Goodbye USA, hello Haiti

it's midnight in Haiti; what am I doing up?

considering it's 1am in Santo Domingo and I have to go with the outbound team at 330am I had to finish packing.
  the rains eased up, the contractor couldn't change his flight, I bought a cheap ticket (i'm liking American Airlines more and more, I gotta say) and arrive 30 minutes after my friend does., which is 20 minutes after the pastor does.  Which is great b/c we don't have a car.  We will be met by another friend and we'll all taxi back, somehow.  (the taxis are really pickup trucks aka "TapTaps")
  it's gonna be a wild couple of days, building, planning, meeting, and praying for the thunderstorms to miss us on Saturday and Sunday.  The first tropical storm passed Haiti by, but 2 more are coming west from Puerto Rico - please pray they pass on by too.  (I don't want them to hit the U.S., but... it's better than the million+ in tents getting smacked around again).

If you want to donate towards construction for locals, the youth we're working with, or other projects, please head to:
http://www.iyiglobal.org/donateonline.html
and denote "Haiti" or "Haiti Boys" or "Haiti homes" or "Haiti construction" and we'll get 'er done.  Hopefully by Tuesday we'll have the large structure mostly retrofitted, the dorms for the boys begun, and discussions further along for location/quantity of homes in the nearby community (or where).

Blessings & thanks,
David

to reach me:

in Haiti: 01-509-3895-3360

in the DR: 1-829-366-4130

in the US: 1-626-592-0389

going to Haiti on Thursday or Friday!

Hello friends,
  so on Thursday or Friday I'm going to head to Haiti to work with a partner and continue developing the site: we'll be fortifying the main structure for leadership development, beginning work on dorms for the boys, and talking to the community about where/how to put in homes as part of development there.  I will probably be running around (well, sweating around, even if I'm not running :-) and (re)establishing contacts for work, development, business & more.  Hopefully we'll be able to complete a lot of stuff.
   Then I'll be back in the Dominican for another week working with UNEV on the leadership development program as part of a great team, going to their Haiti/Dominican relations conference that Thursday, and possibly joining them for the Haiti end of the conference (the first part will be in Santo Domingo). 
  Again, crazy busy whirlwind, but awesome!

More to follow soon!  But if you're thinking about giving, I'll have the formal docs up soon!  If you don't wanna wait (or want to give monthly) goto
http://www.iyiglobal.org/donateonline.html
  and type in "Haiti" for where the funds go.  If you want to be more specific you can put:
"Haiti homes"
"Haiti boys" or
"Haiti leadership"
(and p.s. giving via check or bank account saves on the 2.5% credit card charge)

and then Mosaic is coming in on Aug 12th with a team!

busy meeting, planning & doing - please be praying amazing things happen!!!

much love to y'all!!!
~David

beginning in the Dominican...

So, as part of the journey I have a stop in the DR for most of the next 3 weeks before I am permanently in Haiti from August 11 onward.  IYI has a base in Santo Domingo for lots and lot of their work.  So far I've helped out with a baseball clinic, gone to youth prison facilities, set up an outreach event in the middle of the streets in a rougher part of town where IYI has a youth center, and more.
   Yes, I even drove.  I would say the rules are about as crazy as Indonesia.  Which means it's crazy, only I'm driving on the American side of the road here.  :-)
   I'm rounding out details for everything I'll be doing in Haiti.  I'm sorry it's been a slow process - these things do take time to make sure the plan is done 95% right the first time.  If I put stuff out that's only 75% correct and things change, well... that makes for more problems down the line.  Thanks for your patience on this.

Much love from a high heat & humidity location,
David

My next beginning

Dear friends,
   here is the beginning of the next part of my life.  I'm about to go work in Haiti and build homes, develop youth, help foster leadership development, hopefully play a lot of soccer, and so much more.
  I'll send updates via facebook, email, text & this blog, including pictures, video & stories.  Ideally i'll have others tell the stories and just share them here.  Don't worry, I'll translate from the Creole (or, for a little while, have someone translate for me  ;-)
  Thanks for being a part of my life, and let's be a part of the change for the future of Haiti - education, homes, business, ethics, belief, and, most importantly, love: their neighbors as themselves, and, hopefully, for me anyways, that they know God loves them and brings them through the darkest of disasters into a beautiful light.

you can email me at:
sandler@alumni.usc.edu

and phone me until Wednesday night @
(626) 592-0389

~David