Jim and Shawn--Destruction Crew at Orphanage

Spent my 21st wedding anniversary in Haiti without Patty. I know she wants to be here too. Shawn and I spent the entire day at the collapsed church and orphanage. The second story of the church was the orphanage and although severely damaged and non livable it was still standing on top of the collapsed church. In discussing rebuilding it was decided that the old buildings had to come down and the rubble hauled away before anything new could be constructed. Shawn and I knew that it would require heavy equipment to demolish the remaining structure and bull dozers to take it away, and whatever heavy equipment exists in Haiti (which is not much) is being used elsewhere. We were mistaken and must have forgotten we were in Haiti. The Haitians are used to working with their hands. Nineteen neighborhood men arrived at 7AM with hammers in hand. They built rebar hooks and began to pull the concrete block walls down. The chunks of the walls hit the ground with a thunder and shook the school building I was standing on. Then they proceed to take their hammers up onto the roof and begin pounding the concrete and bit by bit it began to come down. They took down about 1/3 of the roof which is about 50 by 100 feet of 8 inch thick concrete and rebar intertwined. They will use the rebar in the construction of any new structure. Amazing people. The best part of this was that when they all got up on the roof they stood and sang praise to God—how cool—19 men singing praise to God in Creole, it was a familiar hymn but I don’t recall the tune right now. It was a great way to start the day.


One of the saddest parts of the day was seeing the crosses come down. They stood high above the neighborhood as a sign that this land had been claimed for Christ! Marie asked for them to be saved and the men would have it no other way. They carefully hammered around the base and broke the rebar and lowered the crosses to the ground with a tow rope. It was similar to stripping the sanctuary on Good Friday—at least that is how my heart felt. I sent Patty pictures and she will try to get them posted somewhere so you can see them. Shawn and I will make a wooden cross and mount it on top of the gate tomorrow to make sure the cross stands high in the neighborhood.

I was wondering how they would get all the rubble out of there and Marie said she has been asked by several of the women in the neighborhood if they could be employed taking the rubble out. They will work all day for a few dollars US and haul all of it away…probably dumping it into the streets.

We asked about the laborers who were swing the hammers as to how much they may make—I would say that somewhere between 3 and 10 dollars US for the day depending on how big you hammer was and how well you used it. They worked hard from 7 to 4 in the heat of day on top of an unstable building, breaking concrete with hammers for what we spend on morning coffee or a quick drive through. They are amazing people and I am glad to know them and become friends with many of them even though I don’t speak their language.

Shawn and I will attempt to arrive there tomorrow and pray with the workers before they begin. Please pray for their safety as well. Many of them are working in sandals, tennis shoes, crocks, and none of them have safety glasses.

I will continue to keep you posted of the events of the day if the internet connection continued to work.