District 7020 Blog

Spanish Town Board.
The trip to Jamaica was very good and uneventful. Air Jamaica, Nassau Montego Bay. Changed planes and onto Kingston. The airport was not crowded and we were though and into the care of ADG Kenneth Wilson in no time. We had a quite 1st night with ADG Kenneth, ADG Clarence and a few others that included a couple of Red Stripe.

St. Andrew Board

The next day began with a board meeting at 8:00 Am with St. Andrew and another at 10:00 AM with Spanish Town. A lunch break and then a 2 hour meeting with the board of Kingston East and Port Royal.

We, I am not sure how it happened but I edited the picture of the Kingston East & Port Royal Board and have stored it somewhere that even Bill gates won't be able to figure out. I apologise President Stannard. This club is struggling with membership and has done a very courageous thing. They did a satisfaction survey of the club membership and found a number of things that were the cause. they subsequently have made the necessary changes to improve the club and address the concern areas and are looking for a net growth this year of + 5. Great Job!

We had a joint Assembly last night which included the Rotary Clubs of, Spanish Town, St. Andrew, new Kingston and Liguanea Plains. It was a well attended and fun event. The Jamaican fellowship and sense of humor was very obvious.

Carla on the Family of Rotary and the Cookbook . She received a number of recipes one the spot and has also been given some advertising commitments. Please keep in mind we need the advertising commitments, approximately $250.00 per club to fund the cookbook so the recipes can be free and the project can raise the projected $15,000 for the Foundation, and $15,000 for the District Conference.

Speaking passionately about Membership

In our District of the 67 clubs, 41 have had a decrease in membership over the last 4 years. It is imperative that every member make an effort to find a new quality Rotarian. The goals from the clubs this year indicate that we will be successful in stopping the decline. Great job to all. See the example of Michael Terrelonge who sponsored in his first of 2

Sponsor Pin for Michael Terrelonge

Hotel Lobby Signage

President of Liguanea Plains receiving last years Presidential Citation

PP Spanish Town receiving Presidential Citation

PP St. Andrew receiving Presidential Citation

Spanish Town New Member sponsored by President Michael Terrelonge

Errol Morrison PHF Award

The Clubs we met with so far are generally focused on youth, Ethics education and health issues. many great projects. Some of the clubs are working with their Twinning Clubs on some projects and finding great success and support.

The clubs thanking me with a certificate and Carla was given some AMAZING Jamaican Cookbooks. If we ever get home we will have fun with that.

Have a great day all. Hopefully will be able to add todays activities to the Blog tomorrow.

View from the Montana Hotel overlooking Port Au Prince

Delmas Airport
Petion-ville
Mirebalais
Port Au Prince

Tuesday 4th, we met with the 4 boards from the above clubs today. Approximately 1 ½ Hours per club with a short lunch break. It was very interesting to hear of the projects in the Port Au Prince area. Literacy, Youth, Health and Environment seem to top the list.

You may note that we got the room until tomorrow as well. We are using the internet!

I was totally shocked to learn that in just the 4 clubs there are 26 Matching Grants involved. Approximately ½ of them are with just token involvement of the local clubs. No previous involvement in surveying the community needs, and no designated local Rotarian Committee or membership responsible for the project. This has to stop to protect our District and our access to matching Grants in the future. Under the Matching Grant Criteria there is the following:

For Matching Grants $5,000 to $25,000, partner Rotary Clubs and Districts are required to:
· Maintain Communication and dialogue for the life of the project
· Establish a committee of at least three Rotarians
· Jointly asses community needs, plan the project, and provide a paragraph outlying participation
· Visit the project site on an as needed basis. The International partner may participate by sharing information via correspondence or by visiting the project site.

In the short term we have asked ALL clubs to ensure that all interested parties looking to participate in the matching Grant program within Haiti, pass the Grant Application through the Haiti Task Force for consultation.

We had a great dinner event with the Petion-ville club this evening and were once again treated royally.

Wednesday 5th we leave for Cap Hatien at 8:00 AM. 6:00 AM pick up at the hotel. We are being met there by ADG Caleb Lucien where we have the following itinerary:
Airport in Cap Haitien at 8:30 A.M., staying at the Hotel Mont Joli that night. The meetings will take place there.
11 A.M. Meeting with the President of Cap Haitien club for 2 hours, because he had not attended PETS.

2 PM Board Meeting with Cap Haitien club

5 PM Club Assembly

Thursday 6th Cap Hatien to Pignon. We will be traveling by car leaving at 8 A.M.. The trip was supposed to take approximately 3 hours. It is a 29.8 Mile drive and it took us 4 ½ hours not counting the 1 hour we were stuck to the running boards in the mud.
Arrival Pignon at 1:30 PM. We had an amazing lunch at Caleb’s and met Debbie his wife and two daughters Karisa and Lydia. They also had two American missionaries, Lindsey and Cara.
2:30 PM- Board Meeting with Pignon club at guys Hospital

4 PM-Club Assembly with Pignon Club held at the Guys Hospital again. We spent the night at Guys Hospital Dormitory. It was wonderful!

Friday 7th Pignon to Hinche. We had a tour of Guy’s Hospital and the services. Amazing teleconference and video operating room etc. No wonder the people from Cap Haitien, Hinche and surrounding areas come to this private hospital.

We then toured the Mango Farm and saw the Goat program and then drove the 16.6 miles to Hinche, which took 2 + hours. Guy and two members of the Pignon club are traveling with us in their car.

Amazing little Hotel, L’Ermatige de Pandiassou. Nobody there including staff but finally found somebody to rustle up some lunch. Plain sandwichs each on thin bread and water and a tough coffee for those that braved it. Then waited for the scheduled Board Meeting with the Hinche Club. It was scheduled for 2:30 PM and started after 3:00 PM. In the mean time we met with a DGN from the states about matching grants. He was interested in grants with Hinche and Jeremie. As it turned out the DGN did not meet with any Rotarian from either club. They intend to do the project with an NGO and use the name of a local club to leverage the funds in the TRF. We cut short because the Assy was scheduled for 4:00 PM. They left to get ready and said they would be running late so they would call us when we should head over.

At about 5:30 we headed that way and under way called to see if they were ready. They said no and we drove around town in the dark and pouring rain for the next 1.5 hours until we could get them to let us arrive. It started at 7:00 PM and was fun and interesting and ended with a meal.

Saturday 8th Hinche via PAP and then to Jeremy. We will leave Hinche at 9 A.M. by plane. We'll land in Port au Prince by 9:30 A.M. Together with Caleb, we will catch the flight to Jeremie at 10:30 A.M. We'll meet Robert in Jeremie for his planned meetings.

We flew from Hinche to PAP by a MAF Charter. Missionary Aviation Fellowship. Great flight from a grass strip with people, goats, cows, pigs horses and markets on either side. The plane did a fly over coming in and the strip cleared. Two guys with vests go into the middle of the runway and keep a lookout. They weigh your bags and people and have a weight capacity. Carla wasn’t too impressed to have to get on a scale, and vowed never to eat again.

Once in Port Au Prince, we dropped a bag of gifts and laundry to Nessim and checked into Caribintair for the flight to Jeremie. The plane was an hour late leaving, but the flight was nice and we were welcomed graciously by ADG Robert Leget and his wife Rosa along with approximately 10 other club members from Jeremie, Les Cayes and Aquin. The president and secretary of the Jacmel club were on our flight as well.

On the trip into town and the hotel we stopped at a public shower project and a Rotary House project (13) that they have done. Great ideas. From there we went and checked into the hotel. Very quaint, no power, no AC and no services of any kind. We showered and went of to the board meetings.

We met with the boards at a joint meeting. We covered the basics and then had a lively discussion about matching Grants and projects. We are being taken down the garden path on matching grants!

After the board meetings we returned to the hotel for 1.5 hours where we changed and suffered through the heat of no AC and no power. The converter provides some light and a fan but the fan is over the bed which is covered by a mosquito net so very little, if any, air get through.
The Assembly dinner was great. It was set outdoors at Rotarian Royneld Bordeaux’s home. He is the founding President of the Jeremie club. Beautiful setting in the garden. Unfortunately, early into the event it started to rain so we all moved inside, carried tables and chairs, and went on with the program. Nice and cozy but quite hot. We inducted 4 new members, gave the Jacmel club its Presidential Citation from last year and gave out the Sponsor Pins.

After some lively entertainment we came back to the hotel. The road up to it is all but impassable and steep, but we made it, only to find the front gates to the hotel locked. Robert tried to open the lock but to no avail. After about 15 minutes of honking and flashing lights we woke someone up and got in. We then found that the converter batteries were dead so we had no power of any sort.

Sunday we left on a charter from Jeremie to Les Cayes with the Les Cayes and Aquin members. The airline had called and asked that we make it an hour earlier, however they still arrived at the scheduled time of 10:00 a.m.

The clubs had a banner and a beautiful bouquet of flowers for us at the airport. Robert and Rosa’s son met us and then left for work. We then toured Espoa Boys’ Camp that the Les Cayes club is involved with. Amazing project. We checked into the Cayness Hotel. Again no power, but there was water so we showered and met Caleb for lunch, then dressed to go to the Aquin meeting where they would receive their charter. As usual, everything was fantastic. We inducted two new members and gave their sponsors their pins. The roads to Aquin are very good. We then returned to Robert and Rosa’s home for a social with Caleb, Yves Martial, who had flown in for the Charter, and a few members of the Les Cayes club. Rosa’s orchids and garden are fabulous.

Monday 10th we left Les Cayes to Port de Paix through PAP. Yves was on another airline and got diverted through Jeremie so he was late getting to PAP. We were on a 10:30 flight which was cancelled and were then scheduled on the 11:55. We went to the Vista Hotel to have coffee and some email. The Vista is where the Delmas Airport Club meets. We met with Herve, a very well spoken committed Rotarian who has been involved in numerous Matching Grant programs. He was also the Haitian ambassador to Canada at one point.

We flew from PAP over St. Marc and Gonaives into Port De Paix. Gravel landing strip by the sea with winds. It was an interesting approach and landing.

We were met with flowers and a welcome committee of Rotarians and a band. Very welcoming event. From there we went to Yves home for Lunch where his wife had made quite a spread. There were many more people there than space at the table but everybody found a corner to sit in and enjoyed a great meal and wonderful fellowship.

After lunch we went to the hotel to check in and change. The usual, no power but we did out best. Water also an issue as you can see from Carla’s shower challenges.
We were supposed to meet the Mayor at 4:00 pm. They changed that to 4:30 because we were running late. Yves picked us up at 4:45. Had a nice meeting with the Mayor who offered us the keys to the city. From there we went to the Board meeting and waited for about half an hour for some of the board to show. We ended up starting without them.

A torrential rain started during the meeting and we had to move due to roof leaks. We were also able to see first hand what happens with the mountain run off in the rain due to the unplanned deforestation and clearing. We had to change locations in the restaurant a couple of times due to leaks and flooding, but we did finish the meeting. In the tough sections the Pastor was the interpreter. There was a movie theatre in the building so we were able to show the Conference DVD on the big screen.

In the same building a few floors down we had the dinner. It was very nice and attended by about 15 plus a Rotaract and Interact.

Tuesday 11th We were scheduled to fly from Port de Paix at 7:00 a.m., but due to the rain and mud from the night before, the plane did not arrive. We were picked up around 7:15 by the PdeP president to go to there airport. On the way we got a flat tire so Yves had to be called to come and get us. We arrived at the airport and then waited. No one would tell us when the flight was due to arrive. Yves’ wife brought us a wonderful breakfast which we ate in the restaurant of the airport. Still waiting!! At about 9:45 the plane finally arrived and at 10:00 we were on our way to PAP where we would rent a car and drive to St. Michele. Caleb was there waiting and had the car ready. We got underway about 11:15 for our 5 hour drive.

We stopped in St. Marc to pick up the PP, Jude, and then continued our drive. The road so far hasn’t been that bad and we made the trip in just less than 2 hours. Then the excitement started. We learned that the reason our flight had been delayed was that there had been a plane crash. A Caribintair flight from CAP to PAP had crashed; thank goodness no one was hurt. Then we had a close call with a motor cycle that turned into us as we were overtaking him. We were in a four wheel skid, sideways down the highway. Not our idea of a Sunday drive.

We passed thru Gonieve and saw the devastation the flooding had caused. They are building a new bridge that is about 20 feet off the plain that will allow access to the city when the planes flood. The goats and donkeys think it’s a great place to stay in the shade.
Gonieve no longer has a Rotary club, however we were trying to make contact with the “acting” president of the the “club”, however he refused to see us. We continued our trip to St. Michel, which is about another 2 hours.

The roads get continuously worse. We are now on roads like the ones from CAP to Pignon. We cross the same river 10 times. At the 10th crossing, the St. Michel Club is there to meet us with banners etc. We follow them in a convoy up the hill to the mayor’s house where we are staying. Just as we go to turn into that road we witness an accident. Two Rotarians rushing to meet us loose control of their car and hit a tree head on. Everyone rushes to help the two unconscious men. They are moved into the back of a pick up and taken to the nursing station. It is then decided that they need to be moved to Pignon to Guy and our 4 wheel drive is loaded with the most serious of the two and heads off over the terrible roads for the 3 hour drive. Our vehicle made it there and back but the other got stuck and did not return until, the evening of the following day.

I’m glad to report that both men are doing well. One was released two days later and the 2nd was still at the hospital when we left PAP.

Due to the trauma, it was decided to tone down the reception. We showered and changed, had a bite to eat and then headed off to the reception, where we were met by a band, club members and community members. About ½ of the club had accompanied the injured men to Pignon. It wasn’t too late a night and we had a great night’s sleep with the sounds of the animals in the back ground. We were awakened around 4:30 when the donkeys decided it was time for breakfast.

The board meeting was held under a mango tree. What a great setting. Then breakfast and back into our car/make shift ambulance for our drive to Varettes and St. Marc.
Wednesday 12th, St. Michel to Varettes. Back over the river 10 times and a stop at Varettes at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital for lunch and a board meeting. Very impressive hospital, however they are scaling down their involvement due to funding.

Wednesday 12th, Varettes to St. Marc. We went directly to the hotel “Moulin Sur Mer”, which at one time must have been a real jewel. Beautiful beach, museum, animals, mini golf etc. It is used for weekend retreats and get a ways. We showered and then met the board by the beach for the board meeting, which had to end early due to mosquitoes. We then drove into town, about 35 minutes, for the club meeting. Again, banners and treated like royalty. Back to the hotel by 10 to be awakened at 11:15 by three men, one armed, looking for a woman who stole a car! Carla didn’t do it!! Dark nobody else at the hotel and armed people knocking at your door in the middle of the night is a great stress test for the heart.