Day 1 & 2: June 6th-7th, 2010 Journal

Day 1:

Today we left from Nashville around 615am for Port Au Prince. Our connecting flight in Miami was delayed so we paced and chatted with fellow passengers, awaiting our plane. One crew seated near us was a church group from Greensburg, Kansas that was traveling to Port de Paix to rebuild an orphanage that had collapsed during the earthquake. While killing time I googled the city to find out it is deemed “Haiti’s most beautiful city”. It’s located on the north coast, about 100 mi from PAP. These extremely nice folks explained to me that their entire town had been completely destroyed by a F5 tornado 3 years ago. A young volunteer, and new dad, stated “This was our way to give back and say thanks - because we received an unbelievable amount of help when we faced disaster.” Wow. Talk about paying it forward. I love this type of volunteerism, its contagious.

While waiting for the PAP flight I watched several of Francis Chan’s video blogs. One in particular was about how we are called to be ambassadors of Christ. The thought of this lays a great deal of responsibility on us as Christ followers. We must make sure that we are truly speaking in a way that is pleasing to God - our words must so carefully represent our Christ, as he is so deserving. Chan compared this relationship to having a translator...a comparison I have lots of experience with. :) When you have a translator you are quite vulnerable to misrepresentation - someone else is conveying your message. What a thought. I should think about this more often. What kind of translator am I being for Jesus?

The flight into PAP was painless, aside from the delay. Stepping off the plane I was relieved to feel the 80 degree temperatures - they were quite unexpected but it was nearing sundown and it was overcast. I noticed many improvements at the airport - shuttle service to the customs warehouse, 1 baggage claim turn track, and much shorter wait times. Getting our luggage was relatively easy. As Tabitha and I pushed our buggies outside we were bombarded with men wanting to help us in return for a tip. I expected this and felt much more prepared this time around. After about 15 very stern “No Thank you’s!” I spotted Don, Roberta, and Adam awaiting us. 

The ride to the guesthouse was not far from the airport. Roberta drove us, like a champ, in an old Ford truck. She is the caretaker at an orphanage that was only a few blocks from our guesthouse. She prefers the term “Children’s Home” because she treats all 30 of her children as her own and they function just as a family should. She has 30 children that call her “Mom”. Roberta has live in Haiti for almost 15 years blessing this country. She was a military brat growing up and lived in many different states: Hawaii, NC, Virginia, and Maryland. She told us that before she decided to become a missionary she was a financial analyst for Bank of America. Her mother told her “You know we just always knew you’d be living on Park Avenue and working on Wall Street”. Boy, did God have different plans for this amazing woman. Her heart is much too big to be wasting her love on numbers. She reminds her mother “Now you have 30 grandchildren and you love it”. I imagined her mother pulling out a small photobook of grandkid pics and it unfolding accordion-style all the way to the floor....this made me smile.

Today, Harry, the Healing Hands Intl. leader found out his 16 year old niece lost her battle with Leukemia. She was diagnosed in January 2010. Some things I will never understand.

Day 2:

Today we drove about 1.5 hours to the school where construction would begin. Upon our arrival we were greeted by many school children in orange & white uniforms. They were all smiles and very excited to have visitors. Their classes were now being held outside under tarps with rolling chalkboards since school had resumed. The teachers were very young and had about a 7th grade level education. There were 4 classes in progress. The kindergarteners were singing “Old McDonald” in Creole. Harry told us that each child who attends the school must be sponsored. It’s $125 a year for each child to attend school 5 days a week from 7am -12noon. Some of the children walk for an hour to get to school every morning. School is always dismissed at noon, so no food is served. 

As we entered the damaged school building it was obvious that no one had entered the school since the quake. The rooms were littered with debris - rocks, concrete, trash, dust. The walls were still adorned with Santa and many coloring book images hand crafted by the children. Many walls were badly damaged and the privacy/security wall around the campus had fallen. Each classroom had concrete walls with green chalkboard paint on the front wall for teaching. As I entered one of the classrooms  I read the script left on the chalkboard since the day of the quake: “Mardi 12 Janvier 2010: Dieu aime les enfants”. The lesson on January 12th was “God loves all the children”. 

Outside, the first task for the team was to rebuild the security wall. Concrete, cinderblocks, and rebar had all been purchased. Against the wall, they also reconstructed the toileting area. The toilet was a concrete U shape that had a hole that was about 20-30 ft deep. The water well from which they drew their water from was about 20 yards from the toilet and it was no more than 30-40ft deep - the water was surely contaminated.

In the alley behind the school there was  family living underneath a sheet tied from the back privacy wall to the side of the school. The alley was about 3 feet wide. This family was sleeping, eating, and urinating here. There were 3 children, ages 1, 2, & 4 years, approximately. The 4 year old was mentally retarded and partially blind. They had her tied down at the waist to an old wooden chair. She was unable to walk, unable to toilet by herself, and unable to feed herself. She had no underwear on and her bottom was directly on the rough seat of this chair where she was tied all day long....the same chair that she urinated in. When I got close enough to her, I could tell she could see me & she knew I was there - she followed me with her good eye and flapped her hands laughing loudly. I called her “Belle” out loud, which means “beautiful” in French creole. I’m not sure if she understood, but she had a beautifully wide white smile that never left during our visit. Her clothes were filthy. None of the 3 children were wearing underwear or shoes. We will take them shoes & underwear Wednesday, now that we have a good guess as to their sizes. The younger two children, one toddler & one baby who was newly walking, were feeding the sister who was strapped to the chair. This was a Jesus moment for me...what a scene. Exactly what we are called to do...to serve one another - this beautiful but heartbreaking illustration was amazing.

At the school we hauled out debris, gathered concrete dust to mix for plaster, swept & painted the few walls of the classrooms that were not damaged. I saw the largest spider I’ve ever seen in one of the classrooms...it was as big as my hand. At lunch time Tabitha and I made PB&J sandwiches for the 20 “blanc” workers and the 17 Haitian workers. We learned early this “blanc” term would become our instant name in a crowd of Haitians, as we stood out like a sore thumb. Blanc means white, if you couldn’t put 2 and 2 together. :) I did notice that after I started referring to myself as a “blanc” to the Haitians in conversation...they laughed very very hard and were entertained by me calling myself a derogatory name.  :)

Later in the day we went up on the roof and looked over the surrounding community. A woman had motioned that there was someone in need in her commune. What I saw broke my heart. About 30 feet on the other side of the back barrier wall was a small makeshift tent made of fabric and tarp. It was about 3x6ft, tied up against a palm tree. The flap over the “door” was pushed to the side and I could see slow movement in the tent. The woman now was gone. All of a sudden a long white stick moved the door flap aside and very slowly out walks an elderly man. He could barely stand & walked very unsteadily to a chair just outside his “door”. I noticed he was looking straight ahead the whole time and feeling everything around him. He was having a very difficult time finding and sitting in the chair. Suddenly I realized this man was blind. I was in shock of the unlikeliness of what I was witnessing. First off, this man was at least 70 years old...he had way out lived most Haitians, you rarely see any elderly folks...Secondly, this man had survived an earthquake being blind. Scanning the commune I noted that all the homes had collapsed inside their surrounding barrier wall. What had this man endured during the quake? I had so many questions. I figured he had surely been injured. I immediately thought of the passage in James 4:17 “Anyone, then, who knows the good they ought to do, and doesn’t do it sins”.  I knew we must help this man in some way. It was obvious this man was in significant pain and had some type of injury to his leg & knee. Looking around the perimeter of the school roof I became overwhelmed with 2 questions “What was I not born here? Why did this happen to them and not me?”. I’m certain I will never know the answer to this question. I felt so overwhelmed with feelings of being so incredibly blessed and then felt guilty for all that I have and how carelessly I use my many resources. Tomorrow I shall visit this man, no matter what. What a day.