Recent Trip Summary

Below I've posted a trip summary by Dennis Bradt. Soon to come is another one by Larry Aden.

Mombin Trip -Dennis’ Summary I was able to develop a closer relationship with the Delauriers family which give me an even stronger conviction that God is certainly working through not only Fred but the entire family in developing the free school and orphanage for disadvantaged children. The entire family is on board and participates in the success of the mission. Had discussions with Fred and several of the family members on the mission as a whole including; the vision for the near and long term future; immediate needs to maintain the mission; most important needs to improve and expand the mission; sustainability projects; marketing; protocol in reaching out to others for assistance; etc. Since the mission has no financial reserve to operate , it depends on ongoing assistance. The only regular source of income is a quarterly contribution of $900.00 that comes from the Tampa, Fl based organization Village Partners International which is associated with Dennis’ church. Those funds are designated to provide food for the orphans and students. Even this is not enough for that purpose. Therefore, Fred constantly struggles to raise operating funds. Therefore, the most important immediate need is funds to continue the operation of the school and orphanage. Other needs include: A roof on the church where the school is currently being conducted. A dorm for the orphans. Fred had to place the orphaned girls in temporary homes due to govt. regulations that require girls and boys to be housed in separate facilities. A permanent school facility to accommodate all primary grades. Projects like the chicken farm for sustainability of the school and orphanage. All of these things are important for the success of the mission but we can not do everything at once. Thanks to Larry’s expertise and finding suitable property to house the chicken houses, I feel the chicken project is a good place to start. According to Larry, the simple structures should not be costly to build. If funding is made available, the chicken farm could be built and the school and orphanage benefit from the food and income in a very short period of time.

Starting on this project first does not mean we have to put the others on hold. If a group would like to work on getting a roof on the church, that is fine. That would provide the school with a much better teaching facility. It would also result in a very impressive completed church that, with the talents of the Delauriers family, should attract considerably more people to attend. Fred feels that the cost of completing the church would be in the neighborhood of $15,000.00 which would include a roof, concrete floor and some final touches. The church can not be a permanent facility for the school because it is considered a sacred facility that should be devoted to ministry. Fred and I worked on answering many question regarding the mission that would be helpful going forward in providing information about the mission, including its needs, and various means to support, maintenance and means to grow the mission. We will make it available after we have had time to review everything we wrote down, add anything we forgot and make changes where called for.

I am especially anxious to move forward in providing dormitory accommodations for the orphans to alleviate the overcrowding in the home place and meet legal requirements of having separate facilities for boys and girls. The Delauriers home houses 15 or more people in approximately 500 sq ft. Fred had to find temporary guardians for the orphaned girls because the Delauriers home does not meet the separate facility requirement. I gave Fred a simple design for two 13’X30’ structures separated by a breezeway with one common roof. If this would meet the legal requirements, I would like Fred to have plans drawn for that or similar facility and obtain a cost for constructing it. Each building would contain two 12’X12’ bedrooms and bathroom. Each of the 4 bedrooms should accommodate 4 bunkbeds. Pamela visited the local public primary school to examine the facilities with the idea of trying to integrate children in Fred’s school into the public school system when the students are ready. We were disappointed to find that the public school had much less to offer than Fred’s free school. The classroom size for each grade level was from 60 to 80 children. Most of the children do not have books. The school has no electricity and no clean water source on campus. Water for drinking and washing hands has to be carried in with buckets. And, as we witnessed, water is not always available, especially in the dry season. Teacher and student aids are almost non existent.

Thanks to the generosity of Fred’s father, Phidolin, Fred’s school and orphanage are located in his home, church and property. He has also offered the use of another piece of property for part of the chicken farm. While there, Larry determined that the initial hen facility could be located on the Delauriers someplace property. The henhouse would be about 15’X35’. Another piece of that home place property could accommodate the initial broiler chicken house. Larry can be more exact on those figures. Larry, Fred and I visited the Mombin hospital and spoke to one of the doctors there regarding providing transportation to Pignon for patients that could not be treated at the Mombin hospital. The hospital was recently given a relatively new ambulance. The hospital also owns two trucks but they are currently inoperative. The donors of the ambulance restricts its use of the ambulance solely within and around Mombin Crochu. At this time, the hospital has no provisions for transporting patients to other facilities for specialized care. Other than the hospital vehicles ,there are only two other four wheel vehicles in Mombin. One is owned by the Catholic priest and the other by Fred’s ministry. The Catholic priest has declined to use his vehicle to transport needy patients, therefore Fred has been providing that transportation to people who desperately need care that is not available in Mombin. It is not uncommon for Fred to make three trips to Pignon in a week. This is, of course, taking a toll on Fred’s car. We discussed the possibility of purchasing a three wheel motorcycle vehicle that contains a cargo bed that could be modified to accommodate patients for transport. The cost would be in the neighborhood of $2,500. Village Partners International of Tampa supports the hospital and I am going to suggest they look into purchasing such a vehicle for the hospital. I am also going to ask them to talk with the donors of the ambulance to see if they would allow transportation of patients to Pignon or other facilities that could provide the expertise and care not available at the Mombin hospital. All in all, I believe the trip was very successful and gave us a better idea of how to proceed going forward. I really enjoyed spending time and talking with Larry. He is a wealth of information and very handy in many respects. With funding, he could spend about a month there and accomplish great things. Thank you Larry for all of your help including digging the car out of the mud bog so we could get to Mombin

Larry perhaps related to you that we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies on the way to Mombin Crochu. We had six people in the car, luggage strapped to the roof. PVC pipe strapped to the luggage side bar and a roll of chicken wire packed with 40 full grown chickens tied on tope with the ends hanging out over the sides of the car. You couldn’t hang hour arms out the window for fear of getting pooped on by the chickens. Needless to say, the cary was a mess caked with mud, along with chicken poop and broken egg on its sides.