Many readers of The Awkward Pose became followers during my period of working in Haiti.  It has been months since I wrote about Haiti, so here is some news:

1. Mission of Hope school is up and running. They have completed their grant requirements to A Heart for Children, the group that gave them the majority of the funds for the school.  This is good news because, having successfully completed one major grant, we are all set to apply for – and receive – more.  MoHI wants to finish the next phase of the school and community space, and buy property next door for a trade school and soccer field.  I am itching to get down there and build those 54-foot long trusses.

2. Be Like Brit is up and running.  The orphanage is now the center of a much larger operation.  Regular volunteer groups from the U.S stay there and participate in service projects throughout Grand Goave. I’m working on renovating a warehouse in Worcester for their Operations Center.  BLB has four stateside employees and processes thousands of donated goods.

3. My special buddy, Dieunison, turned twelve in May.  He’s almost twice as tall as when I met him four years ago, lives with his older brother Dieurie, and they are both progressing through Mission of Hope’s school.  Despite the distance and language barriers, whenever we Skype Dieunison cracks me up.

4. I’ve started working on an OR/ED pavilion for Saint Boniface Hospital in Fond des Blancs. St. Boniface serves the entire southern peninsula; children from MoHI and BLB go there for major medical needs. This beneficial healthcare resource needs a pair of current standard operating rooms and a suitable place to accept and treat trauma victims.  We’ve made an application to USAID for funding. If all goes well, we might be able to start construction this fall.

5. I don’t have an trips planned to Haiti at present, but will be spending time this fall and winter promoting my book, Architecture by Moonlight, which will be available on or before October 31, 2014.  More about that as publication comes near.

It seems I can never quite get away from Haiti.

Which is good, since I would never want to.