Haiti day 5-6

On Thursday we worked a long day, till 5:30pm until it started to thunderstorm.  The raindrops here are not so many, but they make up for this in size.  They are enormous, and riding in a truck bed means those drops are coming at you fast.  Ouch.  So, we stopped the painting in a hurry and came home quick.  Since we were running so late, showering and eating took up all the time before our evening meeting and I didn't have time to blog Thursday night.

Friday night the internet was down, so here I am trying to make up for lost time during our short break Saturday morning. :)
Thursday we painted some more and built soccer goals for the kids. Here's the pictures:

Our paint-induced leprosy. ;)

Ude giving us a dancing show with the water bottle. :P

I'm Howard's servant, but it was the easier job, so I didn't revolt.

Justice and Amanya cuddling.

I fell in love with this poor thirsty kitty.  She's so tiny and very pregnant.  I gave her water out of my hand.  I was desperate to take her home.

Nicole helping us paint by using her height advantage.

Now Justice and Ude cuddling.

Mitch, Leif, and Scott's project.  Almost complete.

Another view of the first little "house".

A sleepy baby that I fanned to keep away the flies and gnats.

Ude fell asleep as well.  This little guy is special.  He's the one with the extra mini fingers that we removed.

That little bump is where the little tiny finger was removed from.  It healed extremely quickly.  He only needed a bandaid for 2 days.  He screamed bloodly murder while it happend though of course. :P  No anesthetic.

On fanning duty.

A sweet and entertaining fellow middle school teacher, Michelle.  I've loved chatting with her on this trip.

This picture is for Mitch's mother as per request.  He said to say he was alive and that he would tell everyone about his trip when he arrived home. :P

This is Dina, the lady who runs the orphanage.  She was in Port au Prince during the earthquake and some of the ceiling fell on her back.  She still has back problems that she hasn't been able to get fixed yet.  :(  She dropped everything to help provide for her 30 orphans.

Our soccer goals we built for the kids.  They needed goals that were movable and yet sturdy.  They were absolutely thrilled. :)

Alright, now for Friday.  Friday we spent most of the day in the Van.  We went north to Saint Marc to see the market there and sightsee a little, then we drove down to Port au Prince to sightsee and document the damage and nonexistent infrastructure.  You will see just how horrific it still is.  Then, we ate dinner at one of our translators' grandparents' old house (they moved to the us a while ago but caretakers still maintain the house).  It is large and luxurious in comparison to the rest of Port au Prince.  The translator, Daniel, grew up in this house and went to school nearby.  Then, we headed home for the next 2 hours and only stopped when Justice needed to go to the bathroom the Haitiian way (by the side of the road).  We finally made it back, I pulled out the computer, only to realize the internet was down.

Today we are going to take supplies to the outerlying villages in the hills.  So, we'll probably post those pictures tomorrow.  Otherwise, we're still relaxing until then and catching up on the internet.

Here's the pictures from Friday:

Entering Saint Marc.  This city was not damaged by the earthquake.

The local Cathedral, one of the most lovely buildings in the entire area.  Remember this when we take a look at the Cathedrale in Port au Prince.

Translation:  Church

Adventist of the seventh day. We had to check it out.

Here's the inside.  It's in pretty good shape.  AC is provided by the spaces and holes in the walls.  This was never damaged by the earthquake and is one of the better buildings in Saint Marc.

Here's a schoolroom in the back of the church from what it looks like.  They were learning history, math, and chemistry. 

Amy pretending to be a student in the "schoolroom".

A glimpse of the markets in Port au Prince, they did not take kindly to us taking pictures inside the market, so this is the best I've got.  Needless to say, it is very crowded, with slabs of meat right next to the grains, right next to the underwear.  We did not stop to buy anything, too hot to bother.

Here you can see a little bit of the garbage lining the streets, this was a clean street in comparison to the average.  The canals in this town were so filled with garbage, the water could not drain out and just stagnates.  Disease is rampant due to the unsanitation.  But Port au Prince is worse.

The side of the road now in Port au Prince.  I have so many pictures, I had to choose just some that really show the devastation.

The roads are pretty much just dirt or really pot-holed pavement if you're lucky.  Or a mix of both.  It takes forever to get anywhere and the dust kicks up making visibility really bad.

This is a glimpse of the marker in Port au Prince.  It is hard to tell whether they are selling garbage or food/goods.  The garbage just piles up and they set up on top of it or around it because there's no space left.

You can see how unsanitary it is.

The entire left side of this street had 3-story plus buildings before the earthquake.

Now it's just a pile of rubble.  Hopefully they've been able to remove all of the bodies from it.  Some building crumbled like a matchstick house.

And more.

And more.  All of these piles of rubble were 3-plus story buildings.

A pile of garbage in front of more useless buildings.

Some little "shops" in front of their tent residences.

More rubble.  No building are untouched, but any that have 4 walls and a roof are still being used, despite the concerning cracks on the walls.

This buildling was gutted.  The roof completely fell in.  Only one wall remains.

Here's what's left of the Cathedrale in Port au Prince.  My camera can't even fit in the entire thing.  This used to be the size of the Cathedrals in Europe.

More closeups of the damage.

We got out to get some better pictures.

You can see how the roof just completely collapsed.  They still haven't cleared out all the rubble.  Homeless people now make their home here for lack of a better place to go.

This is the President's palace.  It is hard to see the damage unless you get up close, but it's all closed off because the current President lives in a repaired portion of the palace in the back.  It's been a year and a half since the earthquake and they have not even removed all the rubble yet.  Even the President's Palace in too damaged to use.

More up close pictures.

Almost the entire way around the palace is a huge park.  You can see the trees.  So many people lost their homes that they moved into the park in tents and you can't even see the grass that used to be there, they are living on top of one another.

Porta Potties are a luxury for the tent community. 

You can see the fountain and original park walkways that used to be the park.

More rubble and damage.

There isn't proper channels for rainwater runoff, so it just flows through the streets, taking garbage along with it.

The pigs always seem to be able to find dinner in the garbage piles.

This is one of the better streets, not as many potholes as some.

Sellers in front of their dwellings.

You can see the building in the background that is slanted . . .

This is a "Tap-Tap", their main form of transportation here in Haiti.  One taps to start off and to indicate where one wants to stop, hence the name. They are always decorated very colorfully.

This is a canal in Port au Prince absolutely stuffed full of garbage.

This pile of garbage is at a random street corner downtown.

Here is the Adventist Hospital.  It has largely been repaired and looks in pretty decent shape.

You can see just a little of the white hospital building in the back.  This hospital is open only 5 hours a day, to have crowd control and probably lack of doctors/nurses.

There was one Adventist Church that was pointed out that had a structure.  It was destroyed during the earthquake and rebuilt in metal.  We only caught a glimpse of it as it was behind other buildings we drove by so I don't have a picture.  2 other churches that we saw are completely decimated and have not yet been repaired.  Many Haitiian Adventists have resorted to living in tents as well since their homes were destroyed.  They have not yet been given funds to build or buy actual houses.  This rather blows away the things I heard about the Adventists in Haiti right after the earthquake.  I heard things like "Praise God, none of our churches were destroyed and our Adventists there were spared and are helping the rest of the locals out".  Or some such.  This is not true on any account.  All of the Adventist Churches have been largely devastated, many Adventists are still homeless a year and a half later, and the Adventist Hospital is one of the most expensive hospitals in the nation, if not the most.  They actually have policies where they keep patients at the hospital until they can pay and charge them for each day they must remain.  They also do not provide food for their patients.  So patients who don't have friends or family to bring them food go hungry.  I'm sure this is because of a lack of resources, but it is deplorable that the GC either doesn't know about what's going on there, or is turning a blind eye.  I hope for the former, but things need to change.  The Lutherans, Scientologists, and Baptists have done more for this country than we have, despite our big presence here.  We need to take this criticism as a church and FIX this.  Something must be done.  Those who donated 10 dollars to Haiti to relieve their guilt for not helping will not be happy to know that billions of dollars are not accounted for and have not been distributed to those most in need.  The only sure way to help Haiti is to donate to a smaller organization that actually sends PEOPLE who can give real help and supplies in person.  Right now, Helping 4 Hurting Humanity supports fully one orphanage and we're working on building and establishing as many wells as possible with proper filtering and pumping.  I encourage all my readers to open their eyes and realize that our work here is not done, for any of us.  We must donate carefully and wisely to people who actually come and help and distribute resources in person, because the corruption and disorganization could very well destroy this country.

One last thing.  There was an outbreak of cholera.  It was a strain of cholera not yet found in Haiti, and is actually from Southeast Asia.  It is most likely true that the Sri Lankan military came to help and dumped their sewage into a river in the hills of Haiti, causing this latest Cholera outbreak.  The hospitals have been overwhelmed by Cholera cases.  The incompetence of those here to help will devastate this country even further.  It breaks my heart to see the people continue to suffer because of things out of their power and control.

Well, everyone.  The next few days will be spent trying to improve the current ancient well at the orphanage and finishing painting and building.  More updates and pictures to come.  Keep my testimony in mind and I encourage you to find some way to help the people here in a constructive way. There is no longer any excuse for us to live the priveleged lives we do and to allow other countries to wallow in misery not of their own making.