Pop in the Willie Nelson CD, because we are on the road again today! This time we’re prepping for our Sept. 8-10 soap distribution in Cap Haitien, Haiti.
We have 200,000 bars of soap packed into a 26-foot truck donated for the day by our buddies at Penske Truck Rental, and we are pointing the rig south from Orlando on our way to the Port of Miami. A big shout-out to the Penske folks, who offered to hook us up with a truck whenever we need to move product. Today’s donation is a $300 value!
No maps or GPS are needed for us to find Miami, by the way, because we navigate by GCS — the Global Cuban Sandwich system. The guys in that truck can’t wait to drop off the load and chow down on a really great Cuban before heading back to Orlando.
It’s all about the bread, you know. You’ve GOT to have the right bread for a good Cuban sandwich.
Speaking of bread — we are on a squeaky tight budget here at Clean the World, so once the guys get to the docks they will trade out the “trucker” hat for the “salesman” hat and do a little negotiating to get us the best possible rate on shipping. We have a contact at one of the Haitian shipping companies who is waiting for us, but we still need to work out a better deal once we arrive at the docks. So a little prayer and some good thoughts from y’all on that matter would be greatly appreciated.
By the way, we’re also including 250 pounds of lotion with this shipment. We didn’t realize it the first time we went to Cap Haitien, but lotion is another valuable commodity in Haiti due to the effects of the intense heat.
Once this shipment reaches Cap Haitien, it will be picked up by our Haitian brother Pastor Julio Brutus of the First Haitian Church of the Nazarene in Winter Haven, Fla. Pastor Brutus will stash the soap in a safe place until CBS News accompanies us to Cap Haitien on Sept. 8 for two days of soap and lotion distribution. This time we will return to the site of the first distribution, Tabernacle of Praise Church, as well as a hospital, the two orphanages we visited last time, and a couple of new orphanages.
After spending the last month or so on a lot of boring, behind-the-scenes business, we are excited to get the distribution machine cranked up again for another trip to Haiti.
I’ll have plenty of updates for you in the coming weeks, and then you can see it all from your living room when the story airs on “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” after we return from Cap Haitien. Keep checking back so I can let you know exactly when it runs.
