Never Anything As Planned

We are back in Port-Au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. It was a bit sad to leave our new Haitian friends in Montrouis to be honest, but we have a feeling we might see them again in the near future.

We are staying at the house of a pastor who has taken it on to oversee three tent cities to provide food, clothing, water. He is not getting the supplies from the UN but from private sources. Let me clarify though - we are not staying in the house, although it is standing. We are staying in tents in the back yard, since there are still aftershocks and everyone is worried to sleep inside. I don't blame them!

In the history of Haiti, there has never been an earthquake ever. Now they are told that the aftershocks might last for another 6 months.... Can you imagine living your live in a tent for 6 months? And if your house was destroyed to live in a tent city and share a port-a-john with thousands of others? Your personal bathroom, your personal kitchen, your personal everything is gone.....

Yes, we drove through the city again and it was even more overwhelming this time around. We went through what is known the economic center of Port-Au-Prince, a city that housed 3 million people before the earthquake. This is one of the areas that actually was hit the hardest: many stores are completely destroyed, others have cracks or are leaning dangerously over the street, threatening to fall any minute.

We drove by what once was the three story market that had about 2 million people frequent every day. It too is flattened like a pancake. And with many of those collapsed buildings, bodies are still trapped inside.

Again we drove past water and food distribution points. The lines are long and we are told that many times there are fights for the supplies. It made us think though if the other places that were hit the hardest, such as Jagmel (another city) is getting any help at all.

We went to the school that the pastor has started. His daugher showed us around the rubbel.... only one building is left standing which is now used as a clinic. The back of the school is completely leveled. Two children died in the buildings, many others were hurt.

Tents are camped around the one building and we are greeted by a chant of little girls singing "hey you, hey you, hey you". Somehow they are still able to smile in the midst of the tragedy - many of them do have psychological and emotional traumas though. As an example: they easily get scared when they hear loud noise.

Rachel, the pastor's daughter, surprises us with a number that is hard to believe: 2000 people (adults and children) live in these tents.... that is 2000 people in about 35 tents, some sleeping in the open. During the day, they go out to find food, jobs..... so that is why it looked desserted when we got there.

We were supposed to help with handing out food: a bag with oil, rice, beans and a salami type sausage. Everything is ready but they are waiting for the rice to finish the supply packages. So, when there is no rice, no food can be distributed. The same applies for clothes.... there are no clothes to hand out. So we were left with taking pictures of the kids, hug them, hold their hands, chat with some of the mothers and grandma's.

On our route through the city, we asked about insurance. Probably 3 out of 100 houses were insured, however insurance in Haiti does not cover earthquakes. So the people have lost everything that they have worked for, many of them for 10 or 20 years. And there is no way of rescuing any of it, since the cement boulders are covering everything. One is left with nothing....

We don't know what it will take to clear out all the debris and how long it will take. We ask the Haitians and all they say is "a long time". It seems the pathway to restoration is going to be a very long one............. And that is in addition to all the 'regular' needs that Haiti has. We are truly overwhelmed with the situation and feel a bit helpless on where to begin.

As we will make our trip home tomorrow, we will be sure to begin posting pictures and videos.... keep checking back with us!