As many of you know, our prayers for the people of Haiti have intensified since the devastating earthquake more than a week ago. So that you may have a close-in perception of what’s going on in one “safe-house” in Haiti, I’m posting here an update from Debbie Berquist, acting director of The Village of Hope, a Lutheran outpost in Port au Prince. This is her dispatch of January 22, 2010:
Jan 22, 7:20 pm Good Evening: The end of another week, but with no end of the work in sight for many. Today was the eye opener for me…I got to see what you folks have been looking at for a week on TV. All I wanted to do was cry as we drove up and down Delmas on our VOH business today. We passed by Accra Factory Outlet store and it is no longer. As many of you know Robert Accra is one of our Haitian Board members. I also passed by Valerio Canez where our other Board member Rene Max August is. I spoke with him, extending sympathies on VOH behalf and letting him know I just wanted to check in with him. He was quite busy but gave me a couple of minutes. He told me Robert Accra and his staff, includiing his son, survived the collapse of the store and were rescued after about 6 hours….uninjured. As for Valerio Canez, Rene Max’s mother told me that they had major damage at the store by the US embassy and at the park,I noted the water wheel was down. They did not lose any staff members but some of them lost family members. What amazes me is the way the people carry on despite their grief….maybe because all are in the same boat it makes it easier to carry on. It will not surprise me at all if in the future we see a lot of mental health issues as a result of all of this.
As we drove we listened to the radio and heard cries for help from various neighbourhood groups around the city that had not recieved any relief supplies. Little tent cities are popping up all over the place as people group together and help each other out. The shelters are made out of whatever the folks can make….most with a few sticks with sheets or plastic tarps tied to them. In one area people had made little rooms with leftover or ruined pieces of tin roofing. At the same time one feels helpleess listening to those still needing help there are signs everywhere that more and more aid is getting to where it needs to. Big water trucks were lined up outside CAMEP which is the gov’t water control area not too far from the airport, waiting their turn to be filled up. Large trucks and camions were lined up outside the UN compound waiting to get assignments to deliver goods and supplies. Garbage trucks were being filled by bulldozers or men with shovels. Small businesses were open and market ladies out selling cooked food, dried goods and many other items. We drove by the Cnd embassy and it was charged with people. I noted they even had a little tent city set up inside the compound. Vehicles of all sizes and types continue to pour in from the DR, all laden down with various and sundry supplies. You should have seen the lines outside of the Western Union office on Delmas…talk about a throng……everyone waiting for funds sent by loved ones from afar. Demolition is now going on and their were trucks laden down with chunks of concrete and blocks etc. headed to the outskirts of PAP (going N) to dump the stuff. Work crews are still working away to free the folks in the Caribbean market…..announcers on the radio were requesting heavy equipment to go up to help move some of the big slabs. Students were found alive in a school by Delmas 29……right at the One Stop market……a small grocer store and plaza that has been there for ages……it too suffered major damages.
The marines or at least some military group have quite a camp set up on the airport grounds already…..a big change from 2 days ago when I was by the same area and there was nothing there.
Checked in with Gladys at Little Children of Jesus and delivered her some blankets. Will also get her some water when I go by the school in the next few days. She was in much better spirits today. The kids were all gathered in the dining room eating as I visited. Had my daily visit with Marie too…..she was feeling much fresher having braved going into the house for a bathe.
We’ve had a few more gentle shakes over the past 18 hours…I heard on the radio today we can expect them for another 4 weeks or more. I just keep telling myself they won’t be as bad as the first,but they do make your heart skip a beat….maybe I have said that already.
So that is a little snapshot of the day. To end on a humorous note, because moments of humor keep us going, here is a little story from last evening.
I decided that a nice cold beer would be something to look forward to at the end of the day when I closed up the office and sat down to relax. Since it was late in the day planning this, I had put one bottle in the freezer. I had the computer set up to watch a DVD, dinner was heating nicely and then I went to get my beer out of the freezer….ah how nicely chilled it was….my mouth was watering……and then the next thing you know I was dripping in beer. I had popped the cap on the wall mounted bottle opener we have and who knew the freezer would be so efficient. The beer was nearly frozen and when I opened it the pressure inside had this fountain of beer shooting up at me and flowing out of the bottle. Joel had quite a good chuckle when he walked into the kitchen and saw me covered in the golden nectar. I wish I had had a picture of that!…I did manage to save a drop or two and enjoyed it immensely once it thawed out.
and that brings me to the end for this time around…have a good weekend all.
Debbie
PS I was going to send several photos but it is slow as molasses so will try for it tomorrow instead.
Note: For previous updates, visit Updates, The Lazarus Project.
Today while June has driven down to Macon to see about a recall regarding her Lexus (which she inherited from her brother Harold several years ago) from the Toyota corporation regarding something to do with an oil hose, I’m staying at home, having decided to do a bit of pre-spring house cleaning: scrubbing the bathroom floors, cleaning spots out of the carpets with a pan of vinegar-water, pouring some Drano into a drain that should be taught to work better, washing a load or two of clothes, vacuuming the house, and straightening up my study. All of this, quite frankly, in preparation for my stay-at-home next week while June goes on a cruise and her daughter and friends. As you might imagine, I like a clean house, everything in its place, and a place for everything–as the cliche goes.
