Daylight after a long night -- Wed. March 3

A new day has come after a very dark and long night. As we were preparing to land at the airport in Haiti I could see tent cities and the army tents from the sky and my excitement grew. The logistics at the airport were very different, but peaceful with servicemen all around. We met up with Marie and got to ride in her “new” pickup truck. I found the streets to look basically the same. The ‘’old Haiti” already looked so distressed, that I didn’t see much change. Once we reached Marie’s neighborhood I began to see the damage in her area. Small tent cities were in place (30-50) and security walls down. When we reached the orphanage I could already see that the outside security wall had been replaced. When I walked through the gate and saw the mound of rubble that used to be the church and orphanage I just broke into tears. I thought I was prepared through pictures Jim had provided, but I wasn’t. I was overwhelmed with the scattering of all the contents that was housed in these buildings. Everything was jammed into school classrooms or strewn on the ground. A shoe here, doll there, piece of clothing, etc. It was MUCH more than I could stand to look at. It was TOTALLY overwhelming. Marie and I stood and cried and she was so discouraged, which gave me strength. I assured her one day we would remember this moment as we saw a new orphanage and church standing tall. She said she hoped she would live to see it. I was greeted with huge smiles from the girls and I cried thru that, too! (Surprise, surprise!) Once the darkness came, it seemed to affect me even more.
While some things felt the same, it was totally different. I felt displaced, just as the girls are by being here. To watch them lay out their thin blankets/sheets onto the cement under the stars and just lie down in their dirty clothes, I thought my heart would break. Marie sounded so drained and discouraged and I had a hard time assuring her all will be fine when I could see it will take SO long to return to whatever normal will be.
Under our mosquito nets we all tried to sleep. I have a lump in my throat as I type this as I can’t believe this is “life in Haiti”. The roosters had their normal performance from about 1:00 a.m. until we got up at 6:00 a.m. Joan and Jeneane are coloring with the younger girls right now which give them something to do. The 6-7 older girls are shelling beans. Everyone has their job. A couple of the six year olds were mopping the cement this morning after a 10 year old finished sweeping. My mission today is to keep the girls busy so Marie has a break and to encourage her. She already put on the new dress and shoes I brought her and feels special! I am sure after today, it will start feeling “normal” to me, too! To say that Haitians are “survivors”, would be putting it mildly. A huge reminder of all the things that stressed me out before I came, I am humbled and ashamed. Time to embrace the day --- I’ve certainly waited long enough to get here!

Tuesday March 2, 2010--The three amigas arrive safely

Jim spoke with Patty tonight and they have arrived safely at Marie’s house in Haiti. Patty is very sad, however. She is seeing the current living conditions of the girls—sleeping on the ground outside, and the mess and disarray of the masses of salvaged items from the church and orphanage scattered everywhere and anywhere there is room. Haiti always appears somewhat chaotic to us Americans but this is new level of chaos. The three women from Naperville, Patty, Joan, and Jeneane are all tired and will going to bed without any blog update. I totally understand. There will be plenty of opportunity to write about all they see and do. I only hope that they are able to see some light in the darkness of this tragedy. I’m sure they will. As the Newsboys put it:

‘Cause all the powers of darkness
Can’t drown out a single word
When all God’s children sing out
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
All God’s people singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns

The Haitian’s are singing just that! He reigns!!!

Monday March 1st – preparing for departure

Well – my bags are packed (almost) and I’m ready to get to Haiti. It’s amazing how quickly one can pack 300 pounds. I’m traveling with two friends, Jeneane and Joan, and talked both of them out their allotted bags. It’s so exciting to take much of what others have collected: cards for the girls which were made by students at two different schools, hand bags sewn by students at a middle school, gifts an 11 year old received for the girls instead of for herself at her birthday party and a menagerie of collected clothes and food. Mama Santa is hitting the sky for Haiti.

My burning desire is to hug each girl until she squirms for mercy. We want to have a “spa” day when everyone gets a bath, lotion rub from head to toe, clean clothes, pedicure and manicure and Macaroni and cheese with mini sausage links!

I have been waiting for this opportunity since the day the quake hit. Marie threatens to leave me there all alone so she can take a break. This many girls underfoot 24/7 has exceeded her patience level. The rains have started. They did get two large tarps that they have tried to tie over the area the girls are sleeping.

May your prayers continue for the people for Haiti. I’m off and running.

Preparing for the next trip--March 2nd

Patty is busy preparing for her journey to Haiti on March 2nd. She will be traveling with two others and staying with Marie and the girls at Marie's home. A couple of nights ago there were two 4.7 tremors that has everyone sleeping outside once again. I'm sure we will be getting daily updates once again as soon as Patty arrives in Haiti.

Return from Haiti--Jim Made it Home

Well, I am home after an unbelievable two weeks in Haiti. I flew out of the Port au Prince airport on a “charter” flight into Santo Domingo on Saturday morning. Charter flight sounds way more luxurious to me than it was. When I had worked my into the airport several days earlier to find out whatever information I could about my options for leaving, I talked with the one “charter” person from Carib Air and she said $275 cash (no credit card electronic thing). I paid her and she asked me if I had a pen so she could give me a receipt. I didn’t have one, but she came up with one in 10 minutes or so and handed me a cash receipt which was to be my “ticket” (no etickets here). I just had to trust that it would work—it was so Haiti.


When I got to the airport on Saturday morning there were several people in front of me being screened by the Haitians who were still in "control" of “security.” Just as I approached the baggage x-ray everything shut down. Apparently there was a shift change and one of the Haitian security personnel took his extension cord with him leaving no power to the x-ray machine. About ten minutes later another Haitian arrived with his extension cord and plugged it into a socket hanging from the ceiling and power was restored and my bags went through the machine—another totally Haitian thing.

The Port au Price airport, which is being run and controlled by the US military, was a busy place. Relief planes from all over the world arriving with supplies, helicopters moving supplies out by air and trucks moving supplies via the roads. It was great to see the world sharing and working together to help the hungry and homeless in Haiti. Speaking with the various relief workers was another great experience—sharing stories of what we all doing and how things were progressing. One Israeli woman that I talked to had also been there two weeks. She told many stories. The one that sticks in my head though is the one about a little boy who had recently died, she did not know how, but suspects that he had recently fallen from a roof or was hit by a car. Nonetheless his body was lying on the street corner for the last three of four days, decaying, dogs eating the flesh—and people going about there business and walking around him—apparently he had no family in the area and no one was going to take the initiative to bury him. A tragedy that is probably not a result of the earthquake—or perhaps it is.

The Carib Air flight was full with twenty passengers consisting of relief workers, CNN crews, Germans, Israelis, Canadians, Swiss, all going to the Dominican Republic to return home, all with several hundred pounds of luggage which was jammed into every available space in the hold, aisle, and in the cabin. I really wasn’t sure we would get off the ground but we did. Then, after landing, I had to get a cab to the “real” airport and that cost me $50 which was hard to part with knowing that across the border it would pay 10 men to work all day with sedge hammers breaking a concrete building into dust. Oh well, I didn’t have a choice. I ended up in Miami Saturday where I spent the night “sleeping” in a chair at the airport. It was OK though because there were no bugs, it was air conditioned, I had a roof over my head, and a pizza joint and an ice cream shop only a few steps away (California Pizza Kitchen and Hagen Das—I couldn’t help myself).

I was somewhat surprised by the news I saw at the Miami airport—I was back in the US. The media headlines, and even deeper within the newspapers and magazines, and on the CNN TV screens—there was nothing mentioned about Haiti. I guess living in Haiti for two short weeks and seeing the tragedies of people lives and hearing their stories and just living with them in their world caused me to believe that the whole world must be as interested as I was. I guess it is just not news anymore. But I also did just see the world at work in bringing much needed supplies to those in the greatest need so I know the world has not forgotten the Haitians. I hope and pray that we do not forget them and that we keep them in our prayers and continue to provide for them until such time as they are able to recover. Several million people living in tents will require massive efforts both now and in the future. Please keep praying.