Haiti Happenings

5500 lbs. of rice, 2500 lbs. of beans, 1000 lbs. of sugar, 100 cases of spaghetti, plus oil, toothpaste, soap & seasoning cubes are all being divided into bags for distribution.

With the energetic assistance of some QCS students who were doing their community service hours, as well as friends and anyone else who stopped by, 700 bags were prepared in one day!

The truck was loaded at 5 a.m. and on the road at 6 heading back to the southeast area.  The normally 4.5-5 hour trip took 15 hours due to the truck getting stuck crossing the river.  A 9 p.m. arrival required spending the night.  Pastors from 11 churches will be receiving help for people in their areas.

I have spent the last two days doing back-to-back distributions in Bainet (south) and Terre Froide (mountains).  The road to Bainet had just been opened so you can imagine how bad it was.  I traveled with the Convoy of Hope team.  The people in both locations were extremely happy to be receiving help.  The road to Bainet had been cut since Hurricane Gustav so they were anxious to have some outside visitors/help.

The above photo shows the church/school yard following the hurricane.  It is now cleaned up nicely, but lacking much of the previous shade.  The roof of the church, school and pastor’s home were also damaged.

This image is of a young boy helping carry the food his mom received in the distribution in Terre Froide.  Sixty families received enough food to help them significantly for a couple of weeks.

The photographer who was at the distribution we did on Tuesday has posted more than 90 photos on the internet…mostly of the damage in Gonaives.  You can view those photos by clicking here.

 Death and destruction hit the town of Cabaret over the weekend.  Torrential water washed homes away during the night as people lay sleeping, killing some 60 people.  We assisted Convoy of Hope/Mission of Hope in a food distribution yesterday and were able to view the destruction first-hand.  It is truly sensory overload.  

Haiti is wracked with problems in the best of times.  How much worse it is today!

Using funds raised by a group of students at a Christian school in Kentucky, we were able to do a food distribution to a group of very appreciative people this past Saturday.  It was well-organized and orderly.  The photo to the left shows Pastor Eterve explaining what the people will find in the sack they will be given.  We bagged 100 sacks containing rice, beans, sugar, seasoning cubes and a bottle of oil.

In talking with the AG superintendent yesterday morning, the magnitude of the damage of the storms is unbelievable.  Between all the storms, Haiti has been covered north to south, east to west.  For a short video of the flooding in Gonaives, click here.

It seems to not end…clouds, rain, wind.  People are longing for the normal days of sunshine. Following on the heals of TS Faye and Hurricane Gustav, ‘Happy’ Hanna seems to want to stick around for a while.  There have been three storms hit Haiti in less than three weeks.  Read more here.  We had quite heavy rains most of the night.  The city of Gonaives in the north is standing under 6 feet of water in many places.  People are on their roofs awaiting help.  The difference in this flooding of Gonaives and the flooding of 2004 where more than 3000 people died, is that this flood came at a slower rate and people were able to climb to higher ground, though there is still loss of life.  I am adding a photo from the Gonaive flood of 2004 that I had.  The total death toll in Haiti for the three storms stands at around 100 people.  And then there is TS Ike…

We are trying something different this year with the LACC uniforms.  One of our pastors has a sewing school and teaches/trains people to be seamstresses/tailors.  He and his best students are sewing the uniform shirts for LACC.  The quality is EXCELLENT, the price is right, and everyone benefits.

We recently had an appointment to measure the students at one of our schools.  Unfortunately, when we arrived the gate was locked and people had begun to gather outside.  We waited a bit and then just did our work outside the gate.  When we were close to finishing, the lady from the school arrived and helped us finalize everything…still no key, still outside the gate.   Flexibility is a characteristic that must be developed early in Haiti.

Reports continue to come in on the damage from Hurricane Gustav.  Though there is quite a bit of damage, it could have been so much worse.  The one church/school that I thought would have suffered lots of damage suffered no harm.  For that we are rejoicing!  It looks like lots of tin, nails and boards will help a lot.  I just got the cost today for a piece of tin (galvanized roofing) in Bainet…H$65!  That’s over $8US per piece!  It appears the road to Bainet has opened as the pastor called and reported vehicles arriving.  That’s good news.

We enjoyed a good service in our ‘home’ church yesterday.  The heat/humidity was almost unbearable and everyone was fanning.  Dorothy came home and weighed herself and had lost another 2 pounds at church…just another side benefit of worshipping in a Haitian church.