to create her own blog on the Xanga site. If you want to find the web address, you will need to reach Lori Ann’s comment on my blog. Also a thank you to Victoria, Lori Ann’s daughter for helping this team have so many reading glasses to pass along to the Haitian people. My translator, Belanay, or Oh Baloney as we call to him-Thanks to Sharon D of the January team, just loves to fit people with the glasses. Yes, we have run out of shoes for everyone. We are also, as mentioned previously, out of baby bottles and formula. I alo want to say Thanks to my team mates fan clubs as the reports of my blog are brought to me almost as soon as you send them. It makes the time that I take to write this much more enjoyable when I know that people read it and appreciate it. Today we will be taking our team picture as Jeremy is leaving the team early so he can get to San Antonio and close on the new house that Loti and Jeremy have purchased there in Texas. Note to Lori: Thanks again for sharing Jeremy for this mission. You know that I love to work with the both of you and miss you two in Peoria.
I do want to comment on the weather on this mission. In spite of the rain, this is the most favorable temperatures that I have encountered on the 7 previous missions that I have been on. This past January was hot and sticky and I suspect the upcoming July mission that I will be on next will be hot and muggy as it was last year. By the way, for those new to FOTCOH, we now hold 6 missions (one every other month) to Haiti. You can find more information at www.FOTCOH.org if you are ever interested in going on a mission, have someone who would like to go on a mission, or have some extra money to donate to our mission work. We are not a religion based group and so we depend on friends, relatives, and some corporate donations for our existence. The costs to run this organization, hold our clinics, order medications and supplies, run the sponsor child program, and all of the other details runs over $500,000.00 per year. Our fund raising efforts are huge and, I am told by the board of directors, we are seriously in need of cash in order to pay a large bill for medications for the next two clinics. We purchase the bulk of our medications from MAP International (www.MAP.org). Among their duties is supplying medications to missionaries like FOTCOH at some very low prices. They too, raise money from donations and we sometimes get extra help with our shipping costs as well as our drug costs from MAP. There is a main office in Holland and we work closely with the wonderful people of MAP in Georgia. So you get to hear my soapbox speech today but I have developed a strong passion for the work that FOTCOH does here in Haiti and a special love for Dick and Barb, the founders. It sounds like every one is up and rolling along. NO reports of mosquito attacks so the coils must be working. I’ll close this and try to post.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

good morning, dad. i just wanted to take a secondto say hello again and let you know that we are thinking of you/praying for you here at the infirmary... my leg is fine and the stitches will come out next wednesday. the scar will be about five inches long on the back of my calf... i can empathize with your sleeping issues; i cannot sleep all that well right now either. I love you. Chris

Anonymous said...

Hi Ed,
I'm sort of the coordinator/fund raising organizer for the WA members of the team. I've been at Harrison Med Center in Bremerton WA for 35 years, and that's not even my first nursing job! I retired at 62 and again at 65 and they paid no attention whatsoever. I will pack it in in May though, as I refuse to turn 70and still be working.
Our CEO says they will leave me in the email system though as I am ordered to continue with everything related to Haiti. He sponsors a child as do about 40 of us. Let me know if you still need someone for the six month old. I can get a sponsor in about 30 seconds with a personalized tear jerker story like that!
We have been totally self funding so far for supplies and hope to continue that. I sent what I thought was a LOT of formula and bottles but we were "over-weight" so I bet some got diverted to Matt Hammond's duffel. He's coming to see His folks in May. He is my step daughter's husband which is how I got involved.
We have at least 3 coming in Sept also so if I have enough lead time we can send the "most needed" supplies.
My dgt-in-law is a level A pharmacy tech at the hospital and she'd love to come on one of the missions. I am over-age, over weight, and over arthritic or I would be there a couple of times a year. I'd LOVE it.
I really wanted to say how much I enjoy your blogs. I feel like I AM there in a way ! ...abd the pictures are great.
I would like to do a little booklet, probably embellished quite a bit, and wonder if it would be ok to plagiarize from your blogs in places? About half the profit at least will go to
FOTCOH of course.
Keep up the good work ! I can sense thaat you are a great blessing to the team, and every one of them has spoken of you fondly. Mary