I received this e-mail from one of our team in Haiti yesterday (3/10) from her i-phone. It is very powerful. I’ll post on my experiences yesterday soonish.
Haiti end of day one
I am lying in my lower bunk - hot as biscuits as Christine would say.
Our room has no lights and a small ceiling fan slowly moves the warmth
around. My roomies were here last week- Linda is a NP from North
Carolina and Karen is a psych clinical specialist from I think MA-
they tell/ warn me be careful there are mice that come out at night.
Hence I took a Tylenol PM so I don't have to think about the mice. The
mattress is about Quarter inch thick - gosh I want to complain , it is
so easy to whine and be scared of the mice, bugs, whatever may be
growing and procreating in the mattress. Then I think of the hundred
of people we saw today living under sheets in dirt with horrible
plumbing , no electricity. I feel guilty to complain, but isn't it
"normal" for us to complain when we are the least bit inconvenienced?
Everyone that came to the clinic was dressed in their Sunday best as
were the children with them, and they waited in the hot dust for hours
staying clean. I could count on one hand the people who didn't have a
lost empty fearful look in their eyes. They were ready to move at any loud
noise.
The interpreter who worked with me , Val, was in his last year
at the university expecting to graduate in June with a linguistic
(spelling?) degree. He is already a teacher. He had one foot out the
door of the university when the building collapsed behind him he said
no one behind him made it out. His home was destroyed. He is living
with his wife and 4 year old on the streets under a tarp the school and
university were destroyed, no idea when or if they will be rebuilt or
open somewhere else and yet he is helping and coping and still has faith
So tonight when I'm thinking of the heat, mice, cold water lack of
lighting, very thin mattress and all the other amenities I am missing
I will put myself in the their shoes and try to remember There but for
the grace of God......
Would I/we be as strong , as resistant? I have to honest with
myself..... I'm missing some of those amenities ........
Good morning day two
I made it thru the night. The mice didn't eat me and I didn't see or
hear them. The mattress is still thin but I slept till 5:30
Is it faith, surviving or both?
We are on the back of a pick up truck. A large " dollar van," one of
yesterdays trucks had broken down on the way back from the clinic.
Ron was part of that group. They waited until we got back to the
church and then our truck went back to get them. I hear it was quite
the adventure hanging out on a Haiti stoop.
We have a longer trip this am
Just drove thru downtown Port a Prince. I'm speechless The
destruction from nature .... so many people must still be lying under
the rubble. Dust to dust
The UN tanks with troops in helmets and machine guns ..,, at least we
haven't heard the guns go off.
The buildings hanging on by a thread. Ready to tumble and implode. No
wonder the people are afraid to go into the buildings.
Well go to go. Bus is trying to back around a corner and keeps " tapping" a building. Probably best to pay attention
Love n peace
Loretta
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