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.
1.28.2010
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While standing in a hot shower today...
trying to relax my mind, I had the thought that I wish I could give one hot shower to every Haitian as a gift. I pictured their elation to just stand there and have the luxury to wash away all the grit and grime that I know covers them. The more I thought about it the more it brought despair knowing that 99.9% of Haitians have never stood under a hot steaming shower - PRE-earthquake let alone now.
Most have never even had the experience of standing under a little trickle or weak stream of cold water, or maybe slightly warmed by the sun. Those would be the lucky ones who had a big refillable water tank on their roof. A cold bucket bath is the norm. Just another minor daily occurrence that we take for granted. It's hard to understand all of this exists an hour and half from Miami!
January 28; Haiti Update
Today is Jim and my 21st wedding Anniversary. Marie always teased me and told me she was going to steal Jim from me....well, her wish came true. I can't think of another person I would like him to be with on our day of celebration. Unless of course it would be ME with Marie and him at home.
We just exchanged, "I love you" on the phone as he called while standing on the roof of the school for the best satellite phone connection. Plus, he has a bird's eye view as he described the scene. There are about 30 Haitian men with sludge hammers working away on demolition duty of the church/orphanage. He was excited to see some of the things that they are salvaging from the church and orphanage. While it didn't look that way to begin with, he thinks if you had been sitting down in the church when the earthquake hit you would have gotten a pretty bad headache - but that's about it. The roof of the church stopped just short of that. They were able to get out some of the pews.
He said that they have taken long pieces of rebar and bent one end into a 90 degree angle and hooked it inside of a section of brick and then they all pull on the rebar and sections come tumbling down. Jim just kept saying, "This is unbelievable!"
He brought masks with him and work gloves -- and while they almost gave away the masks, they see now what they were needed for. The men are all in masks and so excited to have a pair of work gloves. One group working with sludge hammers breaking up sections that have come down, while others prepare for the next section.
The VERY BEST thing about the call, for ME - was that I could hear the men singing down below through the phone as they worked. Tears form as I write this. I am not surprised in the least. You have NO idea, unless you meet one, of what Haitians are like. These men will be SO thrilled to be paid a miniscule amount for their horrific labor today. This means their family will be able to eat. I am sure they are all celebrating the hope of rebuilding and returning to some form of "normality". Jim said over and over, "We really have something to learn from the people of Haiti."
Jim had to hang up to go back to Marie's to get more gloves, but says he will call later.
One of us will share more later, but in the mean time. Pray for the men's safety and I say --- "Let the rebuilding begin!!"
ALL of you reading this are a part of this journey. Without you, progress would not be made. May you celebrate knowing your contribution and prayers are being utilized and answered in a mighty way. "ROCK ON"....a very sick pun. Patty
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