Arrived at Hospital in Cap Hatien

Unfortunately I have not been able to get onto the internet yet, so I have not been able to add to my blog - hopefully this will bring you up to date (via Mrs C!).

The flight to The Dominican Republic left about half a hour late but was good. We (Morgan and I) flew into Puerto Plata on the North Coast of the island and then had to find out whether we were being picked up. Unfortunately there was no one available to meet us, so we had to try and arrange a bus trip to Santiago, which was the place where we needed to pick up the next bus from. By the time we tried to arrange the tickets everything had started to close!

Eventually we managed to get on the bus leaving at 7pm out time, and when we got to the other end, we had to find a hotel to stay for the night. Unfortunately, the border between The Dominican Republic and Haiti closes at 4pm every day, and even with the situation as it is, it closes. I am sure this has made it harder for suplies to come in by land.

We had to wait for midday the next day until our bus left for Cap Hatien. It was a good trip, and included lunch, which was Haitian chicken salad and rice. It was very tasty! I have taken lots of pictures as we have travelled, and was taking one of the border post when an ambulance screamed by with its siren going. This doesn't sound very unusual, but in Haiti, there are very few ambulances. I realised that this was our hospital's hospital and was obviously in a hurry to get to a patient. It was sad, but good to know that the ambulance was being put to good use. Becky, my daughter, will be able to tell Bishop Justus C of E School that the ambulance they helped to buy is making a real difference out here.

I eventually made it to the hospital with Morgan, a friend of Carwyn who was on the front of your News Shoppers last week in Bromley. He runs the charity work over here. I let the family know I had got there (about 9 pm your time) but once I had settled in, I had to do some painting! The hospital building that I had been helping to build in November had to open its doors before it was ready to provide safety and shelter to those around. Although the hospital is in the north of the island, it is near enough to have felt the earthquakes, but its buildings on the whole were not affected. It was good to see people being made well, but I was helping to paint another ward so that it could be opened up this week. Hopefully, the operating theatre will be opened for the first time tomorrow; this will increase the amount of help they can give.

Today I have been travelling round. It was very chaotic earlier when the one of the local churches brought two bus loads of people up to us for help. We will try and give them everything we can, as many of them have lost everything they owned, as well as family members. The country was very poor to start with, and so some of these people literally have nothing. It is very hard for us to understand, but it has made me very grateful for what I do have.

It is very busy here. One of my jobs is to try and keep Carwyn going, as his wife has come home to the UK for a few weeks. I am trying to take as many photographs and film as much as possible so that I can show what is actually happening; that way the charity can best decide how to use the money that is being donated to best help the people. I will also be trying to talk to people from the different organisations over here to get them to understand the need for supplies to go to the north of Haiti and not just the south where the earthquake hit. You may have seen on the news over there that people are moving out of Port au Prince to be safer; some are already beginning to come nearer to us. If we can get the aid to come here, we can help distribute it.

I could be going to Port au Prince tomorrow, to help distribute aid. I am sure that will be very sad, but everything that we can do helps. We are looking forward to receiving the crate full of your lovely donations. Thank you to everyone who has given anything that helps us make the people's lives here better.

Hopefully will be able to do this myself next time,

Chris