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HAITI EARTHQUAKE-JANUARY 2010
(click on the links below for information.)
Trinity/Hope website
JAY'S JOURNAL-March 2010
Sunday, March 28
Thank you for your prayers this past week, I am certain that there were Angels protecting, uplifting and watching over me.
Got home at 3 AM, lost an hour between Ft. Lauderdale and Dallas due to strong winds in Dallas. Left KC around midnight and didn't see many traces of the snow from a week ago. Beni soit L'Eternal!!!
God be with you.
Jay
Friday, March 26
You know the routine, roosters, trucks and people going who knows where at the break of dawn. I am having breakfast today as I need to take my malaria med with food so I am sitting outside on a patio and can at times see a wisp of steam rising off of my coffee cup. I was also able to coax some warm water out of the shower this morning by running the lavatory for a couple of minutes and then turning on the shower; the treasure of warm water didn’t last but a few minutes.
Noticed this morning that Kinam has a couple of cats on the premises now, they are apparently the rodent control force. They seem tame and have not come up to rub on my leg and although I don’t dislike cats I am satisfied to watch them and know that there will be no mice in my room or in the kitchen.
Lophane picked me up at 9 AM which was probably appreciated by his family to have dad home for breakfast. Our first stop was to meet with the owner of Secom and make arrangements for future groups coming to Haiti to avoid the long walk that I endured at the airport. We stopped at the Secom office on Delmas and as soon as we drove through the gates I knew that this was not going to work as part of their office building was gone and there were restoration efforts in place.
So we got directions from one of the workers and headed to their new office which is nearer the airport; not too far from the new U.S. Embassy. I was unable to speak with Mr. Roy so we talked with his sister and I first told her how much I enjoyed renting from them as we had driven all the way from PAP to Quanaminthe and back and had not experienced a single flat tire. Years ago, we would have had one before we got to Cap Haitian and another one between Cap and Quanaminthe; maybe it is a different driver.
I then made arrangements with her so that future Trinity/HOPE teams will send Secom an Email telling them of the flight they will arrive on in PAP and Secom will send the vehicle to pick the team up at the airport and take them back to the Secom office and complete the paperwork. This will save the team either walking a mile or having them rent a taxi cab.
We next filled up the tank of our Nissan Patrol with diesel, $80 US dollars. The price since the quake has gone up dramatically, demand went up and so did the price and people like myself have no choice but to pay. I was fiddling with the new cell phone and didn’t get a chance to see how many liters we needed but I do know the tank was close to empty.
Feeding children or coming to visit feeding programs in Haiti. The $80 could have possibly fed close to 1,200 children for a day. Lophane found out today that it will cost $3,000 US to repair his house and when compleed the government will allow him and his family to move out of the tent and back into their home and normal routine. The figure included remove bad materials, purchase new materials and the labor to construct new walls and repair cracks in walls and reinforce the ceiling with a large crack and in a room with the largest span. That amount to repair his house would feed nearly the entire school feeding program for a day.
The construction crew can start work very soon and indicated it will take a couple of weeks to complete. Lophane doesn’t have the necessary funds, no home insurance in Haiti; he wondered if I knew of anyone that could help his family to pay for the repairs. Trinity/HOPE is about feeding children and not repairing homes or feeding neighborhoods, it is just really that simple, Trinity/HOPE feeds school children attending Christian schools; that is what they do and they do it well and will continue to do that well.
I will share his request with others and pray that God will find a person or persons who will come forward and bless Lophane’s family. There are so many families in the same situation as Lophane, just many don’t have his connections any they will continue to live in their tents until the government of Haiti finds ways to construct permanent housing.
Sat ouside on the deck by the pool and continued to work on a new interview form and brochure. Noise levels grew around 4:30 PM and I was driven inside and spent remainder of the evening downloading photos and getting placed into sequential order.
Didn’t feel like eating today after breakfast, still thinking of the children in Boix Marchard. Don’t have much more to tell you today. I travel tomorrow, leaving Kinam at 6:30 AM. Please keep me in your prayers.
God be with you.
Thursday, March 25
Roosters, trucks bouncing down the mountain road and human activity on the street awakened me at 4:30 AM, things are like I had remembered them when I lived just a block away from here at Hotel Kinam.
Had coffee this morning and discovered that Kinam has Wifi and it is quite faster but got disconnected after fifteen minutes and needed to reconnect. Lophane and Roro came and picked me up at 7 AM and we headed to Fond Parisian, the first of three schools that we will visit today. It is located about a hour away from PAP on the road that goes to the Dominican Republic.
Traffic in PAP reminded me of the need to be patient with my fellow man, taptap drivers and motorcycles in Haiti are much like an angry swarm of mosquitoes. They constantly buzz around you, in front, behind and beside and just cause you unnecessary problems as you try to get to where you are going.
Once we got out into the open country is was good to see the corn and sugar cane growing in abundance and looking very healthy. We arrived at Fond Parisian to find a group of young boys playing soccer in the playground as this school is closed as all schools in the PAP district are closed due to the quake.
It is a large two story school with no visible signs of damage from the quake. There are 330 children who are fed at the school through Trinity/HOPE and it will be a joyous day when school reopens in a little over a week. From the teachers and principals that I have met in PAP, you can see the look on their faces too that they want to get back to school and restart their lives in some way and deal with their homes in the meantime. For now, those without homes are hopefully in tents or living with relatives whose homes were not affected.
We took some photos and visited with the Principal and got back on the road back to PAP. While on the road I snapped a few photos of a vodou temple and I asked Lophane how the vodou priests had provided for their followers; after seeing how the Christians had brought medical teams, prayer teams and food, water and shelter for their brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
He said that they have given their followers nothing and went on to tell about a vodou priestess who had come to Caredeux and stand in line for a food package that they were distributing to their neighborhood. He said that he and another member of Bon Barger at Caredeux recognized this woman and the other member asked if they should give her food as well.
Lophane responded that we should as that is what Jesus would have done. Our Triune God continues to provide us with opportunities to share the love of Jesus with those trapped in the lies, caught up in the shame and living under a burden of guilt. I applauded Lophane and encouraged him and Roro to bring these people to the foot of the Cross of our Risen Savior.
Our next stop was to Petit Paridis which is tucked into a small urban/rural area in the NE corner of PAP. Here again the Principal let us in and we took some photos and again didn’t see any damage from the quake that would prevent this school from reopening in April.
Our final school of the day was Mamou which is in the same neighborhood where Lophane lives and not too far from Bon Barger at Caredeux. This school did suffer damage and they already have started to purchase concrete blocks and will be holding school under blue plastic sheets until their building can be repaired. The Principal explained their plans for recovery and there was the sign of hope in her eyes.
Lophane wanted me to come and see his house and there were some cracks in the walls of a few rooms, but the crack in the ceiling of the family room was what I would fear the most. He is getting an estimate on how much it will cost to repair. We then drove to the tent village where he and his family are living, and I just cannot take any more photos of tents and their occupants.
I don’t know if it is because I lived here, but seeing these people living in these conditions is something that I don’t want to capture any longer with my camera lens. In Lophane’s community, there are probably a dozen tents set up under a large plastic tarp and several bed mattresses lying on the ground in the open under the tarp, being slept in by people without a tent.
While driving back today, I could have taken some photos of places that have not changed since I last lived here, six years ago. If you saw the photo you would have thought that there had been an earthquake as the buildings were standing in different stages of falling apart. Driving through neighborhoods you can see a house on one corner that appears to be a pile of rock riprap and across the street all appears to be fine. Like a tornado that hits one side of the street and not the other. Hard to imagine the earth shaking and not dropping buildings on both sides of the street; says something for solid construction. One side note; I was not too impressed with some of the blocks that will be used for the Mamou school building; I encouraged them to use plenty of steel and fill the cores with cement.
I spent some time talking with Nathalie Antoine who is the manager at Hotel Kinam and made some pre-arrangements for the team coming back here in October. It was good to see her again and learn of her family and listen to her talk about how busy it has been since the quake. I sense that she looks forward to it slowing down but don’t see that happening in the coming years.
Lophane and I had a very late lunch with Pastor Thomas Bernard and it gave me a chance to catch up on how the quake impacted him, his family and his ministry. Can’t imagine the challenges that have weighed heavily upon him the past couple of months. It seemed like he is getting some back to some normalcy this week as he has a couple of weddings in Bon Barger this weekend. He seems to have been delegating things very well with his lay Pastors and congregation members.
On several occasions he mentioned how God must have more work for him to do here, as He didn’t take him to Heaven during the quake. His wife Margareth was only a few steps away from getting into her auto before a wall fell on the roof and had she been in the car; she would have been driving to Heaven.
His family is safe and from what I could gather only a couple of his congregation had died in the quake, all members were affected with loss and some have migrated to other communities and he didn’t know when they would return.
The remainder of my day will be spent writing this journal and working on a PowerPoint with photos from this trip. Lophane is coming to pick me up at 9 AM and we will talk with Mr. Roy at Secom and the people at Tortuga airlines to check on flying a team to Cap Haitian in October.
God be with you.
Wednesday, March 24
Anpil lapli demen. Had a heavy rain last night and that pushed the humidity beyond measurement this morning and as I am sitting out here on the veranda, it seems as the bugs really do appreciate the additional humidity. It took me thirteen minutes this morning to log into the WiFi and reply to one message, outstanding service, but it is service and I am thankful.
Lophane and I had a breakfast of grapefruit juice, two eggs, and bread with peanut butter and there were also some pear preserves with a hint of cinnamon. We checked out of Hotel Christophe and were on the muddy road by 7 AM and the long hard drive through the mountains was not any softer due to the evening rain.
We arrived at our first feeding program in Gonaives around 11:30, Bois Marchand and were greeted by the principle. Everything looked great, kids were smiling, singing and the food looked very good. We drove to the next school, Pont Quenepe and arrived there around 12:45 and these children had already eaten. Lophane and I entertained them with our version of “Lavi” a song they were not familiar with, perhaps next time they will learn that. Everything at Pont Quenepe also looked great, no problems. This particular school also has a well which many schools wish they had.
We again had difficulty negotiating the roads in Gonaives. The UN are still doing road repairs on the main highway following the floods in the past couple of years from the hurricanes. There are no designated detour routes, you just hope that you follow a taptap that is heading in the same direction as you are heading; towards PAP.
On several occasions, neither Lophane or I knew where we were, just had to look at the sun and still try to head east towards Port-au-Prince. I had hoped to meet with Pastor Revenel Benoit in Gonaives today to discuss bringing a medical team here in October but after calling him we found out that he was in PAP today meeting with Pastor Marky Kessa and they were planning to organize efforts to remove rubble at Lutheran sites in Jacmel, Leogane and PAP. It is good to see the two Lutheran synods working together.
I had hoped to take photos of the guesthouse and medical clinic in Gonaives but was just relieved to recognize a gas station on the east side of town and we headed towards PAP and will meet with Pastor Revenel at a designated place near the airport in PAP.
We met Pastor Revenel around 4:30 at an Epidor Quick shop and he and I talked while Lophane ate his lunch; my appetite was left somewhere up in the mountains between Cap and Goniaves. It seems that he is ready to accept a medical team in October and we parted and I know that is not a good time to be heading into PAP as traffic is just terrible this time of day.
Arrived at Kinam around 7 PM, probably traveled all of 15 miles in two hours as there were times when we just sat for minutes waiting for traffic to move another car length forward. There was one intersection where the Haitian police and UN traffic experts were having a serious animated discussion as horns began to blow while they tried to sort out the traffic jam.
It is dark, looks like rain and also smells like burning tires tonight. That is never a good sign in PAP, hope that is not a sign of problems to come in the morning. Tomorrow we will visit the schools in PAP, just to take photos as there is no school now, but have heard that school will restart on April 5. We will also meet with Pastor Thomas Bernard tomorrow afternoon.
God be with you.
Tuesday, March 23
Woke up at 5 AM to roosters and Church bells and what a unique wonderful morning offering that was with my devotions.
The morning shower actually had a hint of warmth but not to warm. While doing my Email on the patio this morning the swatting of mosquitoes was interrupted with the sound of a couple of doves on the roof top. This too was something delightful to be thankful for, God’s creatures bidding the new day a cheerful greeting.
Breakfast at Hotel Christophe that comes with the room consisted of coffee, bread and eggs, any style. After breakfast we read the devotions from Portals of Prayer and then packed up and headed to Ecole Lutherienne in Cap Haitian. We arrived around 8:15 and were not able to observe the children eating as we needed to hit the road for our main mission today which was visiting two schools at Quanaminthe. We checked the attendance against the feeding program sheet and all was correct and then interviewed ten children at random. Most had eaten an evening meal last night and several had something for breakfast. The children here have been in a Trinity/HOPE feeding programs for years and they looked really good.
I went into each of the classrooms and greeted the children and shared my reason for being there today, how happy I was to see them and also how happy God is to have them in this school and how much He loves them. We also checked the food storage areas and there too, all looked very well.
We left for Quanaminthe around 9:30 and this town is east of Cap Haitian and on the border with the Dominican Republic. The last time I had been there, possibly 2002, the road was mud, gravel and horrible and my body had not fully recovered from yesterday’s ordeal over the mountain and I was not really looking forward to this drive.
As John Hall always says, "ain’t God good?" The road has been covered in 28’ of asphalt with 3’ rock shoulders and a painted centerline and edge lines and even has cow crossing, right turn ahead and speed bump ahead signs posted in appropriate locations. In 2002 the drive took several hours and tire changes and we made the journey in 45 minutes. I now know that Lophane knew all along about this new road but wanted to keep me in suspense, asking when was the road going to get bad. He told me to help him watch for the road sign that tells him which way to Quanaminthe; when feeding program directors go bad!!
Pastor Daniel Paul started an orphanage at the location with his church several years ago. He and his wife Clynie also started a school and today there were 117 children in attendance, three were absent. They do not have a feeding program here at the present time and God willing, Trinity/HOPE will be starting one soon.
The children didn’t look well, especially after just visiting the school in Cap Haitian, the difference is striking. I interviewed ten children from the school and who didn’t live at the orphanage as you could tell by their smiles who lived there and who walked to school. Of the ten children and only 2 had eaten anything last night and both were still hungry after their small meal. One who ate had corn flakes…no milk. Only a few had breakfast and that was just a piece of bread.
When you visit schools like this, you just want to open up your wallet and tell the Pastor to please go and buy these children some food, but I know that is a short term solution to their need, they need a structured and ongoing feeding program at their Christian school.
The second school was much of the same, except there were no children from the orphanage there, so the number of bright smiles and eyes was much fewer. The emotional memories of those faces will fill my mind this evening and probably bring a tear to my eye when I tell groups about those children, how hungry they are and how much God loves them, just as He loves us. I shook the hands of each of those children, saw their eyes, smiles and hugged a few of them.
What really brings their despair to light is to follow them home and see their homes and catch a glimpse of their daily routine. We are so blessed, and so little of our resources can bless so many of these children. How do you get the word out to hordes of North Americans to help these children who have so little in material things but so much in Kingdom blessings to share with this world? Many of these children are the only touch that others in their neighborhood will have with Jesus Christ. Many of these children will provide that opportunity to share that message of Hope with those still lost, still Hopeless, still hurting.
Before we headed back to Cap I spent some time talking with Pastor Daniel about bringing a medical team here to see these children. He and his wife would very much like to have a team come visit as they have never had a medical team visit and their children surely need to be checked out.
So Lophane and I discussed the logistics of bringing a medical team to Cap Haitian and Quanaminthe. We met with Pastor Eliona and his wife Lynda for dinner at Hotel Christophe and further discussed our plan and with God’s blessing, a team coming to Gonaives, Cap Haitian and Quanaminthe this fall seems to be quite possible; God willing.
FYI. There was news of an earthquake striking Cap Haitian yesterday. One house perched on a cliff collapsed and several people were killed and a few missing. If you have been to Cap or seen photos you know of the line of houses perched high above the main Highway and it probably took one dove to land on the roof to bring a structure down the cliff. In short, nobody we talked to today felt any quake.
Probably won’t be sending out a journal tomorrow as we head back to Gonaives over the mountain, visit a school and meet with Pastor Revenel Benoit and then on to Port-au-Prince. We will prayerfully get back before it gets dark, but Lophane and I will be tired.
God be with you.
Monday, March 22
Woke up at 5 AM to the melodic sound of the dump trucks bouncing down the road outside of Kinam, picking up workers with shovels along the way and intermingled in that orchestra was the sound of a rooster proclaiming the dawning of a new day. Devotions, cold Haitian shower a cup of coffee and I am off to wait for Lophane. Just so you know, the cold shower is not by choice. Don’t know why they bother to have the faucets marked ‘C’ and ‘H’ as they could have either left them blank or installed a pair of ‘C’s instead. After living in Haiti, I am really used to taking the colder shower and you also save water as you are in and out very quickly.
Lophane arrived at 6:30 AM as he had to pick up some medical supplies from Pastor Eliona that were headed to the pharmacy at Cap Haitian. The traffic in PAP on Monday morning is usually very busy and we drove by a food distribution center in Petionville and there were long lines of people, three to four deep stretching for three blocks waiting to receive food for the day for this source that happened to be the Red Cross. Lophane indicated that the line would grow by another five blocks in a couple of hours. People in line were not guaranteed receiving food. Here each person would receive enough rice for one day.
Lophane indicated that food that had been donated from Trinity/HOPE and distributed by Pastor Thomas Bernard at Caredeux had been arranged to feed a family for a week and that included rice, beans, vegetable oil, Maggi and Herring. If there was a choice of two lines, I would choose Caredeux.
Lophane also told me that Roro had said thank you to me for the ‘little house’ that I had brought him. Roro’s house had been destroyed in the quake and he and his wife and three sons were sleeping under plastic. I had packed an 8’ x 12’ dome tent that should sleep five North Americans keeping them dry and should protect them in the wind. Lophane and I both had a good chuckle about the ‘little house’ and I was thinking that there may be a story here in the making..”Little house on the mountain.”
We stopped at the gas station on the outside of PAP and filled the tank and that took twenty six U.S. dollars and I received an overflowing handful of Haitian money for change. The exchange rate today is fairly close to one U.S. dollar to eight Haitian dollars.
The road to St. Marc was very, very smooth and much wider than it had been. A paving company from the Dominican Republic is responsible for this and kudos to them. Much of it would be considered a three-lane arterial in the U.S. although it is not driven as such.
We arrived at St. Marc at 8:30 and it was a joy to see Pastor Bruce open the metal gates for us so we could drive into the school yard. I first met Pastor Bruce in 2001 and he, Pastor Romulus and I looked at the open parcel and listened as Pastor Bruce old what he would like to build there someday. At that time his school and church were both housed in a corrugated metal microwave shed the size of a double stall garage. I will never forget the feeling from that first visit; felt like I was being cooked from the inside out.
I roughly paced out the parcel of land that his church owned and drew up plans for a school building similar to what Pastor Thomas Bernard has at Caredeux. At mission team from Christ Lutheran in Overland Park, KS came and constructed the school. The construction on the sanctuary which will be located on top of the school is partially completed. They now worship on the south side of the school building; the corrugated metal shed is gone. This school also has an outdoor toilet facility and a well. Many of the schools in Haiti are not blessed with these facilities.
We didn’t stay long at St. Marc, just long enough to visit, take photos, check the kitchen and food storage area and there were no signs of any rodents in the area.
The road to Desdunes was better than it had been years ago, but certainly not as good as the road to St. Marc. Between Desdunes and Lestair the road was back to what I had remembered and perhaps a little worse. After speaking with Lophane prior to this trip, I was under the impression that the road from Gonaives to Cap Haitian had been greatly improved and this was not the case. There were just a couple of areas where the road through the mountains had been totally washed out from the last hurricane and the UN had built a permanent shoo-fly around that area. The road to Cap is worse.
Years ago Steve Willet told me that you can measure the roughness of a road by how much work your gums have to do when chewing gum. This road was not only an automatic gum chewer but also you need to time your breathing to be sure your lungs are fully ventilated when bouncing into the seat belt as it will literally suck every liter of oxygen out of your lungs leaving you gasping for that next breath.
We arrived in Cap at 3:30 PM and school was out. I had hoped to visit the School at Cap but will do that in the morning before heading to Quaneminthe. When we got into Cap we discovered that the Hotel Creole where we had planned to stay was closed and apparently had been for some time. Lophane called Pastor Eliona and asked where he had made reservations and he responded that he had not, we had to call his wife Lynda for that information. She had secured reservations at Hotel Roi Christophe and neither Lophane or I had ever been there or knew how to get there. Needless to say our vehicle is not equipped with On Star.
So Lophane called Cameo who is the feeding program director for Cap Haitian and he met us and rode with us to the Hotel. Rooms are $96 per person a night, single occupancy and $120 for two people to a room. This Hotel is four star by Haitian standards, the water still feels cool to the touch. The television has two French channels that are really fuzzy but the ceiling fan is awesome and our evening meal was very good. I chose the Creole Cabrits (Creole Goat) with plantains and rice and beans and a Coke. It was my only meal of the day and it was fantastic. The tab for the three of us was $36 USD which I thought was very reasonable considering the amount and quality of food.
The hotel also has a WiFi connection here, very slow, but I am able to my Email on my laptop and that is a luxury in itself. I will work on starting a PowerPoint tonight, download photos that I took today and probably shut down for the night around 9 PM.
Thank you for your prayers again today. Those who have been to Haiti can appreciate the traffic and rough roads. Lophane and I are planning to meet for breakfast at 6:45 as that is included in the room price. God be with you.
Sunday, March 21
Started the day at 5 AM with the sounds of roosters, people and noisy dump trucks bouncing down the street that winds down from the quarry at the top of the mountain. Some things have not changed. Next was a cold water shower at Kinam, devotions and Haitian coffee followed.
Lophane picked me up at 8:30 AM to go to church at Bon Barger at Caredeux and there I greeted a medical team with perhaps 16 people who had been there for over a week treating an estimated 1,300 people. They were staying in the school and Pastor Thomas’ congregation members had been preparing their meals in the school kitchen for the team every day. Next I met LCMS Vice President Diekelman and Past FL-GA District Pres. Gerhard Michael. I had met Pastor Michael before and it was good to get reconnected with him and talk with him about what was happening in Haiti. These men had come to Haiti on behalf of the LCMS to attend the funeral for Pastor Doris Jean Louis.
This was the very first Sunday since the quake that the congregation worshipped in the sanctuary and there were many there. The government had given their building a green notice that it was safe to use the facility again, so this was truly a very special Sunday.
The adult Bible class at Caredeux was perhaps three times larger than it was when I had last been there. Lophane would later tell me that they were now having coffee and bread served at the Bible class, we have coffee and donuts and they now have coffee and bread…small world. Of course the need for food is much greater for these people than for North Americans who will go home after Church and eat a meal and again in the evening eat another meal.
I returned to Kinam around noon and Lophane went back to Bon Barger as he had a meeting with Pastor Thomas and then he was going to spend time with his family as we will leave for Cap Haitian tomorrow and not be back until Wednesday.
My afternoon was spent updating this journal and getting a PowerPoint program set up for the next medical team meeting at Christ Lutheran. Had a lunch of a Poulet (chicken) sandwich and some pomme frits (French Fries) and a Coke. The chicken was fresh, still had some bones to chew around. No evening meal, cold shower, devotion and in bed by 8 PM as Lophane will be here at 6 AM and we will head for the school at St. Marc and on to Cap Haitian.
Saturday, March 20
12:30 AM, was trying to find the ramp for Exit 12 while following a couple of snow plows near the KC Airport and missed that ramp covered in perhaps 8 inches of snow and had to drive to the next exit and come back. After parking my new trusted friend Acadia at Thrifty parking, I finally reached the airport at 1:30 AM, to find it empty except for a man running a floor cleaning machine; and he made a few laps in the American Airlines area and then the airport was eerily silent and cold.
As Pastor Luke says, “and now we pray.” I had a three hour prayer vigil until the gate opened at 4:30 AM. You cannot travel on an airline without meeting interesting people. A woman sat down next to me in across from American and began to tell me all the places that she had traveled and how much of an experienced traveler she was…in one ear and out the other, but it did break up what had been a very quiet day. I would later meet her at the ‘check your body and carry-on’ entry gate, she was the lady telling a TSA employee that she didn’t have a drivers license, passport, credit card or any other form of identification and that she had traveled all over the world…brought a smile to my face.
Hurdle No. 2. The AA employee indicated that there was a problem with my ticket; somebody had messed up the times. I had to move aside while he talked on the phone with his manager and processed other passengers. That took ten minutes of additional prayer and problem was resolved. We boarded the plane as scheduled and then sat on the tarmac as the de-icing machines sprayed chemicals on the aircraft and we were now running late into Dallas-Fort Worth; but at least we were now de-iced.
Hurdle No. 3. While preparing to land the attendant announced the gate we were arriving at was A29 and then gave the connecting gates…Miami Delta 25 that is D25. I checked my watch and it appeared that I would have ten to fifteen minutes to go to the opposite end of the airport, probably not humanly possible especially with my limited physical abilities, even with their sky link monorail. Again we pray.
The lady who was telling people in Kansas City of her travels got out of her seat moments after the airplane had touched down at Dallas. She stood up, opened up the overhead compartment and retrieved her carryon while a flight attendant raced to her and got her to sit down, buckle up and stay there until it was okay to get off the plane. She was very calm, assured the attendant that she had traveled all over the world and everything was fine.
While our aircraft was moving towards our gate the attendant came over with an announcement that provided a glimmer of hope, the flight from Miami to DFW was running late, just now arriving at their gate so the passengers going to Miami would probably be able to catch that flight.
As it turns out, there were perhaps 20 of us going to Miami and we raced to the gate to hear the AA employee at D25 announcing “final call for passengers to Miami.” Thank you Lord. I was though doubtful that my duffle bag would be on the plane with me to Miami.
Arrived in Miami at gate E6 and here I had an hour between flights. The attendant read off the connecting information and the flight to PAP was at gate E6, ‘ain’t God good?’ When I left the plane and was walking out into the terminal it seemed like there were a lot of Caucasian people there to greet the people getting off the plane…and no Haitian people there waiting for their plane to PAP. It just seemed odd as years ago before the quake, there were a large crowd of Haitian people waiting for their flight.
I walked in the terminal for a while, just stretching my legs and bought a bottle of water. It was now noon but I was not hungry, just tired of traveling. I made my way back to E6 and again saw nothing but Caucasian people standing around. Thought that I must be at the wrong place and walked through the E concourse looking for Haitian people…nothing, kind of felt like that ‘left behind’ book that was so popular some time ago.
I tried to call Lophane in Haiti and tell him that I would be arriving on time, but could not hear him with all the noise in the terminal and called John Hall and asked if he would call Lophane for me. I went back to E6 and noticed that there were many people wearing T-Shirts with the word “Haiti” in their messages, “Hope for Haiti”, “Love for Haiti”, “Hearts for Haiti” and on and on and on. There might have been ten Haitians waiting for this flight and two hundred Caucasians standing there in multi colored T-Shirts, gear, smiles and ready to go to Haiti. It saddened me to see that change in what used to be 250 Haitians, smiling, talking in Creole, laughing and wearing their best Sunday clothes…and me and a handful of Caucasians waiting for the flight to PAP.
On the plane I sat next to a young man who is a writer, Ethan from Seattle. He, like me, was traveling alone to PAP. He has spent a lot of time in Haiti and we had a wonderful time talking about Haiti, the unusual feelings that we had at MIA with the crowd. He will be driving through NE this summer and I am hopeful that he can stop and we can talk again.
We arrived at PAP on time. It was interesting to see all the blue plastic tarps in the neighborhoods. Have seen this from Google earth and photographs, but seeing it in person really grabbed my attention.
Things at the terminal have changed as there are some large cracks in the walls of the main terminal building. We got off the plane and walked down a covered tarmac off of the airplane. PAP has gone modern, probably due to the foreign traffic in the past couple of months. Lophane indicated that this took place following the quake. When we got off of the plane we walked to get our passports stamped and then had to wait for a bus to take us to the old airport which is probably a half of a mile away to receive our baggage.
The building was corrugated metal, no fans and boy was it hot and humid with all of these North American teams in their looking for bags. I really didn’t expect to see my green bag but it did arrive. Thank you Lord.
I then walked over to the customs counter and gave him my baggage claim sticker that matched my bag and saw that there was a line of people getting their bags inspected by Customs agents so I casually walked outside through the exit door and waded through the long line of taxi cab drivers and found Lophane. That is when it hit me that SECOM, where I had rented a vehicle, was perhaps a mile away towards the airport around a perimeter fence. So we walked and talked in the heat with a few young Haitian boys trailing behind us, asking, ‘Blan” for a dollar. Some things haven’t changed.
I was sweating like shipyard worker by the time we reached SECOM, I will need to talk with the owner so the next time Keith Logan, John Hall or I rent a vehicle from them, we can have Lophane pick it up and come and get us and then drive back and do the paperwork.
Lophane drove me to hotel Kinam and the route he chose (because traffic in PAP on Saturday afternoon is really, really horrible) took me past a part of town that I recognized and could see the damage of places that I could remember what they had looked like before. It was shocking to see the damage and also see all of the tent villages.
Lophane explained that the colored numbers on the building still standing meant that the government had inspected the buildings and if they had a green colored address number, they could be occupied, if the address number was painted in yellow the building needed to be repaired and could not be occupied and if the address number was painted in red the building would need to be destroyed. Lophane’s house is yellow and he will need to make repairs before his family can re-enter; he is getting an estimate on cost.
We arrived at Kinam around 5 PM. I was really tired and beat and just wanted to eat something simple and go to bed. I gave my duffle bag to Lophane that had a tent that I brought for Roro and his family and was going to deliver that Lophane and then spend time with Pastor Thomas and a medical mission team that had been working at Caredeux the past week.
Before he left I tried to call my daughter and Pastor Luke to tell them that I was in Haiti, safe and sound…but the cell battery was too weak. I sent an email on the Kinam computer and forgot just how slow their system was.
I had a plate of spaghetti and a Coke for dinner; tasted the same as it did so many years ago, read my devotions, took a cold Haitian shower and went to bed.
Friday, March 19
Began to snow in Lincoln at 1 PM and it became apparent my travel plans would need to be altered; I had planned to leave Lincoln around midnight and reach the airport around 4 AM. Hurdle No. 1. Throughout the afternoon weather forecasters spoke of 2-4 inches of snow by midnight and then that eventually reached 6-8 inches stretching all the way down to K.C.
After work I had an appointment with Custom Blinds to finalize their service and then went home, packed my backpack with what I would wear and need for the week. I have never packed this light but don’t think that this will be a problem; living like a Haitian. I left Lincoln around 6:45 PM and was snowing but nothing was sticking to the pavement, the ground was white.
The drive to Nebraska City was not too bad, pavement marking lines still visible; but by the time I reached NE City they were gone, much heavier snowfall and winds had picked up; road surface was slush with a temp of 28.
The drive from NE City to Mound City, MO was just scary--cars and trucks slid into the median and ditch, top speed for me was 35. There is a sensor on my dash that provides how far the gas in my tank will take the vehicle; needless to say, driving on the interstate at 35 was very good gas consumption. I stopped at St. Joseph and topped off the tank, just to get some extra weight in the tank and stretch and tried to shake the “white” out of my knuckles.
Got back on the road and proceeded towards KC, arriving around 12:30 AM. A six hour trip that should have taken 3 hours or less; I thank God for safe travel and for the many people who have been praying for my journey.
Saturday, March 13th
Bonjou dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
Received news this morning that Pastor Doris Jean Louis was murdered last night outside of his home. Pastor Louis was the man who introduced the teachings of Luther to Haiti. The first Lutherienne church and schools were began as the Holy Spirit guided his thoughts and directions. Pastor Israel Isidor and Thomas Bernard were his lay Pastors. His wife "Lucy" was the sister of Pastor Israel Isidor and his brother Leonard.
None of his schools had Trinity/HOPE feeding programs, but the children in those Lutheran schools and nonetheless the future of Haiti. They like other children attending Christian schools will take the message of Salvation to the lost in Haiti. Please keep his family and congregation in your prayers.
In Him
Jay
Wednesday, March 10th
Bonswa dear brothers and sisters in Christ, may the peace of our risen Savior be with you this Wednesday evening. I read a couple of articles on the meeting of Pres. Preval and Pres. Obama today. The following article from Reuter's gives a glimpse of what the Pres. of Haiti told the press what his message would be.
2010 8 March - Haitian President Rene Preval plans to tell U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday that food aid to the earthquake-devastated Caribbean nation should be stopped because of the risk of damaging its economy. The two men will meet at the White House in the wake of a January 12 quake that killed 230,000 people, according to Haitian government estimates, crippled the economy and devastated much of the capital Port-au-Prince and other cities. Donations of food and water have proved a lifeline for more than 1.2 million people displaced by the quake, but Preval told a news conference on Monday the aid could in the long term hurt the economy of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. "I will tell him (Obama) that this first phase of assistance is finished," said Preval, standing in front of the ruined presidential palace in Port-au-Prince. "If they continue to send us aid from abroad -- water and food -- it will be in competition with the national Haitian production and Haitian commerce," he said.
Preval said the priority should instead be to create employment in Haiti, a country where a high percentage of the population lacked work even before the quake. The Haitian government, working with the international community, is preparing a master plan for reconstruction that would have ambitious goals, Preval said after a meeting with Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean. A trust fund with voting and nonvoting board members would manage donor funds, Preval said. Priorities for reconstruction include strengthening buildings to withstand future earthquakes and rehabilitating the environment, much of which is denuded, to protect against flooding from tropical storms and hurricanes, which last battered Haiti in 2008. Some $38 million was needed for storm protection, Preval said.
Reopening the country's schools was also key, Preval said, though he gave no date for when that would happen. Education is considered critical to development in Haiti, where 38 percent of the population is under age 15 and nearly half of those 15 and older are illiterate. "I will also tell him (Obama) that our vision is to rebuild Haiti and if we don't take advantage of this historic event to reinvent Haiti, to reinvent Port-au-Prince, we will be making a mistake of historical proportions," Preval said. "Our generation has the obligation to shoulder this responsibility," he said. Many Haitians have criticized the government's performance since the earthquake and argued that Preval has not done enough to communicate with the people or to marshal government aid, instead leaving international aid groups to fill the gap. (Reuters)
Today CNN reported on the actual meeting, and here is a snippet of their news, "Washington (CNN) -- President Obama met Wednesday with Haitian President Rene Preval to discuss relief, recovery and reconstruction efforts in Haiti. The two leaders pledged to continue working for a more coordinated, sustained global relief effort to help Haiti recover from a massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck January 12. Much of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, was destroyed, and more than 217,000 people were killed, according to the latest figures from international relief organizations. The situation on the ground in Haiti "remains dire," Obama said at the White House. A continuing desperate need for food, medicine and shelter will be exacerbated by the onset of Haiti's spring rain season, he said. "You will continue to have a steady and reliable partner in the United States of America," Obama promised Preval.
The creation of jobs is of such vital importance to the people in PAP at the moment. Rain or no rain the people in PAP need to work, pick up rubble, restart business, reopen the vegetable markets, schools and get out of the tent cities. Please pray that the world will help Haiti in ways that will be God pleasing, give them jobs and not have mission teams going to Haiti to pick up rubble, build buildings and send more containers of food that steal from the Haitian economy which can provide food in many cases.
Please pray that Haiti will turn its eye, hands, hearts and lives to Christ and away from the vodou priest.
Sorry for the mini sermon. God be with you, have a blessed evening.
Jay
Sunday, March 7th
Bonjou dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, may you be experiencing a very blessed Sabbath. There was an article this morning from the NY Times that provides a look at the schools in the Port-au-Prince area and gives us a glimpse at the lives of children who have no school at the present time. God be with you. Jay
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —Thousands of schools in and around this devastated capital could remain closed for months or never reopen, according to Haitian and United Nations education officials. That leaves vast numbers of children languishing in camps or working in menial jobs as they struggle to survive. Even before the Jan. 12 earthquake, only about half of Haiti’s school-age children were enrolled in classes, a glaring symbol of the nation’s poverty.
UNICEF, basing its estimates on talks with government officials, said that more than 3,000 school buildings in the earthquake zone had been destroyed or damaged. Hundreds of teachers and thousands of students were killed, and officials are questioning the safety of the remaining buildings after violent aftershocks in recent weeks, making the goal of Haitian education officials to reopen many schools by April 1 seem increasingly remote.
"We have six engineers in the Education Ministry to survey more than 10,000 schools to see if they’re safe," said Charles Tardieu, a former education minister who is pushing for schools to reopen in tent camps. "Let’s face the reality that many schools are never going to be used again, and that we urgently need other ways to revive the system," he said. With their options limited, thousands of children are toiling on this city’s streets instead of going to school. Marckin Sainvalier, 10, helped his grandmother wash clothes one recent morning alongside the rubble of Rue Bonne-Foi in the central commercial district. As for school, "that was before the earthquake," he said, explaining that his mother left him in his grandmother’s care in the chaotic days after the quake struck. "A lot has happened since then."
On another street in the commercial district, Dieuvenson Semervil, 12, scavenged for padlocks in a collapsed hardware store. Before the quake, Dieuvenson said, he dreamed of becoming a mechanic. A body decomposed next to him to as he picked through the rubble. Near the ruins of the partly destroyed Lycée Alexandre Pétion, one of the city’s public schools, Samanta Louis, 11, swept the sidewalk, work she said helped support her nine siblings and parents who lived in the tent camp of Champs de Mars. A former student at the Lycée, Jean Pierre Lestin, 15, scavenged brick from a collapsed wall to sell. "I would like to be an engineer someday," he said.
Children staying in the camps face trials beyond laboring in the streets. Health workers in the camps are reporting a rising number of young rape victims, including girls as young as 12. Alison Thompson, an Australian nurse and documentary director who volunteers at a tent clinic on the grounds of the Pétionville Club, said she had cared for a 14-year-old girl who was raped recently in the camp. "The entire structure of the lives of these children has been upended, and now they’re dealing with the predators living next to them," Ms. Thompson said.
The government here has recognized the urgency of reopening schools to provide some structure to those picking up the pieces of their lives. But its efforts to do so have faltered. Officials declared schools open in unaffected areas as of Feb. 1; some students have trickled into those schools, but many have not, say education specialists.
Here in the capital, symbols of the devastated education system lie scattered throughout the city. Metal scavengers are still picking through the wrecked Collège du Canapé-Vert, where as many as 300 students studying to become teachers died in the earthquake. Foreign aid groups here say that Haiti differs from other poor nations recently struck by natural disasters, like Pakistan and Bangladesh, in that the quake gutted the education system of the capital in a highly centralized country. In New Orleans, more than half of the public schools remained shut a year after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, said Marcelo Cabral, an education specialist with the Inter-American Development Bank.
Haiti’s education system was already dysfunctional before the earthquake. Only about 20 percent of schools were public, with the rest highly expensive for the poor. Even in public schools, poor families struggled to pay for uniforms, textbooks and supplies. While other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean spend about 5 percent of their gross domestic product on education, Haiti was spending just 2 percent, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.
Saturday, March 6th
Bonjou dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Read an article this morning regarding reconstruction efforts by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) that are now being undertaken in Haiti. It is promising as they are working towards improving structure stability and also putting up sensors to monitor the area for future quakes and tremors. Not sure if you ever visit Google Earth but they have reflown the Jacmel, Leogane and Port-au-Prince area on January 25. There are hundreds of blue plastic tarp villages dotting the urban areas. Be thankful for the roof over your head, food in your fridge, water in the pipes and a climate controlled shelter that you are in today. Our Lord God continues to provide for us, as He does for our brothers and sisters in Haiti, may we always be thankful for His blessings and be reminded of others who although we seem to be less fortunate, are still thankful of His divine providence. God be with you. Jay
USGS Tackles Haiti Reconstruction
Posted on: Thursday, 4 March 2010, 11:29 CST USGS scientists are helping Haitians lay the groundwork for reconstruction and long-term earthquake monitoring in the wake of the Jan. 12, 2010, magnitude-7 earthquake, by providing geologic research that will assist with the establishment of new building codes in the country. "USGS research will contribute to explicit recommendations to both the Haitian government and the international community that is assisting the reconstruction efforts," said Walter Mooney, USGS research geophysicist, who recently returned from Haiti.
The most recent USGS scientists traveling to Haiti are Carol Prentice and Rich Briggs, who arrived on Feb. 24, 2010. Prentice and Briggs will work with scientists from the University of Texas to measure coastal uplift. This USGS team of scientists is part of the Earthquake Disaster Assistance Team program, a new initiative between the USGS and the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.
This research follows the work of Mooney and a team with expertise in seismology and earthquake engineering from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, who were in Haiti between Jan. 26 and Feb. 3, 2010. This team, supported by the United States Southern Command, surveyed Port-au-Prince to understand the geologic and engineering factors that contributed to the greatest damage from the shaking. Mooney says new building codes for reconstruction in Haiti will be based, in part, on USGS research on geologic conditions that make some areas more at risk for damage than others. Currently, Haiti has no such standards in place, a factor that contributed to the recent widespread devastation. "It’s imperative that we move quickly," he adds, "because in some areas reconstruction has already begun that may not withstand another earthquake of this magnitude."
Soil conditions, for example, play a big role in how a building fares during an earthquake. "Specifically, we found that buildings on harder, more stable bedrock fared much better than buildings on softer sediments, such as those located in the center of cities like Port-au-Prince and Leogane," Mooney said. The USGS scientists also installed seismic monitoring stations onto hard rock, as well as in the softer sedimentary basins. These monitoring stations precisely measure the location, frequency, and severity of the shaking, giving scientists the ability to assess the most dangerous and vulnerable areas. Though an earthquake of this magnitude has not occurred since 1860, another large earthquake could strike Haiti in the near future. Beyond the immediate research following this earthquake, long-term monitoring using GPS will measure changes in the movement of the fault that runs through Haiti.
Friday, March 5th
Bonjou dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Had an Email from Lophane (Trinity/HOPE feeding director in Haiti) telling me that the two dome tents that I had sent to him had arrived and he was looking forward to sleeping 'on' them. I sent him a note back asking if the tent poles had also arrived as I would sleep better knowing that the and his family were sleeping in the tent and not 'on' the tent. It is amazing how one small word can cause a person to twinge at the thought of a gift not being used to its full potential.
I don't know if you get the Lutheran Witness, but the new issue had a four page article about Haiti and also had a page about the 'history' of Haiti and that too made me twinge. The writer gave the readers a glimpse of what the 'average' Haitian's daily life was like. "Normally, when resources permit, Haitians eat three meals a day mainly consisting of rice and beans, but often including goat, pork or fish..." I can tell you that from the interviews at schools where Trinity/HOPE programs are being sponsored, the children's families do not have many times when 'resources permit' in their daily life. Their TH meal in their school, in the majority of students lives, is the main meal in the day.
It is also interesting to read the news coming out of Haiti that is reflecting what the people are experiencing now, since I will be arriving in Port-au-Prince in a couple of weeks. The article that I have pasted in the message is a little long, but tells me that things are gradually returning to some kind of a normal routine. Have a blessed weekend, keep our brothers and sisters in Haiti in your prayers.
Signs of life and love emerge in devastated Haiti By BEN FOX, Associated Press
Marie Neslene Leon,second from left, is helped by a relative after getting married in front of the destroyed national cathedral in downtown Port-au-Prince, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti last Jan. 12, destroying great part of the capital's infrastructure. But Emmanuel Beauzile and Mary Leon found plenty to celebrate as they exchanged vows under a blue tarp in the ruins of Haiti's capital. "We're still here," Beauzile said. "No matter what the situation is, we are going to be together." The couple tied the knot in the shadow of the Notre Dame d'Haiti Cathedral, where they attended Mass and the bride sang in the choir before the earthquake caved in the roof and two sides.
The occasion was not entirely joyful: It was hard not think about those who would have attended had they survived the quake, but the ceremony had already been postponed once and the bride and groom felt it was important to go ahead. It is hard to overstate the devastation of the Jan. 12 quake. It killed an estimated 230,000 people and forced 1.2 million more from their homes. For much of the past seven weeks, ordinary life pretty much stopped. Nearly everyone's life has been upended and grief is universal. But signs of normality are beginning to emerge.
Schools in the capital are still closed, but at least one resourceful businesswoman has set up classes in a tent camp. An unknown number of businesses were lost, but new ones -- from beauty salons to stalls that charge cell phone batteries -- have emerged in the encampments to serve the newly homeless. Commercial flights are again arriving in the Port-au-Prince airport -- and the traditional troubadour band is back greeting people at the arrivals gate. Some say such small steps are important as a comfort to people who have lost so much. Alzire Rocourt, a singer and music teacher, sees hope in the choir rehearsals now held twice a week in the yard of her home. The students from two Catholic schools, many of whom lost parents and friends, wanted to resume their twice-weekly routine of rehearsals. But they had nowhere else to meet. "Singing for them is consolation. That's what they like to do," Rocourt said. "They find their equilibrium in singing."
Beauzile, 33, and Leon, 30, pulled together many of the trappings of a typical wedding. She wore a full white gown with elbow-length white lace gloves. He wore a charcoal-gray suit. There were several hundred guests. Dozens of passers-by watched from atop piles of rubble in the dusty downtown streets. Guests sang hymns accompanied by a lone drummer. Leon said she tried unsuccessfully not to think about those who couldn't make the ceremony, including two fellow singers in the choir, because they had been killed in the earthquake. "I was happy and sad at the same time, because I had friends who were supposed to be there," she said. Beauzile, who lost a cousin and several friends, focused on the ceremony and pushed out darker thoughts. "I had to forget everything that has happened in the country for a minute," he said. "It was a special moment."
The Rev. Edwine Saint-Louis, the Roman Catholic priest who presided, said he has performed several weddings. But this was the first at the cathedral since the earthquake. "The church is destroyed, but we can still carry on," he said. "People are still building families and the church is there to support them." After the ceremony on Sunday, the couple went back to their temporary home at a tennis-club-turned-refugee camp in Bourdon, a neighborhood off the road that climbs the hill heading out of Port-au-Prince. They had a small celebration, then went off to spend the night at relative's home that survived the quake. Their own was demolished.
"The only celebration we had was we got to spend the night together," Leon, who repeatedly fidgeted with her new gold wedding ring during the conversation, said with a laugh. The next day, the couple returned to spend the rest of their honeymoon in the family tent. Their immediate prospects are not good. The couple is expecting a child, a girl, in May. Leon worked as a cashier in a clothing store that collapsed and now she is jobless. Beauzile works as a driver of the often riotously colored taxi-buses known as tap-taps, but he has to sublet a vehicle from the owner and can't get one every day. As camps go, theirs is among the best. Everyone has an actual tent, as opposed to one fashioned from bed sheets. There is plenty of shade, and the residents have been careful not to disturb the clay courts, though laundry hangs from the nets.
Still, it is a camp -- with fat rats crawling over the ruins of the clubhouse, where seven people died -- and the residents fear the owner could force them to leave at any moment. Beauzile said his immediate plans are to find a single tent for him and his wife and to get back to work. "I just want everything to get back to normal," he said.
One note here. The Catholic church where this couple was married is the church shown on page 16 of the Lutheran Witness, with the crucifix still standing outside.
God be with you.
Jay
Saturday, Feb. 27th
Bonjou dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. The news this morning about the quake in Chile brings to mind the scripture verses talking about the end of time. Quakes, tsunami's, snow storms, mudslides and we continue to pray. As more events continue to take place, the news of the need in Haiti seem to fade with each new event. It will probably be only a matter of time, that the attention of the world will again turn away from the despair in Haiti and look to other parts of this planet where chaos and turmoil are ripping apart lives and news media will bring that into our living rooms.
Children in Christian school in Haiti, receiving a Trinity/HOPE meal will still need your support, and still be the young lives who will bring the message of a Savior, who came to this world to save each of us from our sinful nature. They will be bringing that message to the lost in Haiti. Please keep them in your prayers, and please continue to support them.
The article that seemed of interest this morning is from the Washington Post and addresses the duration of time that our US Military forces will remain in Haiti. God be with you, have a blessed Sabbath.
By ANNE FLAHERTY
The Associated Press
Friday, February 26, 2010; 9:51 PM
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- U.S. military officials are deliberating how long American troops should stay in Haiti to tend to its earthquake-battered population, knowing that work remains but reluctant to take on much of the rebuilding that could commit the force to the region for years.
The timing of troop withdrawals is a difficult decision that strikes at the heart of how the U.S. military is viewed around the world: a powerful force with deep pockets that can accomplish a lot in a short period of time.
But senior officials have made clear that the military won't stay forever, simply because it can. "We're very deliberate about this," said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in his first visit to Haiti since the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck on Jan. 12. The primary goal of U.S. forces is to provide security, he told reporters after inspecting the city's port, which a team of Navy and Army divers are close to salvaging so that ships can begin to move cargo ashore without relying on highly specialized military equipment. Mullen noted those improvements, along with a drop off in the number of urgent medical cases.
Going forward, "we will have enough troops here to meet the security requirement," Mullen said.
Perhaps the best example of how the military mission has changed in the six weeks since the quake struck is the patient load aboard the USNS Comfort, the giant Navy hospital ship floating offshore Port-au-Prince. At its peak in late January, the ship had some 540 patients and nearly 1,400 staff. That number began to drop rapidly as field hospitals on shore ramped up capacity and the most acute cases were treated and those patients released.
After discharging 75 more patients about a week ago, there are now only seven patients still aboard the USNS Comfort. The ship still maintains about 970 personnel. Mullen toured the ship and praised the staff for their work. When he asked what they do all day, the staff responded: "Cleaning, sir."
Throughout Haiti, the U.S. military mission still draws some 11,000 troops - 6,000 on the ground and 5,000 floating offshore. But their mission has fundamentally changed.
Marines, among the first to arrive with food and water, are now helping to coordinate among the myriad relief agencies and nongovernmental organizations from around the world. Infantry soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division deployed to ensure riots didn't break out have now cleared some 40 blocks of rubble from downtown and are helping engineers move in to rebuild. Officials say the situation in the impoverished Caribbean nation remains dire, and the population needs medical treatment, shelter, food and water. They also say that conditions could dramatically worsen as the rainy season sets in and if aftershocks from the earthquake occur. But for the military, already stretched thin by two wars, the goal is to hand off much of the responsibility to civilian aid agencies now operating in Haiti. "When I say 'we,' I really mean the government of Haiti, and the international community," Mullen said.
Wednesday, Feb. 24th
Bonjou dear brothers and sisters in Christ. The message pasted in the Email discusses the rebuilding process in the coming weeks that will prayerfully move smoothly in advance of the rainy sesson in Haiti. Please keep our brothers and sisters in the faith, living in Haiti in your prayers. Jay.
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti's government and its foreign relief partners plan to start "decompressing" earthquake-stricken Port-au-Prince by clearing rubble to allow displaced families to return home or be temporarily resettled, Haitian and U.N. officials said on Tuesday.
The plan, which will require private contractors for some of the debris removal, demolition and rebuilding, is expected to get underway this week, over six weeks after the magnitude 7 quake that shattered swathes of the sprawling, hilly capital.
In what some experts are calling the deadliest natural disaster in modern times, the January 12 Haitian quake may have killed up to 300,000 people, the country's president says, while more than a million more are homeless.
Most of these are sheltering in ramshackle encampments that cram every space of the capital, mixed in with the rubble of pancaked and collapsed buildings that lie on every side of streets clogged with people, refuse, traders and traffic. The "Debris Management Plan" drawn up by experts from the United Nations, the United States and other countries with Haitian government officials marks the next big push by the international relief operation following major distributions of food, water and shelter materials to earthquake victims. "The city is so crowded that there are no open spaces to put people," said Charles Clermont, a member of the Haitian government commission spearheading the city recovery plan. "Before the rainy season, we have to take the debris out, clear the drainage canals, demolish what needs to be demolished ... that will give us the room," Clermont told Reuters.
Haiti's rainy season typically begins in late March or April. U.N. officials said one of the plan's objectives was to "get people back into safe homes and businesses as quickly as possible," a huge challenge in a city where more than 250,000 homes and buildings have been destroyed or damaged, creating an estimated 63 million tons of rubble, according to the U.N.. The need to improve living conditions and shelter for the hundreds of thousands of quake-related homeless has been given added urgency by the onset of seasonal rains in the coming weeks, which will increase the risk of flash floods, and by rumbling aftershocks that still periodically jolt the city.
Twin aftershocks early on Tuesday, one of 4.7 magnitude, brought nervous residents and foreign hotel guests out of their beds, while terrified dogs howled in the steamy heat. Early on Monday, another 4.7 magnitude quake had shaken the capital. In a pilot stage of the "decompression" plan later on Tuesday, officials were due to start the process of registering occupants of one of the most emblematic quake survivor camps in Port-au-Prince -- one housing 16,000-20,000 people in the Champ de Mars square alongside the ruined presidential palace. Clermont said the registration and its follow-up operation would seek to identify families and where they came from, assess the habitability of their homes and, where possible allow them to return, providing them with repair materials. If a home was a total wreck, it would be demolished, but the family would be given shelter materials to reoccupy their land. Only as a third resort would people be resettled in planned camps, because foreign aid experts wanted to prevent the creation of massive long-term camps for the displaced. "Where people normally live they have systems, communities, structures. When that breaks down and you have to move them, that creates people permanently dependent on aid," said Mark Turner of the International Organization for Migration.
Clermont said private contractors would have a role to play in the rubble clearing, demolition and reconstruction but he expected contracts to be tendered by governments and institutions participating in the plan. "Humanitarian groups are not made to rebuild a city of four million people," the IOM's Turner said. The University of Miami, Clermont added, was offering to provide top-level urban planning experts to work with the Haitian government in its reconstruction effort.
But there were no illusions about the enormity of the task. "Colleagues who have been working for 25 years in this business, who have done Darfur, the earthquake in Pakistan, say they have never seen anything like this," said Myrta Kaulard, the U.N. World Food Program's country director for Haiti, who added that food distribution for quake victims was being maintained.
Monday, Feb. 22nd
Bonswa dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. This prayer request came from Lophane today, being a father, with a wife and young boy, needs prayers for guidance and peace as he continues to go to work. I quickly checked the news when I read his note and am assuming that the quake he mentioned was another aftershock, nothing major.
I can't imagine what it must be like for him to leave his family and go visit schools, when there are still aftershocks taking place. When I talked with Nadine on a number of ocassions, she kept mentioning being afraid of the continuing tremors and fearing for her family. Please Lophane and his family in your prayers, and the many others living in Haiti as their country continues to be rattled.
God be with you.
In Him.
Jay
Dear Brothers and sisters,
Peace and Grace to you from our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. How are you doing? Hope you and your families are well, that's good. I send you this e-mail e-mail, just i want you to ask God to make me strong in this terrible situation where I am leaving with my family, because I don't to give up. This morning at 4:30 there is another earthquake, i don't know if there is domage yet. You know my big problem is Darlo, he always ask me for school. where I am leaving there is Four little boys, two of them left and the other one will leave next Friday and Darlo will stay alone, like you know I have to work, please ask God to do something for me, I am count in your prayers.
Blessings.
Laurent Lophane, Supervisor/Manager
Sunday, Feb. 21st
Bonjou dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. The following article from the Philadelphia paper provides an accurate glimpse of life in Haiti today and also discusses the need for shelter. God be with you, have a blessed Sabbath. Jay
Country continues projects started before quake, new funds for new problems PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —A traffic jam in the streets of downtown Port-au-Prince makes it barely impossible to navigate the van from block to block. People walk along the edges of the streets, seemingly defying the moving vehicles only inches away. Some sit on chairs or upside down buckets on the sidewalk, selling goods or cooking in large pots. Others —in sweltering 90-degree temperatures —balance large baskets and bundles on their heads with great poise.
For an American in Haiti for the first time, it’s momentarily difficult to tell what’s normal and what is due to the devastating earthquake that only occurred a month earlier. But, then it’s made starkly clear at the sight of a heap of rubble. What was once a building is now a mountain of cinder blocks and metal. In some areas, a shifting breeze brings the sudden whiff of a putrid odor, a reminder of mass graves holding thousands of bodies not far outside the city.
A young woman walks topless and exposed in the streets, turning heads and exacerbating the confusion. The Haitian driver explains that mental health hospitals are among those destroyed by the earthquake; therefore many patients, like her, who may have been formerly confined, are walking around without care or medication. He further explains that the traffic jam and nearly impossible parking is largely due to the destruction of parking decks that existed before the earthquake. On the other side of the city the day before, a basketball game between young men in the streets appeared like any major city in the U. S. But, that was only if you chose to ignore the sea of tents in the background where their families now live. Women cook in open air and people bathe with little privacy; doing the best they can to resume lives.
Considering all that's happened, the hustle and bustle in the capitol city of Haiti is a good sign. It is a sign of a city, still ravaged and mangled, still reeling from the pain of massive death; yet struggling to return to life. The people of Port-au-Prince are reaching out for all the help it can get
—from the U. S. and around the world. This is not only because of the earthquake, but because the rainy season that is about to start could cause even more death and destruction. "We’re asking the international community to continue to finance all of the projects that are in the pipeline of the program of development," says Haiti’s Minister of Tourism Patrick Delatour, a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C. Even his life is a dichotomy as he sits at the conference table, speaking passionately to a group of nine African-American media representatives as President Rene Preval’s point man for reconstruction. He envisions the future of Haiti through eyes that still grieve the loss of both of his own parents, killed in the Jan. 12 earthquake. Speaking for Preval who was unable to keep an appointment with the delegation, Delatour makes it clear that money allocated for pre-earthquake development in Haiti should not be reallocated for earthquake-related needs. "He does not want to use the humanitarian needs of that disaster as an excuse to divert money that happens to be in the pipeline and redirected toward Port-au-Prince," he says.
The severely underdeveloped infrastructure of Haiti, the financially poorest nation in the Americas, was already due millions of dollars in international relief for development of roads, hospitals and food. "All of those programs must continue while we are looking for fresh money [for the Earthquake relief]", says Delatour. And the earthquake relief need is great, he states. It amounts to at least $1 billion for demolition alone; plus $4 billion for reconstruction. Conditions observed during the African-American delegation’s tour of Port-au-Prince underscored the depth of needs outlined by Delatour. The dome of the Presidential Palace is toppled eerily forward. Churches are demolished, including the once majestic Catholic Cathedral; hospitals, health centers and schools are either wiped out or too dangerous to re-inhabit.
At least 400,000 people, about a third of the population of Port-au-Prince, have already left the city for other provinces. Thousands are in tents, but hundreds of thousands are still in need of shelter as the rainy season approaches. Delatour was the highest ranking among a string of presenters who briefed the delegation of working journalists during the whirlwind tour Feb. 9-12. Now that food, water and medical help is being provided, the most pressing need is shelter from the coming rains, Delatour says: "Fortunately, for us, God is on our side because the rainy season has not started yet." He hopes for mass deliveries of tarps, an open but waterproof tent-like shelter, which he believes is best.
Though the weather is warm year-round, starting in March is a three-month rainy season during, which it pours daily. Floorless tents and coverings without walls are a major concern of Ron Daniels, who led the delegation on the fact-finding mission to Haiti. "I am so fearful of what may happen if somehow more stable structures or temporary housing is put in place before the rainy season begins," Daniels says. "Just the drainage and the lack of sanitation and what that water is going to mean when it starts carrying all of those contaminants and fluids will just be a disaster on top of a disaster," he says.
But, overall, Daniels, who has long been an activist for Haiti, says he is amazed that the country appears to be stabilizing although the need for help is consistent and growing. But, the resilience of Haiti
—with a proud history as the first Black-led republic in the world after gaining independence as part of a successful slave rebellion in 1804 —is no surprise to anyone. Daniels is hoping that empathetic African-Americans will continue to reach out in masses.
"I am not here to organize the Haitian community. The Haitian community can organize itself. My task has been for the last 15 years, bringing the African-American and other people of African descent to the table to partner with Haitian-Americans and we take that seriously and we obviously want you to take that seriously because we want to bring the vast resources of the African-American community to the table."
—(NNPA)
Saturday, Feb. 20th
Psalm 19:14 (NIV) May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Bonjou dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. The above scripture was the selected verse of today's Lutheran Hour devotion, and it surrounded some of the news articles that I had read recently regarding Haiti. Are my words, actions and directions pleasing to our Lord, or just pleasing to me?
A common theme from discussions regarding Haiti this past week, has been 'what can I or we do to help down there?" What are your talents, what are your gifts, where does your heart lead you; are we doing things pleasing to Him?
While searching through many news articles about Haiti on the www there was an article about celebrities sending aid to Haiti.
"Celebrity couple Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman are funding a new school in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. The pair is following in the charitable footsteps of lovers Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, who have pledged to donate $50,000-a-year until 2015 to a fund aimed at setting up new educational facilities for young Haitians. Country music star Urban and his Oscar-winning wife will also plough funds into a project in the nation's capital, Port-Au-Prince, for the next five years, ensuring that kids have regular meals and medical check-ups. He says, "We're actually going to be funding a school down there for the next five years... The kids will have one hot meal a day. They'll have all their medical (needs) taken care of by the school, and clothing, as well." Colombian hitmaker Shakira has also agreed to aid Haiti's educational needs through her Barefoot Foundation, which has teamed up with the Architecture for Humanity charity to build a separate school."
I hope that it is a Christian school that these people are supporting. I hope that their efforts will be supporting in God pleasing ways, and not just making headlines. $50,000 would support 10 Trinity/HOPE feeding programs for a year. I was asked why now, why did it take so long for people in our world to open their eyes to the conditions in Haiti? For the past 200 years, satan enjoyed the world looking away from Haiti, a country that was and still is dedicated to him.
May common people, Christian people, like you continue to support school feeding programs in Haiti in the coming years. May your gifts continue to be pleasing to Him.
God be with you.
Jay
Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17th
Bonswa dear brothers and sisters in Christ, may your thoughts and faithwalk be closely dwelling on the journey of our Savior during this season of Lent. As I was reading the article that is pasted into the message, I was remembering Ash Wednesday in Haiti, the evening two hour service and was trying to imagine what they must be doing this year as they worship outdoors, still not sure about being indoors.
I have heard from many in Haiti in the past week who continue to say they are worried about being in their houses with their concrete roof, they use the word 'traumatized' to describe their feelings. I am hopeful to find ways to send tents to Haiti before the rainy season comes next month, but that too may be the way that God brings His children back into their homes, with the cleansing rain from above. He is in control, His children continue to look to Him for guidance, protection and direction.
Hope that you will enjoy reading this article from the AP, the information at the end was not good for me as I am still planning to go next month. God be with you. Jay
Haiti president: 3 years needed to move rubble By KIRSTEN JOHNSON and CAROLINA CORREA (AP) PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —It will take three long years to clear the rubble left by Haiti's devastating earthquake, said President Rene Preval who admitted even he's still afraid to sleep under concrete in case another quake strikes. In a rare exclusive sit-down interview, Preval told Associated Press Television News on Monday that Haiti faces a long reconstruction process that will result in fewer people living in the capital, Port-au-Prince. "It will take 1,000 trucks moving rubble for 1,000 days, so that's three years. And until we move out rubble, we cannot really build," Preval said.
Sitting in the airport police station that serves as the country's temporary government headquarters, Preval calmly laid out the difficulties of rebuilding an impoverished country amid aftershocks and the threat of more earthquakes. He said the government has destroyed some hastily rebuilt structures in the capital, but he said that until alternative housing plans can be completed, the government's ability to regulate reconstruction will be limited.
Asked about residents' assertions that local corruption has interfered with the international aid effort, he replied: "It is possible that there have been irregularities." "However," he said, "I should point out that the government isn't the direct manager of most of this humanitarian assistance." He referred further questions to relief organizations and local and international governments engaged in food distribution.
International aid groups have taken pains to at least make Haiti's government the titular head of the relief. But district mayor's offices in Port-au-Prince have been put in control of some food coupon distribution, and some irregularities have been reported. The president, whose five year term is scheduled to end next year, has rarely spoken publicly with his own people in the weeks since a magnitude-7 earthquake pummeled Haiti's capital city on Jan. 12. More than 200,000 people were killed. The presidential palace and his own private residence were destroyed, as were most government buildings and the headquarters of a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force that guarantees his security.
Since then, Preval said Monday, he has been staying with friends until a "light, earthquake-proof" structure can be built to replace his home. "Like you, I am nervous to be under cement," he said. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday said his country will spend up to $12 million to build Haiti's government a temporary base to replace official buildings damaged in the quake.
Despite Haitians' desperate need for shelter, many abandoned houses that survived the quake still stand empty because nobody is quite sure they can withstand another quake. At least 54 aftershocks have shuddered through Haiti's shattered capital since Jan. 12. They have toppled weakened buildings faster than demolition crews can get to them, sending up new clouds of choking dust. On Monday, three children were killed when a school collapsed in the northern city of Cap-Haitien. It wasn't clear what caused the collapse, which occurred after a late-night tremor and heavy rains.
"I tried sleeping in the house for a night, but an aftershock came and I ran outside," said Louise Lafonte, 36, who beds down with her family of five in a tent beside her seemingly intact concrete house. "I'm not going inside until the ground calms down." That may be awhile. Seismologists say more, damaging aftershocks are likely and there's even a chance of another large quake following quickly after the initial catastrophe in the capital of 3 million people.
In 1751, a large quake hit the island that Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic. About a month later, another one destroyed Port-au-Prince. A magnitude-7.4 quake that killed more than 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey in 1999 was followed three months later by another of magnitude-7.2 only 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the initial epicenter. "There are many other examples like that of two significant earthquakes following each other," said Eric Calais, a geophysicist at Purdue University who said he warned the Haitian government two years ago that the country was vulnerable to a major quake.
The prospect of another quake is on the minds of planners trying to rebuild the country and on those trying to prevent more deaths. U.N. inspectors have advised people to stay away from dozens of structures. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated at the end of January that there was a 90-percent likelihood of at least one more magnitude-5 quake in the coming month, a 15 percent likelihood of one of magnitude-6 or greater, and a 2 percent possibility of a shock as great, or bigger, than the Jan. 12 quake.
Monday, Feb. 15th
Bonswa dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. There were two articles of interest today, the first told of the Haitian government pressing to halt the use of native sand to make the concrete blocks that were so weak. I just don't understand why somebody has yet to speak out about the amount cement in the composition of those blocks. Cement was always used sparingly in the blocks that I saw being made, sand was cheap, cement was expensive so the block companies used less cement.
Another article talks about the saving of the national treasures in Haiti, trying to save them from destruction by the bulldozer. It is interesting to read the writers viewpoint, and then when you get to the bottom and read the short story about the painting that was saved, it certainly tells the story of the pact between the vodou priest and the people, although the writer neglected to tell that. Hope that you will find the story interesting. God be with you. Jay
Official: Save, don't bulldoze, Haiti's heritage By ANGELA CHARLTON - Associated Press Writer Haiti's historical heritage risks being bulldozed in the push to rebuild towns and cities flattened by last month's earthquake, a leading cultural official warned Monday. "There is a temptation to demolish everything. When the bulldozers come, it's fatal," Daniel Elie, director of Haiti's governmental Institute for the Preservation of National Heritage, told The Associated Press at the Paris headquarters of the U.N. cultural agency. Keeping survivors alive and building solid shelter for the 1.2 million made homeless by the Jan. 12 quake are the most immediate priorities. But U.N. officials say preserving the country's churches, artwork and mementos from its slave revolt will be crucial for Haitians' long-term emotional recovery.
Haiti culture minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue addresses reporters during a press conference held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, Monday Feb. 15, 2010. Haiti's culture minister joins UNESCO in a plea to preserve and restore Haitian artifacts and architectural landmarks as the country rebuilds after the devastating earthquake. The U.N.'s agency for culture and education wants a ban on trade in Haitian cultural treasures to prevent pillaging.
This undated photo provided Monday Feb.15, 2010 by the French Culture Ministry shows French military rescue workers standing by the painting "Serment des ancetres" (Oath of the Ancestors), by Guillaume Guillon Lethiere, at the presidential palace in Port au Prince, Haiti. France's Culture Minister says Louvre art restoration experts will repair the 1822 painting found in the rubble of the Caribbean country's presidential palace after the Jan.12 2010 earthquake. The painting depicts a meeting between two of the fathers of Haitian independence. Haiti won its independence in an 1804 slave revolt against France, defeating Napoleon's forces. UNESCO Secretary General Irina Bokova, left, introduces Haiti culture minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue during a press conference held at the UNESCO headquarters in paris, Monday Feb. 15, 2010. Haiti's culture minister joins UNESCO in a plea to preserve and restore Haitian artifacts and architectural landmarks as the country rebuilds after the devastating earthquake. The U.N.'s agency for culture and education wants a ban on trade in Haitian cultural treasures to prevent pillaging.
Cathedrals and other buildings dating to the 17th century were among those damaged, some reduced to their foundations or a lone crumbling wall. In that state, Elie said, their cultural value isn't obvious to demolition teams sent to raze neighborhoods, he said. His agency is compiling lists of buildings that should be protected to send around to other government agencies. Despite the country's current administrative disarray, "We must make everyone, everywhere sensitive to this," he said. Elie is joining Haiti's culture and communications minister, Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue, and UNESCO officials for talks this week to determine the most urgent needs for restoring damaged historical and cultural sites.
Irina Bokova, director of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said the agency has contacted "quite a few donors who have expressed their availability to finance" restoration projects. She would not name them but said it could involve European governments or private donors. Elie said "the priority of priorities" is restoring the historical center of Jacmel, a 17th- century coastal town once home to wealthy coffee merchants, with a turquoise bay and a serene reputation that attracted tourists and expatriates. About three-quarters of the homes in Jacmel's downtown were damaged.
"The historical center is the basis of tourism development" as the country tries to recover some semblance of a tourism sector, he said. Haiti wants UNESCO to make Jacmel a World Heritage site. Lassegue argued that Haitians and their international backers must respect history and culture as they rebuild the nation. "Heritage is so closely linked to national identity," she said. UNESCO is also pushing for a ban on international trade in Haitian cultural treasures to prevent pillaging of the nation's museums in the aftermath of the quake, and international security forces to protect cultural sites. In one example of global efforts to protect Haitian artworks, French restoration experts will repair an 1822 painting found in the rubble of the Caribbean country's presidential palace. French firefighters discovered the damaged, ripped painting. The painting, "Serment des ancetres" (Oath of the Ancestors), by Guillaume Guillon Lethiere, depicts a meeting between two of the fathers of Haitian independence. Haiti won its independence in an 1804 slave revolt against France, defeating Napoleon's forces. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to travel to Haiti on Wednesday - the first ever trip by a French leader to the country.
Thursday, Feb. 4th
Bonswa dear brothers and sisters in Christ, may His love be embracing and supporting this Thursday evening. While searching some of my favorite sites for Haiti related news tonight, the following pasted article is a good read as it concerns the rebuilding efforts being undertaken by the World Bank. It was especially interesting to read about the satellite imagery, given the detail on the current Google Earth flight over PAP. Enjoy the read.
In the heart of Washington, a room full of satellite imaging and aerial photographs is where the monumental task of rebuilding Haiti begins.
The Haiti Situation Room at the World Bank contains materials assembled by thousands of volunteers from 103 organizations including universities, government and private aid agencies, and companies helping the earthquake-devastated nation. The software specialists, scientists and technicians from around the world have joined disaster experts and urban planners at the World Bank, the poverty-fighting institution that will be play a major role in helping Haiti recover. "For the first time the world is responding to a crisis in a 21st Century way," says Joaquin Toro, a senior disaster risk management specialist at the World Bank.
"The technology allows us to have a big picture of what happened without having to spend a month or two months on the ground," Toro said.
Flying over Haiti several times a day, aircraft equipped with optical laser sensors and high-definition imagery have gathered aerial photographs of the devastation in which as many as 200,000 people have died. Downloaded to a server of the University of Puerto Rico, then transferred to the Rochester Institute of Technology, the images are processed and sent to the team at the World Bank. In the Situation Room, Galen Burr Evans, a World Bank urban development specialist, examines an aerial photograph of the broken capital Port-au-Prince. He touches a screen mounted on a wall and it quickly zooms in on a damaged building he identifies as a hotel. The images are so sharp that it is easy to see people in the street carrying water buckets. "With that type of detail we can do analysis of the level of damage, whether buildings are completely destroyed, or just heavily damaged," Evans said.
ZONING IN ON DISASTER
By working with groups like Google, Yahoo, NASA and Microsoft, ImageCAT and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Evans said the World Bank had halved the preparation time for disaster damage assessments. He said improved technologies for satellite imagery allowed experts to figure out objects as small as 15 centimeters (6 inches) in size on the ground in Haiti. Francis Ghesquiere, a disaster risk expert who will lead the World Bank's damage assessment in Haiti, said recovering from such a major disaster would take a massive international effort led by the Haitian government.
The first challenge, he said is to ensure the government, which is operating out of a police station in the capital, was able to function properly to lead the recovery.
Ghesquiere said 30 to 40 percent of all senior civil servants in Haiti died in the earthquake, which struck between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on January 12 when junior civil servants had left for the day but most senior officials were still at work. Equipped with maps and photos from the Situation Room, Ghesquiere will travel to Haiti this week to prepare for the formal multi-national damage assessment starting on Monday. In Port-au-Prince teams of international engineers will examine buildings to see which are safe and which are not. Separately, other experts will do an inventory of damage to different sectors of the economy including health, education and transport.
It is early days in the reconstruction of Haiti, but Ghesquiere said this is an opportunity to rebuild a country better than before.
As experts survey the damage, many of them are already talking about rebuilding an entirely new country and resettling people in safer and better constructed cities. "We can't look at this reconstruction as purely rebuilding Port-au-Prince, it has to be a vision for the entire country," Ghesquiere added. (Editing by Paul Simao)
Place the efforts of these people in your prayers as they with others begin to tackle this task, may their efforts be His efforts and may the culmination of their hours of work and the work of others bring Glory to our Triune God, the creator of all.
God be with you.
In Him
Jay
Tuesday, Feb. 2nd
Bonswa dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, may His peace be with you this Tuesday afternoon. Heard on the radio today that our Hy-Vee was offering customers the opportunity to purchase a case of bottled water, and send it to Haiti. Various businesses in Lincoln are doing that, and while that seemed like a wonderful humanitarian thing to do, I worry about the consequences. People in Haiti need the water and this is a wonderful short term solution, but their insides are not used to bottled water, and when that bottle is empty it will be refilled from the rivers and ditches, I have seen it done before. A man from CLC, Bernie Poppe, introduced me to a filtered water bottle in 2003 and with that, I could drink from the ditches, rivers and faucets in Haiti and not get sick. Haiti has been reported to have the third worst water in the world, only places with more putrid water are in Africa and India. Bernie sent me a brochure that has filtered pumps for the larger water containers and that too would be a wonderful resource.
I read this morning that Bill Clinton is going to oversee the rebuilding efforts in Haiti. In 2003 when I worked for the Haiti Lutheran Mission Coordinating Committee, I was putting together a PowerPoint program that told about the U.S. sending $585 million dollars to Haiti from 1993 to 2003 and at that time, I wondered where all that money went? Bad roads, bad water, no electricty, people without food living in abject poverty. At that time, the HLMCC had spend about $2.5 million in six years and we knew where the money went. Most went for Pastor and teacher salaries but funds were beginning to go to self sufficiency projects. It is about accountability, and you know as well as I, how important that is to donors. The primary reason that I work for hard for Trinity/HOPE is their accountability is outstanding.
Many people have asked what they can do to help Haiti, who to send money or goods. I am reluctant to give them directions as there are many worthwhile places. Trinity/HOPE is still needing help to feed children. LCMS world relief, Orphan Grain Train and Lutheran's in Medical Missions are also directions that need resources. Pray about the matter, let the Holy Spirit move you and not the human mind. The Lutherans living in the PAP and Jacmel areas need food, water and shelter in the short term and the rainy season is coming soon. From what we have seen, food seems to be available, filtered water bottles would certainly be a blessing to a family as they could all drink from one bottle. I would like to send tents there, but the directions need to be in French or a genuine camper needs to be there when the shipment arrives so the Haitians can be taught how to set them up.
Not sure if they would withstand a hurricane, but they would certainly keep a family warm and dry when the rains come.
I am going to close by pasting this note a friend forwarded to me this afternoon. It is from a US serviceman who had been in PAP. He language may be too salty, conservative and graphic, but it provides us with a real reason to continue to pray for Haiti. Pray for Christian leaders to step up and take part in the reconstruction efforts, leaders who will be accountable when there has been little accountability. May God be with you, please remember to eat chili this Sunday at CLC as the proceeds are going to Trinity/HOPE.
Saturday, Jan. 30th
Bonjou dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. While the news from Haiti has been painful the past two weeks, the attachment from John will help to shine a light on the darkness of past 18 days.
One more note, please say a prayer for Lophane's son Darlo who turns 3 today.
CLC members, the Chili Cook off is a week away, hope that you will be there either helping out, serving some of your chili or there with an empty spot in your stomach for a bowl of chili. Please pass the word about this event as the proceeds will feed many children in schools sponsored by Trinity/HOPE.
God be with you.
In Him
Jay
January 28, 2010
Dear Sponsors, Donors and Friends of Trinity/HOPE,
Since the earthquake hit Haiti on January 12th we have all seen the images on television and heard and read other media reports about the devastation. We have sent regular updates to those donors, sponsors and supporters for whom we have email addresses; however, we do not have email addresses for most of our donors and can not communicate with them in this manner. (If wish to be included on this list, just send me your email address.) Others have been communicated with by personal contact, bulletin inserts and phone, however, this will be the first general communication that will reach all our supporters and friends.
I will summarize the situation in Haiti and its progression in what I hope is an abbreviated, informative fashion below.
- Immediately following the earthquake, communication was severely limited with phone lines down and cell phones inoperable because of no electricity and the inability to recharge them.
- Email was restricted. There were huge lines for the cyber cafes and some accounts just did not work.
- Our first communication efforts were rewarded by the information that while many of our Haitian team and Lutheran Pastors suffered property damage none them nor their wives or children were seriously injured or killed.
- We then began to try to find ways to get aid to them. We were on a conference call with the LCMS World Relief: the Haiti Lutheran Ministry and Mission Fund and friends raised money for our people to use as first responders.
- We assessed our schools and their ability to reopen when the government grants permission. Merotte (Arcahaie), Mannou (Port au Prince) and Nossirel (Jacmel) were perhaps damaged worse and while many of the schools in Port au Prince have some damage we believe all of them will resume when government approval is granted for school to begin again (Many districts have already announced that their schools will open Monday hopefully others will do so as well or quickly follow).
- Our manager/supervisor in Haiti confirmed that food was available at all our current schools for our feeding programs to resume immediately when school opens.
- At last contact emergency supplies from the US and other countries still had not been given to our group in Port au Prince but they were able to send people to the Dominican border and get supplies from LCMS World Relief.
- Emergency funds have also been wired to them and to be available through their local bank.
- Trinity/HOPE has cancelled its February mission trip and will make determinations on its March and April trips as they approach.
Right now relief assets are “on the ground” in Haiti and are just awaiting further distribution by the armed forces and other professionals to the people. We will also be a part of this initial relief work through the special funds our people will administer. In addition Trinity/HOPE, under the guidelines of our board of directors, approved the start of eight new programs which will begin as soon as school resumes and funds can be transferred. We are thankful for your support and know God will use us in a major way in both the immediate and long-term recovery process as we will provide food for approximately 12,000 children and teachers in 73 schools each day.
Our goals are to continue to serve our current schools and to expand our services to others as soon as possible so additional children will be assured of at least one good meal each day. We thank you for your continuing support which changes children’s lives and will make feeding and FEEDING others possible as well.
John Hall, Executive Director of Trinity/HOPE
Beni Soit L'Eternel -Praise the Lord
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. Truly I tell you, just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Matthew 25: 34, 40
Friday, Jan, 29th
Bonswa dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Have read two articles in the past couple of day, kind of long, but both worth reading and they will give you a better understanding of the present conditions and what holds for the coming months in Haiti. The first article is from the Miami Herald.
27 January- Haiti President René Préval said Wednesday the country needs sturdy tents and paying jobs immediately to avert a longterm catastrophe, and U.S. health officials said they are working to improve sanitation and prevent disease in the hundreds of squalid encampments where nearly one million homeless now live. "Help the people with tents. Create employment so people can buy food in the country. That is what's most important," Préval said at a press conference with Organization of American States Secretary General José Miguel Insulza.
Préval said reconstruction "will not happen today or tomorrow," and that the country must not rush to rebuild in haphazard fashion. "There are no miracle solutions," he said. Meantime, Haitians are clearing the debris for themselves -- some 5,000 on $4-a-day wages plus food rations offered by the United Nations Development Program. In Delmas Wednesday morning, Haitians working in 10-member teams could be seen sweeping up debris, their faces covered in masks against the stench of rotting bodies still trapped in rubbled buildings. In Tabarre, near the airport, Haitians were at work digging latrines at a shantytown-style shelter site the government on Monday designated a displaced persons camp.
President Préval pleaded for the international community to send 200,000 family-sized tents and 36 million food rations to feed an estimated 1.5 million people -- the survivors of the Jan. 12 7.0 earthquake that killed an estimated 200,000 people. Haiti's government Monday also designated two camps for displaced persons in Port-au-Prince: The one on the road to Tabarre, the other at Croix des Bouquets. A third site is planned for the quake shattered zone of Leogane, west of the capital. (Miami Herald)
We continue to pray in His name.
Jay
Sunday, Jan. 24th
Bonjou dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Am going to past an Email from Pastor Thomas Bernard who has several Churches and schools in PAP.
"Dear Friends,
Greetings to you all! Thanks God for His love and mercy upon us. No matter how things are down here, God is love.
I finally find the possibility to reply back. I do not have access to internet since the earthquake that has destroyed the city of PAP and some other places. Communication is really difficult now.
My family and I are safe: We were all in the streets when that happened last Thuesday. Noah and I were going to die together since we were in the truck in our way to pick Quincey and Chrisitina. A very big and tall wall was going to fall on us. The divine Hand was there. A house where Christina was felt down; Margareth was at the faculty where she is taking some courses felf down also and her car is broke but God spared her life. I do not know how come God so loved us in such a way I as sinners. The wall/fence of the church felt down; some of the members are terribly hurt and a couple of them died. Port-au-Prince is gone and so are the people. They are talking about 200,000 killed but think this number is not right. Many more people are died according to us.
No one is sleeping in his home because thes symtome is still there. every day we feel it. This time it is something else. I've never heard of something like that.
Now we need to know how we can assist our members and the people of the community. I know that you have done so many things for us already but we still need many things to help the people. Do what you can to help us saving those who are still alive.
For this time if you want to send some funds, you will need to use the bank where I have my own account because it is a public bank and only the public banks are opening now.
Let's say "THANKS TO YOU, GOD" TOGETHER!
Have a nice evening and may God continue to be with us all!
Pastor Thomas."
While reading news from Haiti last night an ad for UNICEF caught my eye as the woman with her child appeared to be Nadine with her baby. For thsoe of you who have met her, tell me if I am write or if I am just getting older./ClientData/1009/Assets/images/web%20photos/unicef.jpg
Have a blessed Sabbath, may your steps bring others into a relationship with the One who guides you.
In Him
Jay
Friday, Jan. 22nd
I also want to share the following note from Pastor Eliona Bernard, Thomas' brother who lives in Cap Haitian.
"Thank you for asking how things are going on here. By the grace of God we are fine but still are very chocked. Everyone is afraid, from time to time we feel again the earthquake not as tough as the first one but it still happens even though it goes down. yesterday it was 6.1 and today 4.2. Many people here are afraid to sleep in their house they prefer to sleep outside in case of. There say lot about Cap-Haitian about the possibility for a possible earthquake. It happened in 1842 and the whole city has been destroyed and they report tht the same thing will happen soon, lot of pressure, lot of needs for prayer too. since yesterday life started again, in some gaz station there is gaz, food is available with a high cost as well as medication. Thank you for your care and concern, your prayer count so much for us at this time. Eliona"
I've read that many banks in PAP will reopen on Monday and that several businesses, that sell food, water and other supplies would also be open on Monday.
Also, I have asked you to pray for Philip Roy, today while viewing the Delmas video I saw that his business seemed to be undamaged. I have not heard from him but have seen many SECOM rental vehicles while news people are filming so perhaps he inundated with business at the time.
Please keep Haiti in your prayers for healing, and may leaders sever the bind with satan and dedicate the country to Jesus Christ.
God be with you.
In Him
Jay
Friday, Jan. 22nd
Bonswa dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Just a quick note. IF you have been to Haiti, this CNN link takes you on a drive on Delmas from the large cemetery below Hotel Kinam and ends at Delmas 75 which is where you normally turn right and drive to Pastor Thomas Bernard's church at Caredeux.
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2010/01/world/haiti.360/index.html?hpt=T2
God be with you.
Jay
Wednesday, Jan. 20th
I am going to paste an Email from Howard Bogusat that details his journal of the past week following the quake as he had been in Haiti for the dedication of a church in the Artibonite District. I am not sure if Howard is still the Chair of the Haiti Lutheran Mission Society Canada, but that is the group he is affiliated with and they are a member of the Haiti Lutheran Mission Coordinating Committee. Here is his message, un-edited;
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Hi to all those who were thinking on us and praying for our safe return.
As much as I hate winter, the occurence of this past week was not exactly what I had in mind. It was week of " FIRSTS ".
- First earthquake experience
- First witness of a Demon possession
- First witness of a cyclone windstorm
- First ride aboard a C-17 US Airforce transport jet
1. I am afraid that the earthquake was worse for our families and everyone here. We were in the SUV very near Pastor Thomas Church in Pettionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. The wave hit, the ground shook, winds blew dust all around, and trees shook like a dog shaking water off its back. We were on a grade right beside a strong wall which did not come down. The guy in the back shouted at the driver " ALLER ALLER "ie "GO GO", and we travellled only a few blocks to the Church. At the time we did not realize the gravity of the situation because we had not actually seen anything fall. When we got to the Church, we saw people all out in the street with terrified looks on their face. We saw a wall leaning at an angle. Then a fellow pointed out the retaining wall of Pastor Thomas' Church it is probably 150' and it had fallen into the yard. Then Pastor Thomas came by with a terrified look on his face and my demeanor changed. He muttered something about having to go check on his family and took off. Someone in the neigbouhood said that a complete Hotel had been flattenened. I surmised that it was most likely the Flamboyant Hotel because we had just seen a sign with an arrow a few blocks back. This turned out to be right, as reported on the radio. We were booked into the Kinam Hotel for the night and set off for it. Then we started seeing the devastation. One could really see where the faulty workmanship was. One would see 4, 5, 6, or 8 buildings in a row erect and then see one flattened, then perhaps a space and then another. This was all along the Rue Delmas. The traffic was a snails pace with people running all over the place. Most were fleeing downhill, but then all of a sudden as if someone had thrown a switch, they reversed, then back downhill en mass. Then we encountered cars in our lane. A building had collapsed and tumbled onto a vehicle, blocking the 2 down lanes of the Rue Delmas. Eventually we made our way up to the Kinam. Driving became easy for the last 4 to 5 blocks downhill from the Kinam, Damage was minimal and people far, far less. We got there and fortunately someone had a cell phone still operating for about two hours after the shock. We furnished them with a number and they got our message "OK" out. There was a man sitting on the sidewalk outside the Kinam, holding up the leg of a friend who was lying on the ground. They uncovered the towel and his big toe was severed and hanging by the skin. I had packed some Hydrogen Peroxide just before leaving and went to get it, to pour over - contra infection. We had bit of supper and around midnight retired. Anyone we asked had no idea if the airport was open or not, so we decided to give it a try in the AM. Around midnight there was an aftershock which swayed the bed and then another a little later. I prayed to the Lord and just got a distinct feeling, almost like a message back, that now "this is not where it ends", " I have a lot of work for you to do yet". I relaxed quite a bit and the aftershocks were barely perceptable till around 2. In the morning we set out for the airport. We took a ring road and saw whole hillsides flattened from a distance. We got near the airport where there was one ( the only gas station?) open. We lined up because we were terribly low. Two of the Hatians went ahead and managed to procur 2 - 3l. plastic jugs of diesel. We pushed ahead and got within two vehicles of the pumps, and a guy came up to us and pointed his gun at us and ordered us out of the line. They made way for some incoming police vehicles. At the airport there was some visible damage, but not too glaring. A US Rep. said they were screening for US citizens only and said someone would be back at 2 with some news. We waited till 2:30 and John the translator got the idea that we should head back to the safety of Gonaives, which we did despite dreading the bumpy ride of 3.5 hours. One of the Haitians left the airport to look up his brother who was policeman. He came back with good news. We stopped off there to collect his nephew to take with. Then there came one of those " God Moments ". Piereny declared that he needed to check on one more person, and we left Hwy # 1 a few blocks to do so. We got back on and maybe went 2 miles and here came Pastor Benoit from Gonaives in his sisters vehicle. He saw us and we embraced. He had heard that a Hotel in Pettionville had collapsed and he was coming to make sure we were alright. I thought "WoW ! What if we had tarried just a few minutes more off the highway. He would have gone past and would never have found us. To boot none of the phones were working. We passed the week at the Guest House and checked Delta Airlines for our rebooked flight. It was listed, so we assumed that the airport must be open. We got up at 4:10 and left Gonaives around 6. Because of the fuel shortage, they "raided" one of their bulldozers for 15 gal. of diesel. For the same reason, traffic was light and we got there in just over 2 hours. Continued below.
2. At the Kinam in the evening a young girl went into what appeared at first to be a seizure. I have witnessed several of my neighbours bouts and this one was different. The girl was lying flat and in a blink of an eye she bolted to a cat like position and had this terrifying, piercing look in her eyes. Then in while she was lying down with people trying to hold and console her. I left at that point and Wally said that he saw them carry her out stiff as a board. Seizures leave a person sore all over and whimping from pain.
3. On the way up to Gonaives the driver stopped and a mini cyclone went across our path picking up scads of dust. It dissappeared as quickly as it formed. They apparently are common after quakes.
4. When we got to the airport we got into a line which was heading into the airport. We were told it was for US citizens only, but Lynette checked with a US "official" packing a rifle ( nobody really knew what was going on), and he took us into a door into the airport. Inside wires were hanging down and water was all over the floor in some areas. We proceeded to a desk where we handed in our immigration card. Outside was a lineup to the right. Wally asked an "official" if the were accepting Canadians as well. He said he would check with " the boss". He came back and said sorry....no go. We winced and asked what we were going to do. We were in no mans land after handing in our immigration card. He just shrugged. Lynette said she would go inside and check with someone. She came out after some 5 minutes and said that we were to go down to the far left and that there was a plane leaving at 10 down there. The fellow who shrugged, gave us good counsel it seems. He said " if you go down there don't hesitate. Look like you really know what you are doing! We did just that, dodging all manner of stacks, people, and vehicles. Airforce transports were lined up one after another. We went to the far left until we saw a lineup at the second last plane. We lined up. but got worried when absolutely noone else followed. Also we were the only whites in the bunch. They unloaded an army vehicle and then stated loading people and we just walked up the ramp with our luggage. They had seats on the two outside walls of the plane ,but there was a dozen extras, including us. We still didn't know if we would get shunted or not. Then they started setting up some stowed seating and it was finally apparent that we had " MADE IT ". It has been a long time since I have boarded an airplane without having my luggage scanned and carrying a water bottle! About an hour into the flight they started checking for passports. The guy did not flinch when he saw our Canadian seals. Many on the flight had non at all. The young fellow on Wally's left had no ID whatsoever. He was say around 13 and had lost his father. Don't know how he got past the door screening. The noise inside one of those birds is almost deaffening. It is like sticking your ear out the car window at about 50 mph. The reception at Orlando, Sanford was amazing, as if they were welcoming heroes. They guided us through all the hoops and boarded us on a bus for Orlando International. We parted with Wally who made his way to NJ. and Lynette and I got to my place at 1: 25 AM after 21 hours with no sleep. Surprisingly, I was awake at just after 7, so rather than having my brain " in gear", I figured to put my fingers "in gear". I will try to send this to as many as possible, but the task of communication to 100's or a thousand people is daunting.
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Hope that this was a good read for you. Please keep Haiti, Lophane, the Haitian Pastors, teachers and brothers and sisters living there in your prayers. Please also keep the Roy family in your prayers, still no word on them.
God be with you.
In Him
Jay
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Bonjou dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. May the peace of our Lord Jesus be with you this morning as you rise for another day of service to Him who gave so much for you and continues to provide you with so much. In the past week the number of Email regarding news of the quake in Haiti has placed me into a read and delete mode to keep memory space free and in reading through messages quickly, sometimes my eyes read news but it really doesn't sink in and get stored in my head. John Hall reminded me last night of one such snippet of news. A missionary in St. Marc had heard that the Government of Haiti had declared that there would be no school for the remainder of the school year and that all schools, except private schools, would be turned into shelters for the homeless.
This news has been bouncing around in my mind last night and then this morning the Lutheran Hour devotion was wrapped around the following Scripture from 1 Thess. "They displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last." I don't know what the Gov't. officials define as "private" schools, but I pray, and ask you to also pray that the Lutheran and other Christian schools in Haiti are placed into that category.
The majority of our Trinity/HOPE school buildings are being occupied by both school children during the week and worshippers on the weekend. Some are small structures built with palm branches, some are concrete blocks with a tin roof and some are the homes of our Pastors who graciously open the doors of their homes for children to come in, learn about Jesus, math, history, language and eat their meal of the day.
Living in a tent in Haiti is not that bad and that is the means of shelter for many people in our world and when you drive through the countryside of Haiti in the rural areas you will see that living in a tent would probably keep you more protected from the elements than the structures that they live in now.
Haiti needs a Savior now. To close the Christian schools in a country dedicated to satan would be such a tragic mistake in a country that has a history of tragic mistakes. It seems as though St. Paul's words are directed to the past officials in Haiti, the vodou priests and their followers when he writes "they displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved."
Please keep Haiti in your prayers. I especially ask that you pray for a businessman, Philip Roy, who have provided vehicles for Christian mission teams in the past decade. Keep Mr. Roy, his family and his business in your prayers as I have not been able to contact him and his business was very close to the Caribbean Market where they were still pulling out survivors yesterday.
May God be with you this day, count your many blessings, see what God has done.
In Him.
Jay
Monday, Jan. 18th
Bonswa dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. The news from Haiti this day has certainly been slower. Lophane sent me an Email advising that he and his family have been sleeping outside by their house as they are still experiencing aftershocks. He indicated that there has been looting as people are becoming desperate for food and water. Some will steal anything that they can sell to get food and water.
I watched several people who had been trapped since the quake being rescued from the Caribbean grocery story near Delmas 90. One man had been trapped next to the peanut butter and jelly shelf. I had shopped their often and tried to remember which isle he must have been in, not hard to do, there were only four isles but by Haitian standards it was a HyVee.
A missionary friend with YWAM in St. Marc indicated that the port there had reopened and can accept cargo ships and also that their Western Union was in service; both very good signs some things heading in a positive direction in this gloomy situation.
Please continue to pray for the safety and health of our Lutheran brothers and sisters in Haiti, may their witness be a beacon of Hope for the people trapped in the lies of vodou looking for answers, help and a ray of Hope in their darkness.
May God be with you.
In Him
Jay
Saturday, Jan. 16th
Bonswa dear brothers and sisters in Christ. John Hall just called me and said that Lophane had called to him to tell me that Nadine and her family are safe and apparently well. Beni Soit L'Eternal!!! (Praise the Lord!!!)
Lophane and his family are sleeping outside near their damaged home, and it would that the aftershocks are causing his family and others to do this.
Thank you for your prayers.
God be with you.
In Him
Jay
Saturday, Jan. 16th
Bonswa dear brothers and sisters in Christ. I spoke with John Hall this morning and received the news that following a Trinity/HOPE Executive Board meeting last night, TH is now feeding over 11,000 children in Haiti. In the midst of this earthquake, it is wonderful to hear that news. The schools in the Les Cayes area have grown substantially, and more children are learning about Jesus Christ, being fed through TH programs and are prayerfully going out to share the news of a Savior throughout a country still dedicated to satan.
God be with you, have a blessed weekend.
In Him
Jay
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Email below from John Hall which was sent to Lutheran Pastors in Haiti and Trinity/HOPE Board Members.
Dear Brothers and all our friends in Haiti,
May God be your strength and comfort today as we rejoice that you survived the earthquake.
The news media which has constant coverage tells us of the horror you are enduring with lack of water, food, medical supplies and other necessities. They also tell us that supplies, while you may have not yet seen them, are both now in Haiti and on the way. Hopefully they will reach you and other people who so desperately need them soon.
You are daily in our prayers and the prayers of our churches, supporters, donors, members and sponsors. But James, the human brother of our Lord, wrote in James 2:15-17, "Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." This verse like hundreds more and our love for our Lord and you calls us to action.
Trinity/HOPE and its members are in action. Here are some of the things we are doing.
- Last night we voted to serve 1000 more each day by adding eight new schools. (More will come on this.)
- Several locations are having events to raise funds for our programs so they continue unabated even if our costs rise after the quake.
- Keeping our donors, members and supporters full informed as news of your situation is received.
In addition to our programs we may be participating in several ways which are totally separate and apart from our programs.
- Haiti Lutheran Ministry and Mission Fund and others are raising funds so our local teams can possibly be able to distribute food as you did during the hurricanes.
- Individuals and groups are raising funds for earthquake relief and personal help as well.
- Yesterday I was a part of a conference call from LCMS World Relief and Human Care. The are in the process of sending relief and have asked each of us for ideas.
- Thrivent Financial For Lutherans is matching the funds raised by the LCMS, ELCA and Wells Synods so additional relief can come.
I know you have so many things that you must do and times are so hard. However, as you can please send us information on the condition of our schools in Port au Prince (the sponsors really want to hear from them) and Tell Us the Instant Banks are Operational so we can begin to send any money that has been raise.
We love you and pray for you constantly.
God bless,
John
Friday, Jan. 15th
Bonswa dear brothers and sisters in Christ. I keep thinking about the people sleeping outside, without food and water. No news today about Nadine, but I did receive an Email from my friend who used to serve with the UN in Haiti. He has sent an Email from a UN peacekeeper now in Haiti and it is quite a message. There is a link with photos and check those out too. This is a long read, a vivid account. Hope you will read it before you get ready for bed tonight, or tomorrow night and continue to pray for them. Jay
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Good afternoon,
Forgive my sending you this but I thought that you may be interested. I was stationed in Haiti as a United Nations Peacekeeper for nearly four years and have a daughter and son that live on the island. At this stage I haven’t been able to obtain any information about my daughter but my son who lives in the Dominican Republic is well. Communications is limited in and out of the country and knowing the location of my daughters family I am hoping all is well.
I thought that I might share this account from a friend of mine who served with me and is still there, who was lucky to escape with her life. At this stage, many of my former colleagues have been killed. Most of my former staff have been accounted for apart from two; one is missing the other is dead.
At this stage the UN are saying that about 100 staff are missing and between 50,000 –100,000 people are dead with up to 3 million people either injured, displaced and homeless. It is hard to believe that this has happened, I was in the area not long ago and know how difficult life is there.
For those of you who are interested this is a website sponsored by the UN;
http://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/gallery.jsp?query=subject%3A%22Haiti%20Earthquake%22
Thank you,
Best regards,
Simon-Peter MacGeorge
ICT Projects & Services Manager
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I say to myself there but for the grace of God go I - it could have been me back in 2005 or 2006 if this had happened. Below is a copy of an email from my good friend Denise Opperman - who is working in MINUSTAH (the UN Mission in Haiti) thank God she is alive. Some of my other friends were not so fortunate as you will see from her email. This is just one account of what has happened all over Port au Prince:
"Hi all, as there are many requests for information, I will send you all the same message.
14 of the Human Rights team were in the Human Rights building, Villa Mena, which is a private house rented for us by the mission. We were all at the weekly meeting in the basement conference room when, at 4.50 PM, we heard a huge roaring sound, like a thousand MAC trucks coming up the hill, and suddenly the Chief, Lizbeth Cullity jumped as she was the first to realise it was an earthquake. We all ran for the door to the garden, but were falling all over the place as the floor was rocking and there was a horrible crackling sound as the room walls and ceiling fell apart into shattered plaster and clouds of dust all over us. I could not get up off the floor but my two colleagues, Oumar and Arnaud , pulled me to my feet and I climbed out over rocks through the opening where the door used to be. Somebody was shouting that there was a person under the debris and it turned out to be Lisa Mbele-Mbong, who was killed instantly and Dieudonne Munyinga, who was injured by falling rocks and had a bad head wound. (He is now in Santo Domingo in hospital and is ok).
We made our way onto the street to get away from potentially falling walls and there was a lot of confusion as there were many many people screaming because most of the buildings on the street had collapsed or caved in and also everybody was asking for news of their colleagues. Then there was an aftershock, which we later learned was a 5 on the Richter Scale, and there was general panic. It was also then that somebody told us that the told us that the main headquarters building, The Christopher Hotel, had completely collapsed and very few got out. Then there was yet another tremor (also a 5) and everybody was panicked but did not know what to do . It was absolutely terrifying. A security officer advised us to go the Philipino camp, which is beside the Christopher and was not badly damaged but I did not feel good about this as I have been in the building before with Christian . Then another Security told us to go to parking lot 8, which is a wide open space and that is where we spent the night. It was full of staff and locals with children as the parents had come to the neighbouring school to pick up their children when the quake hit. The school was badly damaged and many of the kids had injuries, some very bad. Two Haitian women near me died of their injuries. We had Dieudonne in the back of a car and eventually, about two hours later, they were able to get an ambulance to the parking lot to take injured to the Philippine doctors. . People were fighting to get the injured into the ambulance and he did not get out in the first trip. Then a bus came to take more injured. We were lucky in that one staff member had the keys to one of our vehicles so 8 of us spent the night in the car.
All night long we were getting reports form UNPOL, military and other civilians about the status of the Christopher, all of them bad, and eventually we were told that it was very unlikely that there were any more survivors. One of the staff in the building who survived, Patrick Heine, who was in his sixth floor office near the balcony when the quake hit fell three floors, and was trapped under debris. His legs were trapped by a big boulder and a large filing cabinet fell on his arm, but they succeeded in getting him out two hours later. He has a broken leg and many cuts but in the realm of things, he was very lucky but his wife ,who was in the Villa Privee which also collapsed, is still missing. He said it all happened so quickly and he was sure that the other staff were probably dead. The rescue workers found him because he was banging on the filing cabinet with a rock and shouting as he was very afraid that more boulders would fall on him. During the night rescue workers tried to find other people and got two more out, Ekaterina Pischalnikova, who is injured and has been sent to Santo Domingo and a security officer, Tarnaud, whom I dont know.
Chief and Deputy Chef of Mission, Mr. Hedi Annabi and Luiz Da Costa are confirmed dead. Missing and presumed dead are , Andrea Loi, Andrew Grene, Gerard Le Chevalier, Jean-Philippe LaBerge, Renee Carrier, Kai Bucholtz, Ann Barnes . Nicole Valenta, Antoinette , Simone Trudeau . we are not sure if Jerome Yap was there and have not been able to find him. Of course there are many others missing.
This morning we went back to look at the offices and the Villa Mena is totally destroyed. My office and the office of the Chief, are flattened as is the second floor, we can both only thank God that we were at the meeting or it would have been us too.
We are now in borrowed offices at LOGSBASE, which is a container compound and did not suffer much damage, just falling file cabinets etc. and where many aid workers are coordinating rescue efforts, medical, food shelter etc. . As well as thousands of dead (they picked up 4000 bodies yesterday and that is the tip of the iceberg) there are thousands and thousands of injured, and hundreds of thousands without shelter.
The damage to the City is enormous. It seems the epicenter was at Carrefour/Martissant and nobody knows how many dead in that area. Many many hotels etc. fell in that area. Half of the National Palace (home of Preval) was distroyed although he is ok. The cathedral, the national petenitiary where there were 3000 prisoners, the parliament etc. were all destroyed.
The Montana collapsed and there are reportedly 200 guests missing. The building where I live in Petionville, the Ritz Kinam, had enormous cracks and was too dangerous to enter so I am now staying with Lizbeth. . the areas of Montagne Noir, Rt. Kenskoff and Morne Calverte, suffered little damage.
So there is is, I have lost everything, passport, green card etc. all personal effects, but I am very lucky to be alive and these things do not matter. Please help the Haitians in any way you can, its is truly a devastating situation.
Thank you all for your support, Denise"
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Denise was always an excellent writer - her account of her own experience is vivid and frightening. I think if you all send this to all your friends and ask them to do the same maybe we can get something going here to try to help these poor people in this incredibly tragic country. My friend Ann Barnes and Simone Trudo are missing presumed dead my buddy Jerome Yap is missing also. I keep hoping perhaps they were not at the Christopher Hotel but as time passes this is becoming a forlorn hope.
May God be with you my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Please continue to pray for news regarding Nadine.
In Him
Jay
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Christ in Medicine Mission Team 2008
L to R: Scott Hamilton DDS, Shyla Carlson, Lacey Stevens, Paul Bernhardson MD
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