The beginning...

It's now been just over a week since I last threw up a blog, and not sure how I'm going to, but I'd like to at least catch you up to speed with where we're at. So lets see, I arrived in santo domingo late the night of the 8th after all three of my American Airlines flights were delayed (whoohoo), as it turns out, if ALL your flights are delayed, it works quite nicely. haha. Tyler arrived tuesday, and we spend the next 24hrs getting ourselves acquainted with Esperanza, the organization we were to be working with... we also made some time to tour the city a bit, seeing the first church of the new world, as well as Columbus' house.. I also shared a few beers with a one legged jamaican man, would like to share that story later. ha. Thursday morning we were loaded onto a bus pointed towards the long awaited port-au-prince. Half of the 8 hour drive was on the dominican side, although it was 3/4 the total distance... arriving at the border, or should i say shanty gate, it was immediately clear the cultural disconnect. We waited at the border for just over an hour while they looked over our passports which they had taken at the bus station (i know, i broke the cardinal rule of traveling, to NEVER let go of your passport (sorry dad!)... i apparently had no choice. believe me, I asked around and wasn't happy about it). So as I said, crossing the border it was immediately obvious that we were in a 'different' place. The border areas were crowded as we'd expected, but they were also inhabited. The roads, not meant for the amount of traffic they'd been experiencing, were less than impressive even for a third world country. It took over 4 hrs to travel from the border to pap. The trip was never boring as the roads were scattered with groups of people, groups of the displaced most likely working their way toward the border, toward hope? We arrived in pap late, after passing by the US embassy, which let me just say how rediculous it was. Still standing (duh) this place was nothing short of an oasis... I had to blink several times as we'd gone from destruction, destruction, PARADISE, destruction etc.. It's all marble, palm trees everywhere, soldiers, hummers, and all sorts of other impressive military equipment littered throughout. The place cost 90 million to build.. seeing the embassy made me want to learn more about it and our involvement later.. oh, and puke.

Finally arriving we were met by our friend Joel who took us to the place we would be staying. It wasn't until the next day that it hit me... Driving around in the light, man (even re-living this day sucks)... We drove all over the city, visiting the most effected areas of Port-au-prince, carrefour, leogane, and jacmel... we drove up to the mountain sides to see it from another angle, we drove down to the port to see the military handing out food. This day, friday, marked the beginning of the three day fast for the people of haiti. See normally these three days were days of celebration, partying, and thanksgiving... instead, in light of the circumstances, as a nation they decided to fast for three days. Apparently to do this they need to block off the good majority of the streets, shut down the gas stations, eliminating any chance of our doing much of anything for this time. So we wait...

I'm glad I didn't blog friday night... I'm not sure I've ever felt such a deep depression in my gut as I did after driving around all day. It was like watching a real life slide show in fast mode showing nothing but depressing images. I was overwhelmed to say the least... SOO much NEEDS to be done it makes me sick to think about. Generously, I would estimate that maaaybe 5% of the damage has been cleared, and a lot of the times its not even cleared, just swept off into a less intrusive spot.. if the death count to date is 250,000, it'd be a safe bet to 'at least' double it.

I just don't know... I have such a 'macro' minded approach to things usually, that I couldn't possibly do anything but lose hope for these people. Lose hope for them because they don't seem to have any interest in helping themselves, instead taking the historical route and relying on international aid. Teach a man to fish people! And while it sounds bad, I fear that while our american efforts appear strong now, they just won't in the long run. And thats just it, they 'appear' strong, when in reality they're all just sitting in the port handing out food, addressing the immediate need sure, but attacking the 'big' needs.. no. I haven't seen a single piece of excavation equipment. Long story short, I lost hope, was depressed, and completely lost sight of 'why' i came, and that was for the person in front of me, the micro. A few timely reminders and words of encouragement from precious family and friends, and I was back in the game.

I'm sorry this seems so jumbled (as it usually does to me), I just wish i hadn't waited this long to update you guys. I need to go to blogging school...

Before I sign off, I'd like to share just a little about the organization we're with... they're doing some really great stuff! Esperanza (Hope.. in espanol) is a micro-finance plus organization that seeks to build sustainable lifestyles for the poorest of the poor. They're supporting over 15,000 families in the DR, and 4,000+ in Haiti. Since the quake, their efforts in Haiti have been focused more on the coastal/border towns. They are NOT a diseaster relief organization, but have in their own uniqe way stepped up to the plate in light of the circumstances. In PAP now, our main focus is working with the network of churches they've built relationships with. We place responsibility in the hands of the pastor, giving them the food packs and water filtering devices, and then keep them accountable as to their proper distribution. Tyler and I have been working with a water cleaning system (pure water foundation). Basically, its a device that turns salt water into concentrated chlorine by running electrical currents through it. A one liter bottle of chlorine (which takes about 7 minutes to make) can clean 500 gallons of water! So cool imagining the possibilities! And because we're giving them out to the churches, people have to come to the church (most are anyway) to get the water(life!). So cool. Empowering the haitian people to sustain themselves.

Prayers. Pray that we would be put to work, that we would be patient and flexible. That hope would be found in the most unlikely of places. Prayers also for safety (they've already got us driving in this crazy city! aaand there's talk of renting motorbikes for 'better mobility' ut-oh :)).

I better go... hope to dive into more detail later! Love to you all!

Shalom!

luke