February News

some characters in our office don't do a dang thing... my desk is behind

IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

1. What these kids think: a conversation with one child

2. Alyona returns

3. I have one of 101 essays in new book: How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth

4. Russian backed candidate wins presidential election in Ukraine

5. Leah, our former volunteer writes from Haiti, it's quite interesting

6. My current volunteers: Will from England, Chris from Belfast, Ireland

7. Thank you... and a list of all those who gave in 2009

Dear Friends,

1. Each week, Alla, my psychologist, writes reports of conversations with children. The following is an entry from Dec 1, 2009. Conversation with Alyona:

Alyona

"Today I have casually seen how Alyona copies phone numbers of the organizations which dealt with problems of children. This list of phones is on a wall near an armchair of the secretary. I have asked, what for she does it, she has refused to answer. I said, that I can make the copier of this list, and we shall talk; she agreed. We talked, about why she has decided to escape from the shelter. She has said that she was ill, today and one more girl from the shelter, were at the doctor. They have bronchitis, and they should go tomorrow to the hospital. Soon, will be Alyona’s birthday, December, 6th, and she does not wish to celebrate it in hospital, therefore she has decided to escape. I have asked, if Alyona wishes to celebrate it in the street and is this more pleasant? She fell silent, and said that she got used to life on the street, and cannot live in a shelter. Again, she was silent. I asked, how long she lived in the shelter. She said it was almost a half a year. I said, that it is the big term, and the reason was because of a friend (I think she speaks here of Diana). She said that she wishes to help her brother who lives in the street. I answered, that if she remains in a shelter only then can she help her brother if he will live on the street and requires help. She said, that she is assured if any vagabond living in the street reaches for something, he can have it. I have answered, that she can reach for what she will very strongly want in a shelter; for this purpose it is not obligatory to go on street to prove something. She did not wish to talk, and asked whether from me there are still questions. She said she, will be silent. I said, that she always has a choice, and the choice always has consequences..

She is still small and to her things are complex for her to explain it. She has a difficult character; she is very obstinate, I talked with her rigidly. I hope, that she will not give in to this impulse."

Alla,

Alyona turned twelve on her birthday, December 6th and that night left for the streets with an older girl, Anya. For nearly two months there were only rumors of where she was. At the end of January, another girl, Rita, from the shelter saw her alone on the streets and invited her back. She returned.

2. Alyona's return was a wonderful surprise for me. We found Alona and Diana on the streets on June 15th; I was so proud of our team when they came to live with us. Here she is to the left at a bike rally. Things went fine through the summer and into the fall. When she left to live on the streets, we tried looking for her, two television stations ran photos and stories. But again, it was the same lesson, you can't go after them; they have to come to you.

A chance meeting with Diana after school

Her friend, Diana moved back home to live with her mother (a success for us); as long as things are healthy at home, it is by far the best situation. Here I am on the right with Diana. It was a chance meeting last week. We were on the streets looking for kids, and she had just left school to go home. Don't let the makeup fool you, she's only 13.

How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth is a book of 101 essays by some well known people like Barack Obama, George Bush, Al Gore, Tony Blair, Ted Turner, Walter Wink and Thomas Friedman, and some unknown people like myself. It is for the most part, about good people trying to do a good thing. ".... Focusing on the large problems of the world without losing sight of the little challenges people face every day, this collection of essays encourages readers to find meaning in their own lives and share it with others for the betterment of the world. Religious and secular, liberal and conservative, old and young, the luminaries who have contributed to this work offer their voices and thoughts to inspire movement toward creating a more harmonious world community."
It's available through Amazon or Barnes and Noble. I have a copy and I have been reading it; some of the most interesting essays are by people you never heard of.

Russian backed candidate wins in presidential election. Six years after the Orange Revolution ended Russia's predominant influence in Ukraine, people here are dissatisfied with the promises unkept. Viktor Yanukovych the candidate with strong connections to Russia won in Sunday's election. The results suggest, "a Yanukovych victory could restore much of Moscow's influence in a country that has labored to build bridges to the West ."

I don't know what this will mean for me as a US citizen, but I suspect I may have more Visa problems in the future. I doubt the US Navy will be invited back to park any destroyers in Odessa's port. On the other hand, this may mean more opportunity for small businesses and the majority of people who live well below the poverty line and are hoping for a better life.

Our former Volunteer Leah Nevada Page in Haiti. Before coming us in Odessa to volunteer, Leah worked with nonprofits in Portland, Oregon, and in Haiti. Because of her many connections and language skills, she was a natural to return to Haiti after the earthquake. I have the greatest admiration for this young lady who will soon take a job at the UN. She did everything here with us from spending time on the streets, to redesigning my website.

Since arriving in Port au Prince, I've been working with Sasha Kramer (of SOIL) and a small group of friends and volunteers who all know Haiti well. We've been riding moto taxis and our pick up truck into neighborhoods and speaking directly with people there to discern how immediate the need is and, if necessary, paying for a water truck to do a delivery ($50) or for people to buy food. Yesterday morning Sasha and I helped to bring an intrepid doctor (Don) and a nurse (Lynn) from West Tennessee up into a steep ravine (just below the Hotel Montana) where many of the buildings have crashed and where people are too isolated and too poor to afford transport out for medical care. We drove the SOIL pickup truck through the shallow river (more passable than the old road that used to be there) and then hiked up the side of the ravine. We announced our presence and about two seconds later the first patient arrived - a girl carried in to us on a stretcher made out of a door. Don and Lynn assessed that her leg was broken and we've moved her to the shade so that we could bring her out with us and transport her to a hospital later. Other patients that Lynn and Don treated had deep gashes and scrapes from blocks that fell in the earthquake. In addition to helping to translate as best I could (crash course in medical vocab), Don enlisted me to start giving antibiotic shots to the patients with deep infections and to help hold together a large foot wound so that he could tack it together (it was too late for stitches). I always thought I'd get nervous about blood and needles, but in the moment this all seemed reasonable.

Update on the man on the dining room table. It turns out he's an escaped prisoner. But I guess he's not going anywhere fast.

Anyway, I've had reservations about small NGO's before but all my reservations have disappeared in the past few days. The UN has been unable to quickly respond to the disaster even though they've been here for years because they have no contact with actual Haitians (a partial result of them speaking French rather than Creole and of their "security concerns" that limit them to armored compounds). SOIL, AIDG and the other small NGOs like them, have no red and green zone restricted areas and we can go everywhere. On top of that we have contact with community groups that collaborate to successfully bring in aid. When we told a couple of community leaders that we met with that we were anxious about security during distributions they laughed at us. They basically responded with "we need food and water, if you bring us that we will make sure it gets out. It's the guys in guns that block us from the food and water that cause problems". And its true. All of the distributions we have assisted with have gone very smoothly. I still hold out hope that the Red Cross and US AID and the UN and other acronym groups will start getting food and water aid to all the camps that have been set up in every square inch of open space in the city, but until they can get there it's the small NGO's that are.

Some of you have asked if your donations are going to be used right away (apparently it takes the Red Cross 45 days to receive a text message donation into their bank account) so I will tell you a funny story. The banks here are for the most part closed. The ones that opened today in Port au Prince have a limit on withdrawals and multiple-hour long lines. In order to get your donations transformed into food, water and medicine Sasha Kramer's mom has been sending them as cashier checks to Ft. Lauderdale and the owner of a small airline who flies to Cap Haitian has been cashing them and bringing them on a plane to Cap Haitian. My first day back in Haiti Sasha called me and asked me to go on a motorcycle taxi to pick up $10,000 in cash at the airport. That $10,000 was then immediately used for the relief effort.

As I go through my day I keep making mental notes of unbelievable situations that I want to share with you all but there are too many to fit here and this email is strange enough already. There have been many difficult moments, a lot of tears and a lot of desperation but I realized last night as I was falling asleep that I have no worries any more. The small things I used to fret about in the states and in europe this year are gone. I can only remember that I used to sometimes experience the feeling of worry but I can't remember the content. I'm incredibly happy: so joyful to be around close friends, so grateful that my friends are okay, and so honored to have the opportunity to take all of your good will and run around Port au Prince with it bringing water to people who need water.

Much love,
Leah

6. Two current volunteers with us are: Will King from England (left )and Chris Connelly from Belfast , Ireland (right), both are students at Cambridge University in England. Both speak Russian. Chris actually smiles all the time....

7. Again, I wish to express my gratitude to those who gave last year. Given the crisis, I thought giving would be down, but I was surprised:

Income for 2007 - $37,159 Income for 2008 - $53 , 611 Income for 2009 - $61,685

With additional funds, we will move now into seminars for children living in orphanages in the Odessa region. The goal of these programs is to address the issues of self-esteem, personal boundaries, addictions and life in community.

Below is a list of the donors for 2009; if you gave and your name is not there, PLEASE EMAIL ME!!

grace and peace,

Robert Gamble

robertgam@gmail.com

Kay Acquaro

Roger and Pat Albee

Alex Fund – Leslie Hawke

Thomas and Kathleen Allard

Alma College

Warren and Darlene Anderson

Leslie Armstrong

Eme Asztalos

Wade Balsey

MJ Blankinship

Mary Brueggemann

Jim and Tara Bryan

Calvin Presbyterian Church, Tigard, OR

Randy Calvo

Katheryn and David Cameron

Steven and Kimberly Carlson

David Carr

Luis Casaus from Spain

Central Presbyterian Church, Atlanta

Christ Pres. Women, Ormond Beach, FL

Christ Pres Church, Ormond Beach, FL

Beyond Our Borders-Christ United Methodist, Chapel Hill NC

Sienna, Italy fundraiser – Claudio Corbelli, Organizer

Tom and Susan Clayton

Richard Coates

Susan Coleman

Garry and Kathy Collier

Collierville Pres, Collierville, TN

Marjorie DeLisle

Barry Digman

James Dotson

Julie Ellison

John Evans

Madeleine Evans

Fellowship Pres, Tallahassee, FL

First Pres, Cumberland MD

First Pres Ft. Worth, TX

First Pres, Brighton, MI

First Pres, Covington, GA

First Pres, Daytona Beach, FL

First Pres Farmington, NM

First Pres, Vero Beach, FL

John and Ann Fitch

Matt Fortune

Jim and Eleanor Frye

Bea Gamble

Nancy Gard

Allen Gibbs

Alfred and Martia Glass

Grace Covenant Pres, Asheville, NC

Dick and Bunnie Graham

Jim and Charlotte Hogan

David Hopper

Lee and Sylvia Jenkins

Wendy Kahn

Steve and Nancy Knight

Krista Koch

Terry and Lynn LaRue

Lynda Lasseter

Elizabeth Lockhart

Susan McDole

Michael Mears

Paul and Judy Miller

Ann Mische

Becky Montgomery

Lynn Morris

Newnan Pres Church, Newnan, GA

Northwest Pres Church, Atlanta, GA

Rindy Nyberg

Tommy O'Pray

Orenco Pres Church, Hillsboro, OR

Ormond Beach Pres, Ormond Beach, FL

Gabriella Oroszi

Jim and Ginny Phillips

Pres Church of the Lakes, Orlando, FL

Mary Ann Richardson

Sheri Robbins

Rockfish Pres Church, Nellysford, VA

Deb Schlageter

Tom and Margie Schlageter

Max Schober

John Shelton

Judy Smith

Paul Smith

Bob and Phoebe Smith

Terry Smith

Lyudmila Sorokina

Speedwell Pres, Reidsville, NC

Ron and Diane Spence

St. Charles Avenue Pres Church, New Orleans, LA

Karen Sutton

Mary Lou and Bruce Swinburne

John Tarrant

Deryl and Lenore Torbert

William and Theodosia Wade

Patsy White

Jim Willits

Leah Wyckoff