Haiti conclusion

After being back from Haiti for 4 days now, we've had more time to process some of the information that we gathered  and thoughts concerning our future.  Soon after arriving there,we realized that our decision concerning working in Haiti was not going to be one that we could make during our initial short visit. We also agreed after just two days there, that it would not work for us to live in the USA (as had been suggested) and travel back and forth.  If we work there, it needs to be a permanent move. It seems for now that our decision is not 'Yes' or 'No', but to wait a bit longer.  The country is not near ready for the rebuilding to start at all.  There are too many unknowns and major logistics that need to be worked out first.  Our hearts have been moved with compassion towards the Haitian people and their desolation. We really would like to help and yet we realize that the commitment will not be an easy one.  It would be a very hard place to live.  We like it that we have some more time to pray and wait on God concerning this decision. 
Spending time with Esperandieu, our national director there was so encouraging for us.  He is an amazing Haitian leader in his own country and greatly respected.  He has a huge heart and vision for reaching the needy people.  The community of Chambrun is already being used in remarkable ways to meet needs. A few more photos of our time there last week.....

The school for children at Chumbron is meeting under tents until permanent buildings are built.

I cannot forget the looks of despair on some of the women's faces.

I'm hoping this picture can help you see how brittle and powder-like the bricks are that have been used for buildings in Haiti.  Some of them literally felt and looked almost like powder. Building codes and standards are so lacking.

Again, I think you can see the quality of construction and cement materials here.

Decisions are hard for them to make concerning, "should we live in our home, or sleep in a tent?" 

And yet the Haitians seem to be such resilient people.  They are tough and  have been through so much that nothing seems to knock them down.  Singing and dancing in the streets continues on. This guy (with his 'thumbs up') and others were so happy for me to take a photo of them. After our visit, we can definitely confirm that the country of Haiti  needs our prayers and support and help in countless ways.

So what did we do all day?

Our Haitian National Director, Esperandieu Pierre, has been spending much of his time building into a community outside of Port-au-Prince called Chambrun. He has a heart for the people there and is working with several groups to develop a church, hospital, school, orphanage, kitchen, and dorms.

Summer of 2010, our U.S. campus ministry will be sending students on summer projects to Haiti to help expand our ministry there. Mike was part of the crew working on the housing for these students. They will live in tents during their time in Haiti. But before you feel too sorry for them, you need to know that the tents are suppose to have small window air conditioners in them. The challenge for these guys was that the tents were donated with no instructions. It took them awhile to figure out how to assemble one unit that can now be copied seven more times.

This picture was taken the first day as they began assembling. You need to know that the heat was typical tropical scorching sun in the 100’s with high humidity- which made for some pretty tough working conditions.

Here is the relieved crew on our last day after they finished the model tent- (minus the AC units) just in time to head to the airport. A team (that is still there, longer term) will finish the set up of the remaining seven tents now that they got the first one figured out.

As for me, I got the amazing opportunity to help in the medical clinics. I loved it! I always thought it’d be fun to be a doctor or nurse or pharmacist and I got to experience all three. What a better way to meet the mothers, children, and needs of that community. Photos will best share my experience at the clinics.

This is what the med team arrives to each day. The patients come early in the morning and are waiting outside the clinic for them to arrive.

After some triage from our local translators, they were moved into another waiting area inside. This is one of my favorite photos from our time there because of the way it captures the weariness and emotional state of the people in the expressions on these women’s faces.

One more waiting area here before seeing the doctor.

Nurse Emily and Dr. Bob seeing patients at the same time in the same room to keep the line moving.

Thankfully most of the cases were mild, but this little girl was pretty sick with an extended tummy and her mama had her hands full with three little ones. What a joy it was for me to work with Dr. Bob, a cardiac surgeon who has a heart of compassion and servant hood and had given up a week from his practice to help these needy people.

This little girl had already had a surgery for hydrocephalus but was not doing well. They may try to get her to the USA for another surgery.

The patients then received meds from our makeshift but well equipped pharmacy. Emily, the nurse trained us as volunteers (Sharon, Brodie, and myself) how to best help her in getting the meds out.

Abigail translated all the instructions to the patients in Creole to be sure they understood.

Thank you to our wonderful Christian translators who were there for us each day. We could never have done it without their help.

We also went to one of the tent cities to set up a one day clinic. Dr. Bob and Nurse Emily had to sit under a real hot tarp to see patients here.

Waiting in line with hope to get to see a doctor.

Here we turned the back of our truck into the pharmacy. We discovered first hand that making the most of whatever you have works great with a little flexibility.



Waiting in line for their vitamins and meds.

My last day, we took a walk in the neighborhood where we stayed and found this little girl who was sick. She along with most of the small children were treated for worms as symptoms and the sanitation standards indicated that was probably one of their problems. The children were so precious and beautiful and fun-loving and each of them is loved by their parents just as we love our own. Oh how we would love to give them just a bit more to make their lives easier.

Tent Cities

After the earthquake shook up Haiti, besides the massive deaths of more than 200,000, there are also 1 million people left without homes. The majority of them that are living in temporary shelter are in very small tents. We saw the communities for these IDP’s (Internally Displaced Persons) all over the city.

This is one that we passed each day on our way to the Chambron community.

Some of them would go on forever it seemed, with nothing but rows and rows of tents.

I just can’t imagine my family and  home being that close to neighbors on every side day in and day out.  It has been 3½ months now and we saw no sign of the country being ready for rebuilding efforts yet.

Some of the homes were not even tents but just any used materials that they could find to put together in some sort of structure as walls.

Driving around the city we noticed tents or boxes were put on the roofs of  buildings that had partially collapsed, because they did not want to move to a new area.

Other places, their tent/home would be right next to a road with busy traffic.

There are little pockets of tents all throughout the city, but at least 20 different IDP camps have more than 5000 people living in them.

Walking around a tent city one day, these guys invited us into their tent.  It was one of the nicer ones as most of them just had gravel floors and basically nothing inside.  After looking over the hills and rows of tents lined up for the masses, the inside decor was a clear reminder to me that inside of each and everyone  of these tents is a unique group of individuals living together who have lost all they ever had.  In a country that was already so desperately poor, this has made them even more despairing and yet we consistently saw big smiles and a very resilient culture and people with life moving on day by day. They have no money or resources of their own, so have no choice but to stay in thier tents until someone comes to build them a home of their own.  At this time there is no talk or hope of rebuilding in their minds yet.

Haiti

I can’t believe it’s already our last day here in Haiti. The time has felt too short. There’s so much to take in and so much more information to gather. At this point statistics and photos are much easier to share than our feelings.

On Jan 12, 2010 at 4:55pm a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit the Port-au-Prince capitol city area and although the statistics are not consistent, our National Director believes that 300,000 lives were lost in just 35 seconds.

Piles of rubble and cement are along the roadside throughout the main downtown area still.

Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere and 2nd poorest in the world.

Unemployment is somewhere between 60% to 90%.

People are living in buildings that look like they could collapse at any time.

The two biggest exports from Haiti are coffee and mangoes (2 of my loves) and mangoes are still being sold all along the roadside in the midst of the rubble. (small sidenote)

We saw no evidence of rebuilding starting at all. 

 Even the Presidential Palace still looks as it did the day of after the earthquake.

One fact remains....God loves the Haitian people as much as every other country in the world.

First Impressions

Bye- Bye USA  (Miami shoreline)

Baggage Claim at Port au Prince airport

Trip from airport to our national directors home