The New Haiti

It’s quite odd to drive down the same roads and see a totally different place than before. This is what the people of New York felt like on 9/11 for sure- total disaster that changes the course of a country and a people, and even their landscape.

Poverty set upon poverty. That is the only way I can think to describe it.

Driving through the city for the first time the other day showed me things that I never thought I’d see. Mass graves were one of them. Coffins are being made everywhere that the tools to do so are available. Buildings are damaged or fallen all over the place. We drove by tent cities that had signs outside of them on the road that read “NEED FOOD AND WATER” in French, Creole and English and others that said simply, “NEED HELP”.

We stopped at one tent city to take pictures and found out that no help had come to them yet. None whatsoever. The camp was empty save a few markers where families had marked where they would put their sheets that night to sleep. Everyone had gone to find work or food or water or something. A group gathered around us nonetheless. One always does.

In that specific camp we found that not one single family had been spared the grief of losing at least one of its members. Most of them had lost many more than one and all of their few possessions on top of that.

It is easy to be intimidated by the task ahead. We are trying to start the best way we can to prepare for long-term aid for those we can help. It is overwhelming. We (the mission’s leadership) haven’t even had the chance to mention the damage to our buildings yet. Though the damage is not immense, it is significant to say the least. But there are PEOPLE with bigger issues and emergencies at hand.

Their emergencies are our emergencies and so first things come first. We are here for them. But we need help. We don’t have nearly enough to provide for all of them. I am running around like crazy walking miles and miles around these UN and airport compounds trying to find some food to distribute. But everyone else is doing the same. Every missionary in this country has an emergency that needs to be tended to and the organizations in charge are overwhelmed.

Everything that was difficult in Haiti just became much more so. For everyone. Around everyone. To everyone’s dismay.

But we continue. And we will continue to continue. Don’t ask me what I get done every day. I don’t have time to remember. Shaina and Dee and Wilckly are working equally hard and more so.

Progress will be made. It must be.

Work with me. This is not something that is done by anyone alone. We appreciate and depend on your help.

In it to win it,
C