The day we nearly went to Haiti

Sunset in Aruba

Wow, what a week this has been.
After all the challenges around getting the bookselling permission for Aruba, I had hoped for a quieter week. But the ships director had to go to Germany for Executive Leadership meetings and I was left in charge. Whenever I am asked to be "acting director" I always say I have no problem acting as long as I don't have to do any real work.
Well this week was different.
On Tuesday night, we got the first reports of the earthquake in Haiti and I immediately began to think what our response should be. We are only a few hundred miles away and will be sailing almost right past Haiti on our way to Jamaica next week. Should we go? How can we help. I sent off a quick email to Gian, the director, in Germany so he could begin thinking about it when he woke up a few hours later.
On Wednesday the ships Executive leadership in Germany discussed the issue and decided it wasn't the right time for us to go. So that was that.
Thursday morning I was in a meeting when I received a phone call from Henry, the Director of OM Caribbean. He was asking for our help to deliver emergency supplies of food and water to 2 orphanages in Haiti that they support. The orphanages were on their last supplies and desperately needed help.
So for the rest of Thursday I was involved in a frantic round of phone calls, emails and meetings as we tried to find out if it was possible for us to go. We discovered that we couldn't fit into any of the small ports around the island and that there were no charts for us even to approach and

anchor. On a number of occasions we went back and forth between no we definitely can't go, and then ok maybe we can.
I spoke to the Director of the Red Cross here in Aruba, we contacted the government, we contacted the Dutch marine base about possible security detachment.
I was in touch with our head office in Germany where the ships Executive were meeting to get their input and views.We had several guests onboard with connections to the US military and US coastguard and the Canadian coastguard. Henry was also frantically trying everything he could do to make contact with people in Haiti who could help.
We pushed every door to try and find a way to offload supplies from the ship without going into a harbour.
By the end of Thursday night, I still didn't know if we could go but we were still trying.

On Friday, we had to make a decision before lunch time if we were going to have any chance of getting an appeal out to raise the supplies we would need before we sailed on Sunday night. Early on we heard that a US Army officer had promised us a helicopter from the American aircraft carrier that had just arrived. We frantically tried to get confirmation of this.
I called a meeting of our onboard leadership team, hoping to get a green light to move ahead and make the appeal. I was surprised when one by one they raised concerns and then voted against

going. In the end I was the only one who was prepared to take the risk of going without everything in place, but I had to accept their decision.

Shortly afterwards we heard from 2 different sources that we would have to register with the US Centre of International Disaster Intelligence and get a slot to offload our aid. We were told there was no way we could get a space in the coming days.
At the time this proved to be a confirmation that it was the right decision not to go.
However, now I still think we should have taken the risk and that we would have found a way to get that aid ashore at a small port outside of Port-au-Prince.
I guess we will never know.I had kept the ships company informed along the way of the decision making process and on Friday after lunch I told them that we would not go. I think all accepted it well.

We still want to help and I hope that we can send teams from Jamaica to Haiti once things have settled a bit there and they have removed all the bodies and got the aid flowing. Will keep you informed.

Iguana's sun themselves on the rocks near the ship

Aruba has been a great port and we have loved being here but it is certainly one I will never forget. It was great to have 2 lads from our church - Phil and Euan arrive to join the ship for 10 weeks as part of our Short Term Exposure Programme.

We sail at midnight for what we think may be a bumpy voyage to Montego Bay Jamiaca. My parents come out in a weeks time for 3 weeks so we are all looking forward to that.

my day in court in Aruba

For weeks we have been concerned about coming to Aruba and not being able to sell books.
The government here had publicly said that the Logos Hope was not allowed to sell books because some local booksellers had complained that we were not following the law.
I flew over to Aruba from Curacao before Christmas to try and meet up with some of the booksellers and try to win them over, but it was not a successful visit.
We arrived in the island on Wednesday and met up with the local pastors to discuss what to do. The government minister who said we couldn't sell books - the Minister for Economic Affairs, was actually the guest of honour at our official opening. It was rather bizarre that she officially opened the book fair but then no one could buy the books.
On Friday, a lawyer retained by the local pastors made a petition to the courts to have the decision overturned. So at 4pm on Friday, myself, the ships Director and the Captain were all in court along with 4 local pastors to see the case presented before a panel of judges.
Thankfully, the judges agreed that we should be allowed to sell books under the responsibility of a local pastor. So within 5 mins of the court case ending we had called the ship and begun selling books. It was strange coming out of the court and facing several TV cameras and reporters who wanted to know the story.
Today we are on the front page of all the newspapers so the ban on the ship has really helped generate a lot of publicity.

Tonight we have 2 lads from our church arriving to join the short term programme onboard for 9 weeks. It is exciting to have them coming onboard and I know it will be a great experience for them.