Iowans, Canadians, and Networks ... Oh My

"Your from Canada? You can sing that Canada song for us then." That was the comment from one of the members of the mission team from Iowa. In response the Canadian team looked dumbfounded all pondering the same question, "the Canada song?". I suggested that perhaps what was meant was "Oh Canada", the Canadian national anthem. From there several comments followed including, "We only sing that at hockey games" and "Only if you sing that American song first".

All aside, there was lots of cross border jousting happening in Caïman; all in good fun. Including my gaff about the national symbol of Canada being the "oak" leaf. Followed by verbal stumbling, "I mean the maple leaf, or whatever". The Canadians didn't let me forget that for the rest of my time in Caïman. Each gave as good as they got and much laughter was had.

There were three groups at United Christians International (UCI) while I was there: a group of six from Iowa (with which I hitched a ride earlier from Port-au-Prince to Caïman), about 10 from Sardis British Columbia, and myself (a team of one).

The group form Iowa were doing Vacation Bible Schools at several locations, distributing food packages, distributing Bibles, and even purchased three goats which will be distributed to families with need (with a commitment that the first offspring be donated back for another family).

The group from Canada were doing construction, getting a well running, participating in youth groups, providing dental care to the university students, and distributing sports equipment and tools.

And there was me. I was still not quite sure why I was there, but welcomed and included by both the team from Iowa and Canada in extraordinary fashion. Both groups showed me the true spirit of Christ in action and prayer; for that I am extremely grateful.

Because I needed to head to bed early on the day I left Haiti, as I had to leave very early the next morning (think dark-thirty), I was not able to properly say goodbye to everyone from the Iowa and Canada teams. For that I apologize. If you are from one of those teams and you are reading this please take this as a grateful goodbye, thanks, and God bless your work and your travel. A special thanks to Zoli and Rod for the conversations and prayers.

Before I left Haiti I did find some practical work. The university at UCI has a computer lab which looked pretty much like it had been moth balled; mostly because, I think, it has no internet access. There are a group of people working to change this, so I was able to provide some on site recognizance.

The lab has about 30 to 40 desktop computers, some with ethernet cards, some with WIFI, an 8 port ethernet switch, a box for a WIFI access point (no actual device), a UPS (still in the box), and 200 AMPs worth of circuit breakers.  Using the UPS I was able to determine the the power to the university was 81 to 97 volts at about 57.4 Hz. You can see the lab in 360 degree here.

The university is meant to be getting a new internet connection from NatCOM. It looks like NatCOM has almost completed the cabling to the university. But, it seems to be terminated in the dirt and no one knows if or where it enters the building or if it is actually connected to any equipment. NatCOM was supposed to complete this installation the week before I arrived at UCI; this roughly translates in Haitian time to maybe some time the following week, or the week after, or the week after that.

I have to admit if felt good to have something practical to do. I don't believe this was the sole purpose God had me at UCI, but it was a small way to contribute.