Time for another update. This one will not be as adrenaline laden as some
in the past, but from our standpoint that's a good thing. Somebody around
the house a few days ago commented that they have had all the excitement
they could handle.
Conditions are changing rapidly. We were deep in medical evacuations at
the last update. By the end of last week, the number of untreated patients
coming in dropped dramatically; we were mostly seeing people coming in for
bandage changes etc. Field hospitals have been set up by many different aid
groups, and they are doing surgeries on site. Nurses are still being
brought in for post op care. The days of cowboy medicine by Leatherman are
fast coming to an end.
Large amounts of aid MUST be pouring in. We see convoys from the DR daily.
I would guess a C5 Galaxy lands every hour. It would appear that the aid
sending countries are better at getting it here than they are with
distribution. The street price of food is climbing steadily, and is now
over double BQ. We see many hungry (I mean severe hunger) daily, and
starvation for many of them cannot be far away. Many of the ruins and piles
of rubble are being stripped of any recyclables or salvageable materials
that can be exchanged for food. This demo/salvage is being done at great
personal risk, especially with the continued tremors.
The distribution problem can be illustrated with the tent situation. We
have been looking to build and/or buy some tents to distribute. We have
been told they are available at the UN compound. Some of our group have
been there several times. They have registered, so now they would be
allowed to apply to receive tents from the large pile sitting there.
Several days later, we have decided that it will be unlikely that any tents
will be forthcoming, and will proceed for now on our own, and have ordered
some from Canada. And the tents continue to lay in piles on the UN
compound.
Loren, Raymond, and I have taken a couple days to go back to the mountains
and tie up the loose ends so we can shut our project down until next year.
We have a rented excavator and the CSI backhoe, and we are trying to decide
if we can put them, and the scarce and precious fuel needed to run them, to
better use cleaning up and reopening roads, cleaning up piles of rubble,
etc, so that some rebuilding of lives and infrastructure can begin.
We have found our supply containers in the port at Miragaone, and we are
making every effort to retrieve them. we have not cleared Customs yet (see
below).
We are also investigating doing site work for tent cities for CDR. Many
1000s are living under tents built from bed sheets etc in open areas, such
as parks and soccer fields. It may be years before they can all have 'real'
housing, so aid groups are putting up better tents. Rainy season is only
6-8 weeks away. CDR has asked me to handle the survey & site design /
layout, for simple drainage and latrines.
Along the way, we have been able to take food and supplies to 2 orphanages
whose facilities were damaged. There are likely others in need as well. We
are keeping our eyes open for other ways to help individuals in need.
We spent today driving around the Cazeau congregation looking at the
seriously damaged and un-liveable houses. We were looking for ways to get
the excavator in through the winding narrow streets to demo them. After
spending as almost as much as an hour on several of the houses, we think
that we could salvage many of them.
We are using the criteria "Could this be made as good as it was BQ". This
would certainly cost less than demolish and rebuilding them. These brethren
are looking to us to help determine if their houses, which represent in
most cases their life's income and only asset, must be destroyed, or if
they are worth the effort to try to save.
We ask ourselves "If we do what we are considering, would we move our own
family into this house?" The answer is at best a hesitant "yes", and
sometimes "no". What if we spend a bunch of money, effort, and time on a
building, and then another quake takes it down, likely with loss of life?
We were at one site where the house is flat, and the family of 4 lives in
a compact station wagon that was damaged but mostly intact. The sister was
cheerfully combing her little girl's hair, sitting in the passenger seat.
Another young couple lives under several sheets in a makeshift tent.
A 'big picture' problem is that the Central Government is more or less
wiped out. The Palace (Capitol Building), Legislature, and main government
dept office building, are all beyond repair. Some of the gov officials,
including Sen. Lambert, are injured, and others were killed. Judges,
policemen, town councils, etc are the same. (On a village level, enough
officials survived that the locals can operate).
This problems spreads through the entire economy. There are vehicles on
several car lots, but even if you can come up with the cash to buy one, you
can't register it, because the dept of motor vehicles or whatever is
defunct. We can't clear customs with our containers, because there is no
officials in the head office to sign off on them. I have heard that all the
adoption paperwork that was started has been destroyed, and the list goes
on and on.
A few banks have started to open, with long lines. Even those who had
money couldn't get to it for many days, but hopefully that will start to
ease soon.
Work continues on turning the FP church into CDR headquarters. The dorms
are about built, and we worked on wiring them yesterday. They were supposed
to pour concrete for the showers and laundry today, the kitchen is under
construction, and some CDR brethren are working on the plumbing. It should
be ready for use within a week.
We are doing quite well in our house of +/- 1600 sq ft. We average about
20 at mealtime, with a recent high of 29. We have lights, gravity water
from a tank on the roof that feeds our sinks and two bathrooms/showers, and
enough cooks to have an amazing variety of meals. We have three couples,
one with children and a schoolteacher, one CSI board member, and 4 of us
'singles' in permanent residence; the rest are transients and sleep in the
gallery (porch), or in a local motel.
There is no doubt that what we have experienced has affected us all
emotionally. The continued aftershocks keep us jumpy, and unknown rumbles
cause us jitters. I get choked up emotionally, and sometimes cry a little
over things that would not normally affect me that way, and I see some of
the same emotions in the others. We have group devotions every morning, and
they seem to center around these topics, so that must be where individual's
personal study and meditations are taking them. I sense a real need and
desire in everyone's heart to know if being here is happenstance, or if we
were sent to the country 'for such a time as this'.
Continue to pray for us that we may accept the things we cannot change,
the courage, energy, supplies, equipment, knowledge, and security to tackle
the things we can change, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Kevin Bronson
Fond Parisien, Haiti
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
No comments:
Post a Comment