Rice and Beans

Mark Julian arrived at the GAiN Warehouse in Chambrun, Haiti, on May 27. Pastor Esperondu Pierre (the Campus Crusade director in Haiti) offered Julian’s ministry (SMI Haiti) the one thing he needed more than anything—food.

“We are getting 5 pallets of food today. That will last about two weeks. Maybe 3 weeks,” Julian said.

SMI Haiti’s goal is to support the needs of the orphanage of 70 children in the Gitonn area—a very impoverished area.

“We need all kinds of food all the time with 70 kids,” Julian said. “We also have a school. We had to cut back from 1,600 students to 500 students because part of the school program is to feed them 3 meals a week. We have not been able to feed 1,600 kids 3 times a week, so we have pared that back to 500 so that we can supply the three meals a week. It is so vital for learning to have full stomachs. Sometimes the kids would just sit there and pass out or fall asleep because they do not have food. So we have a lot of need for food. We have wells, we have water available. Food is the critical element.”

Rice is one of the main food elements of the Haitian people. But the second food staple is beans. Several ministries have asked GAiN to provide not only rice, but the familiar protein element of beans as well.

A Lancaster County church has heard the call for help coming from Haiti. They raised the funds to help purchase 360,000 additional meals of rice and beans. Many of these have been packed already, but we still need help to finish up the packing of this desperately needed food, as well as pack more that we have available. Thus, we have added an additional 200,000 meals of rice and beans and an additional 30,000 meals from Feed My Starving Children.

During the June Mission packing Project at the GAiN Distribution Center, we will finish up packing the high protein rice and bean meals June 21 and 22. Then we will continue the rest of the week packing the 180,000 Feed My Starving Children rice and soy meals.

Pastor Jorel Naurelus of the Church of God in Christ in Haiti also received food from GAiN last week.

Pastor Jorel said: "After the earthquake, I came here to talk to Pastor Pierre. He gave me some food and I shared it with my people. They were so happy, but I did not have enough to give because I have so many people! So I talked to Pastor Pierre again and he said come again and we will give you more food. I have a lot of families under the tent now.

"The government has stopped giving food to the people. My people are very hungry—they are starving. So we need your support. We thank you for what you have been doing. We keep praying for you so the Lord can open more doors. We pray that the Lord blesses you and that we would be blessed by you."

Campus Ministry Team Arrives

Campus Crusade for Christ’s Campus Ministry team arrived in Chambrun around 1:00pm Tuesday, June 1 on a big school bus that no doubt drew a few stares. They met in a large open tent for orientation with Pastor Pierre, Pastor Sony (leader of the Haitian Campus Ministry), and Gary LaBlanc of Mercy Chefs (the ministry that will be cooking for the team and hopefully the students and beyond).
After orientation, they moved all of their suitcases into the church/school building to create a dorm. They packed 8 to 10 students in each of the classrooms on cots with mattresses. They hung mosquito nets up and hooked up a few electric fans (run by a generator) to circulate some air in the cement building.
The team split up and started to help the GAiN construction teams with building bathrooms, showers, and even hooking up a solar/battery-powered water filter one of the students had created. The system will eventually be a gift to a local orphanage, but for now, it is purifying the water the students are drinking. (It also runs a solar-powered coffee pot—the only one in camp ready to go so far.) (See photo left)
Another team of students helped unload a truck from Nehemiah Vision ministries that held boxes of rice-soy meals from Kids Against Hunger. Some of the students had packed Kids Against Hunger meals in Florida on their spring break. A few were very happy to think that they could now hand out the meals personally.
The kids are staying after school to hang out with the Americans. They even try to help with the work. Lots of new friends.
Because the kitchen was not hooked up yet, the team ordered pizzas from Domino’s Pizza (yes, you read that right). After their meal, they had Bible study and then lights out. And it was truly lights out as the security guard is trained to shut off the generator. He shut it off as usual—and the area was completely dark. (Each of the students had flashlights.) Hopefully the word got to the security guard today to leave the lights on.
Eventually, the campus ministry team will be distributing aid like hygiene kits, rice-soy meals, family seed packs, and more. But day two for the campus ministry was a push to finish the showers, install toilets, hook up the kitchen cooking appliances, sort the food supplies, and hook up a huge Culligan water filtration system. (Three super intelligent students took the manuals to the Culligan filter, studied them, made plans, ran them by the GAiN construction guys who were very impressed, and will install it soon.) One team even helped tie rebar for the concrete base that will eventually be the warehouse for humanitarian aid.
In Haiti, it is easy to make plans, but it is hard to get the parts for those plans. (This is a serious understatement.) A fast trip to the grocery store for food for the kitchen took all day, four stores, and a trip into the mountains. A simple trip to pick up the toilets to install required the store to stay open after hours waiting for the truck to arrive with the shipment of toilets—and a saw to cut the lock on the shipping truck! Day by day we find parts, just not as fast as all of us would like. But this is Haiti. As they say to Americans, “You have the watches, we have the time.”
The Campus Ministry will be posting stories and video at http://hopeforhaiti.posterous.com –well, if they can get internet out in Chambrun. I am not holding my breath on that one. After all, we thought buying seven toilets would be easy!

Pstor Jorel Naurelus and Church of God in Christ

Pastor Jorel Naurelus (center) of the Church of God in Christ in Carrefour has been receiving the rice-soy meals from Pastor Pierre so he can feed his church.
“We have a lot of people in my church—about 600 people, Pastor Naurelus said. “There are about 150 kids there each Sunday morning.”

After the earthquake, Pastor Naurelus asked Pastor Pierre for help.
“ He gave me some food and I shared it with my people. They were so happy, but I did not have enough to give because I have so many people!” Pastor Naurelus said. “So I talked to Pastor Pierre again and he said come again and we will give you more food. I have a lot of families under the tent now.”

And many of the original feeding programs have ceased.

“Now the people are so hungry under the tents. They are very hungry—they are starving,” Naurelus said. “And they have many more problems. It is now raining and they are walking in mud. “

The food is not only life-saving, but it also tastes good.
“The food tastes good. Really, it is good,” Naurelus said. “The people are very satisfied. They are very happy with it. They keep asking, ‘Pastor, when will you bring us some more?’ I tell them, ‘I keep begging. As soon as they give it to me, I will give it to you. I will bring it back to you.’”

The Church of God in Christ in Carrefour also tries to support a school
“I feed the kids at church and in our school,” Naurelus explained. “I want to have a permanent feeding program, but I cannot do that yet. I do not have the support to do that yet. So we need your support. We thank you for what you have been doing. We keep praying for you. We pray that the Lord blesses you and that we would be blessed by you.”

Naurelus’s faith in God is evident. He said, “Blessed be the name of the Lord—He provides for us. He knows we are here, and He will make a way. We believe in Him.”
He also mentioned a prayer request: “My dream for Haiti is change. The situation that we are in is terrible. I want Haiti to change the condition that the people live in. As human beings, we are not supposed to live in that condition. Haiti is the poorest country in this hemisphere—a third world country. I want Haiti to change so it can get out from that condition. The big problem we have is in our political leaders since Haiti became independent. We do not have good leadership in Haiti. That is why we keep fasting and praying, so the Lord will send someone to lead the country. My dream is that we would have a pastor to be President. We have tried everybody, but we haven’t tried a pastor yet. We are praying for that.”

I asked Pastor Naurelus what he would say to my fellow Americans who helped ship the aid he was receiving. He said, “Haiti is a poor country. The Bible says that if you help poor people, the Lord will help you, too. He will take care of you. In the name of all Haitian people, I am extending my thanks to the American people. I want you to continue to send food for us. We cannot reward you, but I tell you there will be a reward. The reward will be in the Heaven! You will receive a crown when you take care of the Lord’s people. Before the Bema seat, everyone will be together there—not to be judged as a Christian. But to receive the crown for what you have been doing while you were in the Body of Christ, which is the church. We appreciate you—you are doing a good job. But please continue the job.”

Sheep

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36)

There are a good many real sheep here in Chambrun just wandering around. Now when I say that, some of you will think, “Aw, how cute!” Yes, my first thought too, but look closer.

These sheep are rag-tag, bony creatures that I first thought were some kind of starving goat. No cute, little, white, fluffy, sweet animals here. They are in such bad shape, you may want to avoid them. Oh, and they all have worms.

Harassed, yes. No food. Bad water. Looking for shade. Out in the rain. Afraid of people and machines.

Helpless, yes. No barn. No fence. No shepherd. No owner. No treatment for sickness or injury. Just endless, fruitless wandering.

I think this is what God really saw when he looked out at the multitudes. Of course everyone would try to help cute, white, fluffy sheep. But what about these ones?
My mind and heart try to take in the metaphor.

I saw a man walking down the street with no clothing—only a garbage bag tied around his waist. One Haitian interpreter told us that it is not uncommon to see people walking down the street naked. “They have lost their minds from grief,” he said.
I saw an old woman picking through the trash to see what she could find.
I saw men sleeping under their dump trucks—their only possession.
I saw children and adults coated in dust and mud with nowhere to wash.
I saw mothers and young girls carrying water miles from the town pump—and I knew it was not the first time that day.
I saw families sitting outside of tents made of bed sheets and tarps waiting for the day to end.
I saw signs spray painted on walls—“We need help—food and water!”
I saw children by the sides of the road begging for water, food, or just a dollar.
I saw so many eyes watching me, wondering what I would do.

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’" (Matthew 9:37-38)

Please, please pray with me for Haiti.

We are the World

We were driving down this dirt and gravel road toward Chambrun listening to Haitian radio. All the sudden, I realized what I was listening to--the song "We Are the World" recreated for the Haiti earthquake.

This song gives the Haitians hope--that someone cares and someone is helping.

I wonder, do we even play this song on the radio in America?

Myrta's Story

Myrta has had a hard life. Her legs are paralyzed, and her husband abused her and left her with three children.

“In the morning, her family members would take her outside and lay her under a tree all day. Then different family members would bring her food,” said Jackie Brumley, a nurse at the Chambrun clinic. “She had no way of getting around.”

“We gave her a wheel chair, but there was no way she could push her own wheel chair out here on these rough roads,” Jackie said. “She could find someone to push her to church, but it was hard going. Then she had to wait at church until someone would push her home. But the gravel out here just eats the tires off a regular wheelchair. So we got her a PET Cart and it has been awesome.”

A PET (Personal Energy Transportation) Cart is a rugged wheelchair/cart you can pedal with your hands. It is made for rougher roads than a normal wheelchair can take.

In fact, when Jackie came to visit Chambrun, Myrta came out pedaling as fast as she could across the gravel road to find the American group. She shook hands with them all. And each Sunday, she petals the half-mile to church on her own.

Woodlin's Story

When the earthquake started, little Woodlin (three-years-old) was inside her house in Port-au-Prince playing. The house fell down, trapping little Woodlin by the leg. For two days, her parents searched the rubble for their little girl. But she never gave up. For two days she clapped her hands to call her family to her. It worked and they found her!

Woodlin’s rescuers had to cut off her leg because they could not move the concrete slab on their own.

“But today, just four months later, she is up hopping around,” said Jackie Brumley, one of the nurses volunteering at the Chambrun medical clinic. “She had this little walker, too, and she is just hopping up and down the hallways. She is just so cute. She has these sweet little pig tails. So cute!”

“She was the happiest little girl I have ever seen in my life,” Katie Hutchens, a nursing student said. “It’s only been four months, and she was just happy.”

The nurses at the clinic checked the amputee site and determined that it is healing very well.

Woodlin and her family moved out to the Chambrun village for safety from falling buildings.

Now Woodlin attends the school set up by Pastor Pierre and Nehemiah’s Vision. Each day she gets a high-protein rice-soy meal at school. She even received a water bottle from GAiN to make sure she does not become dehydrated in the hot sun.

Eboman's Story

Eboman, as the oldest child in her family at age 12, had the job of getting water for her family at the creek. So early in the morning, she took the water containers and headed down the rocky mountain in Haiti. She was already sweating from the heat and the hard work. Her calloused hands rubbed roughly on the bucket handles.

Before she had finished her task, she heard her mother’s long echoing call from the hillside. But that was odd—why would her mother call her back before she was finished gathering water? Then Eboman thought maybe it had to do with church yesterday. After church, they had asked Pastor Pierre for a ride home because their mother was not feeling well enough to walk the four miles up the mountain back home. He drove them home and saw their village—five little grass huts on the mountainside. He saw they had no food. He also saw that Mama was not feeling well. He said he would try to help, and he left. Was Pastor coming back already? She ran all the way up the mountainside, hoping it was the help he had offered.

She made it to the village, but no one was there. She kept running to where Pastor had parked his pickup truck the day before. It was the help Pastor had promised! Pastor has brought some American doctors to treat Mama and also the sick baby in the camp! But not only that, Pastor has sent boxes and buckets of food! It was rice! They would eat tonight!

Everyone from the village helped carry the medical supplies and the boxes and buckets of rice meals. Mama carried two heavy boxes of food on her head—even though she was not feeling well. Eboman only carried one since she was still too young to carry that much weight on her head.

Everyone was so happy walking back to camp! These people had come to help! The Americans set the food and medical supplies down in the center of the village. They started giving vitamins to the children right away. They also gave each child a pill to chew—they said it was to kill any worms that may have gotten into their bodies.
Eboman watched as the nurses checked each of the 25 people in her village. Then it was her turn. She was also given vitamins and a deworming pill that did not taste much like food. They declared her strong and healthy!

Eboman walked over to Pastor. How could she ask him? She had seen the beautiful school every Sunday as they walked to church. Her heart ached to go there. Finally she managed to say, “Pastor, I would like to go to school. I would like to have an education, but I don’t have a birth certificate.”(In Haiti, you must have a birth certificate to go to school.) Pastor looked at her with kind eyes. He smiled. He said he would help.

Eboman could not believe what was happening! They received medical care! And enough food for weeks! And now, she may find a way to go to school? It was too much for one day!

Mama said to Eboman, “‘For all these Americans have done and are doing now for us, it is only God who could make them do it.” Eboman agreed.

The Americans were finished seeing all the villagers, and they packed up their medical supplies to go. Eboman did not want them to leave. But all the villagers helped the Americans carry their medical supplies to the truck. They waved and waved until the truck was out of sight.

Note from Joey: It was an honor to meet Eboman and all the people in her village. It was a true "mountain top" experience that I will never forget.

Downtown Port-Au-Prince

Sunday Afternoon
I thought I had seen the destruction of the earthquakes. I thought I had seen the sorrow of the tent camps. I thought I had seen the need. Then we went for a drive to downtown Port-au-Prince. How can I tell you what I saw?
The ground failed them. The earth gave way. Buildings that were a secure place tilted, crumbled, and fell. They are still that way.
I saw an eight story building that was now one story of compacted floors. I saw homes that were tilted so far to the side they looked like toys tossed aside. Our interpreter pointed out an area of rubble up a slope—it was the nurses’ school.
We stopped at the Palace—once the seat of government—now a cracked shell. Outside sits a UN tank and a few soldiers. One soldier stood on the tank while another soldier took his photo. Just down the road, graffiti artists spray painted “UN” on the wall and drew a line through it. The message was clear—the UN is not a source of comfort.
I took photo after photo out the bus window. I think at a certain point I got numb. I even stopped taking photos. I don’t even know what to say now.
The tent camps were so much worse than I had imagined—or had seen yet. So closely packed together there was no visible space around them. Many of the tents and tarps had logos from organizations like Red Cross, Samaritan’s Purse, USAID, and even foreign missions from France and Korea.
Trash was piled up in every gutter. The smell was rancid. People were bathing in the street with buckets. They lived and moved among the rubble and ruins in the heat with no steady source of food and water. People were trying to cook the food that they had, so the smell of smoke was everywhere. And black soot coated many of the streets and buildings.
But it was looking into their eyes that was the hardest to take in. The people sat by the side of the road and watched our bus pass by. Some looked at us with hope for help. Others looked angry. Others just stared into space and waited for the day to end.
Those who were here in February say it is better. I say it isn’t done.
The medical team here had a meeting to talk about what they saw. Many wrestled with how they felt now—and how they would feel when they go home. I joined in because I have many of those thoughts too.
Before bed I read My Utmost for His Highest for May 24. It was titled “The Delight of Despair.” Chambers write, “You experience this joy in hopelessness realizing that if you are ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God.”
I cannot save Haiti. But God can. I must trust God to do it. I will trust Him to raise up the people of Haiti. I will do my part, but the work is His. Please pray that God will raise up Haiti by His own Hand.

Church

May 23
“God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear; even if earthquakes come…” (Psalm 46:1-2)
This was the first verse read at church today.
When we arrived in Chambrun, the church was already packed. Under the huge red and white tent, row after row of benches were full of men, women, and children ready for church. We took seats near the back of the tent and Pastor Pierre took the stage.
The service was loud and rambunctious. Celebrating God was the order of the day. Because the service was in Creole, I did not understand a lot of the service. But the word “hallelujah” I recognized—and I heard it often—sung, shouted, spoken, and prayed.
Praise songs were a reason to dance. Hands were to the sky, feet moving, bodies swaying to the island music. I recognized a few songs like “Crown Him with Many Crowns” and “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” But I knew them only by the choruses—in the song itself they broke loose in island verses and notes.
The children kept staring at us. One little girl kept touching my arm to see if white skin felt different than black skin. Another girl touched my hair.
I noticed that so many of the children and families had a water bottle that was given to them by GAiN Germany. With the temperatures soaring towards 100 and the high humidity, water is absolutely necessary. I needed to drink during the service to keep from fainting. I watched as families and children shared their water bottles with those who had none. So each bottle actually helped five or more people just during that church service! What a gift!
At the end of the service, Pastor Pierre brought out a gift for the children—crackers. The GAiN team along with the Nehemiah’s Vision team handed out the food to all the children at the service. Even a little food is a great gift!

Rainy Nights

Saturday night, May 22
I am sitting in my bunk at Pastor Pierre’s house at 8:42pm listening to the thunder and steady rain. The rainy season has come to Haiti. Normally, I love the sound of thunder and rain. But I don’t feel that here in Haiti. Just today, I was in a camp with 300 people living in tents. Some were nice tents like we might camp in. Others were made of tarps cobbled together and held up by rough cut sticks and left over boards. Others were only tattered bed sheets. I can only try to imagine how they feel when the rains come every night.
Some people dug trenches—moats—around their tents to keep the water at bay. I saw some tents that used rocks as a wall around their tents. Others had piled up rubble as high as they could make it and set up their tent on top of the pile of rocks. Every tent had some sign that the homemakers were trying to stave off the coming rains and floods.
Clothing that they had carefully washed and hung to dry on fences and trees today would now be wet again. A foam mattress one young girl kept placing in the sun today would sop up water again.
One good thing—buckets, pans, and containers left out in the rain would gather drinking water for the next day.
I am dry…and it is a little overwhelming. Everyone of us who is safe from the rain at night needs to help those who are not safe from the rain.

Tent Camp

May 22, 2010
Today we went to a small tent camp, more commonly called and IDP (Internally Displaced People) Camp.
The camp is made up of 60 tents inside a cement fence. Goats were roaming around the enclosure as well. At best guess, Pastor Pierre thought there were about 5 people per tent for 300 people in the camp. When we first drove into the camp, we received more than a few stares—a small bus full of white people is an event to be sure!
When we first arrived, Pastor Pierre spoke with the camp “boss”—the man who was in charge of order. I would probably call him the mayor. So the mayor helped set up the tent and arranged the waiting line. Two other camps down the road were also invited to come and receive medical attention.
The line was small at first but continued to build up throughout the day. Mostly women and children, but a few men sought treatment, too.
I spoke with a man named Wilma Lapoint. He sat on a board under one of two shade trees for the camp. His first sentence to me was, “I have a great sadness in my heart because our country is crushed.”
Wilma lives in the tent camp with his seven young boys. They lost their house in they earthquake. He owns a dump truck and tries to make a living, but it is not enough to keep his family alive.
The night before, a hard rain had made the ground a soggy mess. “When I see people in the tent camp in the rain, it breaks my heart,” Wilma said. “After the rains, the government is supposed to check on us to see if we are OK, but no one ever comes. It is like we have no government.”
I asked Wilma where he gets water. “It is not easy,” he said. “You must walk far.” That was all he would say. In the intense heat of the day, all of the Americans would board the bus and drink pure water from stainless steel bottles to keep from dehydrating. I never saw any of the Haitians drink while we were there. I was faint for water. I am not sure I can look at water the same way again.
I asked another man—much younger one—how he was doing. He said, “I feel nothing. I have no money and no food. What do I do?”
Later, I was watching a boy who was playing on a gravel pile and watching us. His flip-flop fell off his foot and I saw the heel had worn through. There was only a hole where the heel was.
The medical team saw 170 patients including cases of dehydration, infections, a possible case of malaria, a bad tooth, a perforated ear drum and more. Some of the children had worms, so every child and adult received a deworming medicine. Each patient was also given a glass of oral rehydration fluids. Those moms with small babies were given baby food that was donated by GAiN Germany as well as a bottle of formula.
As the children gathered around me, several of them wrote their names in my notebook—Dina, Bibi, Jorenka, Meika, Raymond, Dafney, and many more. Each name a little child living in the camp trying to survive. Pray for them!

Friday

God meets our needs even before we ask—and does more than we can imagine. On Friday at the Chambrun site, the forklift and a Bobcat (small bucket loader) that GAiN shippd over in a box truck had arrived. But with no dock, how do you get it off the truck?

The first plan included a dirt ramp up to the truck, but it was decided that the heavy equipment could possibly sink in the dirt and roll. What to do? A lot of the construction on the kitchen, warehouse, gate, and even hospital would grind to a halt without that equipment. Just then a flat tilt-bed truck came to pick up another piece of rental equipment. That was perfect! Now, if only the driver would allow us to use his truck to unload the forklift and bobcat. It turned out that he was a friend of Pastor Pierre and would do it for us. We had a safe way of unloading the equipment! I am not even sure we could have dreamed of that idea. Only from the hand of God.

The work progressed very fast on the kitchen area—electric was run, additional wall was built, even socket plates installed. This kitchen will be run by Mercy Chefs to feed the volunteers and the people of the Chambrun area.

Pastor Pierre himself ran the bobcat to dig post holes for a gate at the road. People have been driving through the area looking at all the aid and buildings. A gate with a guard will keep the area secure.

The young girl with the infected sore on her arm returned. The nurses used a needle to remove even more fluid from the site. She cried again during the process, but stopped as soon as the work was done. “The Haitian people are so resilient,” the nurse told me later. “They are strong.”

The medical team checked more of the school students. One nurse said, “When we first started coming here, we saw a lot of kids with malnutrition—reddish hair and distended bellies. Even with one meal a day, we see improvement each time we come.”
The pharmacist told me that each child also receives a deworming medicine (albednizole(sp)). “Worms can consume up to 20% of the food a child eats,” he said. “By giving a deworming medicine we can basically increase the amount of food they eat.”
“I love working with the kids,” another nurse commented. “They are so fun and show such love!”

Relationships and a Car Battery

May 20
It is 11am in Chambrun, and I am not sure how to handle the heat today. Yesterday was a cloudy day—still hot with high humidity, but no direct sun. Today there are no clouds at all and the cactuses suddenly make a whole lot more sense.
We got to the ministry grounds near the village of Chambrun, bumping all the way. Once we got out of the bus, the sunlight on the white, stone-covered ground was almost blinding. The school was in full swing, a goat/sheep herd was wandering through the grounds, and one lady was already set up to sell candies and treats outside of the clinic. (The locals saw the blue bus arrive yesterday—the “circus” has arrived!)
I followed Scott Hendrix around as he explained where all the aid was stored, who shipped it (like GAiN Canada, GAiN Germany, and of course I recognized all the GAiN USA stuff). He explained what stories we really need to collect for the donors. I saw blankets, tents, water filters, water bottles, baby food, sleeping bags, family packs of seeds, hygiene kits, and the rice-soy meals.
The first week of June 46 American college students will join up with 25 Haitian college students for ministry. The GAiN team is currently racing to build a tent city for the young missionaries—including a kitchen (to be run by Mercy Chefs), showers, bathrooms, and tent area. There are three men leading a team of Haitians to lay pipe, pour concrete, run electric, and more. Please pray for the completion of the tent city for the volunteers.
In the clinic, a young girl came in with a terrible sore. The lead nurse thought that maybe it was a bug bite that got infected and was never treated. The poor girl was in a lot of pain. The Haitian doctor was working to release the fluid buildup—which hurt the girl immensely. She cried out and the nurse help her tight in a hug. My heart was hurting for her so. I had to walk away with tears in my eyes. She was getting help, I reminded myself. And God cares even more than I do.
They wrapped her arm in a bright pink bandage, gave her antibiotics, and sent her home with the instructions to come straight to the clinic in the morning before school.
Relationships are everything in Haiti. I have heard it, I have seen it, now I feel it. On the first day at Chambrun, I met the two ladies who cook the meals for all the students at the school. Today I wandered back over to say, “Bonjour.” They came straight up to me and hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. It was as if we are friends now! And we do not even speak the same language.
It is 7:45pm now. I am sitting at Pastor Pierre’s house in the dark. The city electric is out. The first generator (that runs on a car battery) has stopped three times this evening. The main generator that runs the AC is out too. Interesting night. So I think I will go crawl in bed, swelter, and hope something kicks back on. And I realize, down the road, people living in tents are hoping something in their lives will kick back on, too.

Ozira

May 19, 2010
This morning I boarded Pastor Pierre’s “tap tap” (mini-bus) for a day of reporting out at the Chambron site. There are tap taps everywhere here—small colorful buses that are generally packed with people—and more highly decorated with pain, pictures, slogans, Bible verses, and family names than you can imagine. Some people even turn pickup trucks into tap taps—and people sometimes even hang on the back and sides to ride along. (You tap the truck or bus to get the driver to stop for you.) Pastor Pierre’s tap tap is a very normal looking blue.
I joined the medical and construction teams from Nehemiah’s Vision (Indiana). I learned quickly that nothing happens quickly here. We piled into the sweltering navy blue bus and sat there. And sat there. Sometime later we wound up at a local gas station—a Texaco. And sat there. And sat there. Moved a bit. Sat there. A pile of Gourdes later (Haitian money), I think we had a full tank. I hope so.
The drive to Chambrun is about 45 minutes of close calls, UN trucks, tight intersections, dump truck obstacle courses, and spine cracking pot holes. But the sights are like nothing I have seen before—sugar cane sticks for sale, tent communities, rubble still in the streets, signs of flooding, water vendors selling small plastic baggies of water, women carrying huge baskets on their heads, make shift stores—even a make shift bank, and so much more. Too much to take in at 65 miles an hour inside a city while dodging people.
But then civilization died down and we kept driving into the Haitian wilderness. I started to see tall cactus—a bit of a surprise for me.( Maybe not as big a surprise as the amount of burros running around with no humans.) Gravel roads had varying degrees of stability. Some had filled up with water and mud, others had washed out somewhat. A couple of new drainage ditches have helped, but we still had to swerve a bit.
Then we arrived! It was a flat plain surrounded by mountains and scrub trees. I saw a white GAiN truck, a makeshift warehouse with a roof and fence walls, two cement buildings, two tents, and a couple hundred children in school uniform blue.
Many people moved to the Chambrun area after the earthquake due to the loss of their homes and the fact that the city was not safe—many buildings were still capable of falling down with the slightest tremor. Tents are now homes. We did not see the village since it was behind the trees, but the families had come that day for the open clinic and for school.
Nehemiah’s Vision (a ministry form Indiana) started working with Pastor Pierre in 2008. They built the school first. Originally it had 80 students—now they are over 300 students. They recently built a clinic at the same site to treat the children and their families in the Chambrun area. The medical team moved into the clinic to set up and get ready to see patients. The construction team met up with two GAiN team members and started to work on three new projects—a kitchen area for Mercy Chefs to cook for future volunteers and for the people of Chambrun, a warehouse to store aid, and a tent area with showers for the volunteers coming in to minister in the region.
I wandered over to a makeshift tent made from tarps and bed sheets. I could smell hot food. It was the makeshift kitchen for the school. A lady named Ozira was stirring a huge pot of the rice-soy meals that GAiN shipped over. Each day they cook food for the children. Ozira has been cooking for the children for a few years now. She loves her job so much she hopes she does not have a single sick day so she can keep helping the children.
“When a student is sick or has some trouble at home and cannot come to school, they may not get a meal that day,” Ozira said.
In front of the medical clinic, around 60 people waited to see the doctor and nurses. I broke the ice with them by taking photos of the children and showing them the photo on the view screen of the camera. The children just giggled at seeing themselves. I spoke to a few of them as they waited.
One lady was so grateful for the clinic. “If there was no clinic here, I would have to walk to Port-au-Prince for medical help,” she said. (Port-au-Prince was a 45 minute drive away.)
Other mothers were grateful for the school. “Our children learn good skills,” one mother said. Another said, “The kids really understand their teachers and work very hard—and they have fun too!”
“I appreciate the food they give my two children,” Marica S. said. “Thank you!”
Another mom said, “I appreciate everything about the school!”
I went back in the clinic and sat near the pharmacy. Many of the visitors to the clinic get a hygiene pack to take home in addition to medical care and medicines. One small boy was holding his new “present” with great pride. It was a real gift to him!

The Biebers

Marianne Bieber is here with her husband Dale managing the logistics of aid receiving. Many ministries are asking for parts of the aid. Marianne is tracking who gets what aid and Dale helps plan how to get to the aid to the receivers.

Arrival

May 18, 2010

I arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, today. I had no idea what to expect. It turns out this is a holiday in Haiti—flag day. So there was extra pomp and circumstance on arrival. There was even a band playing in the airport when we arrived. Passport control was in a large metal building that had to be well over 90 degrees. Welcome to Haiti.

After I got through passport control, I joined the mass chaos around the luggage carousel. There was no order and staff pulled luggage off and set them aside. I was starting to lose hope that I would ever find mine when I spotted one there and one over there. How to get them both? Push a lot. I made it.

I left the sweltering building and entered the bigger fray. Taxi drivers kept trying to take my luggage. Porters tried to help me. I was surrounded by people who wanted to help me for pay. One man grabbed my luggage and dragged it off to the side—out of the main traffic. I kept looking for Dale—GaiN staff guy who was supposed to pick me up. No one there. Waiting. Waiting. I paid a guy to make a cell phone call to Pastor Pierre. Then I saw Dale.

We loaded up my luggage in the JESUS Film/GAiN pickup truck and headed to Pastor Pierre’s house.

The ride through Port-au-Prince gave me much food for thought. Everywhere I saw people looking for a place to sleep. They filled every spot of shade they could find. Others build makeshifts tents along the road. Some were actually selling whatever goods they had—one “store” sold all kinds of used clothing. But mostly, people were just trying to find a place of their own out of the sun.

I started to see the rubble—buildings that had collapsed. Some people had used fallen chunks of concrete as rickety warning pillars to mark the side of the road where a building was still threatening to fall down.

But the sight of the first tent camps was hard for me. I saw a small tent city made with camping tents you would see in the USA. But think about it—they are still living in tents.

Then, on the far hill, I saw a larger tent city—one made of blue tarps and scraps. It was too far away to see, but it was huge. I am sure I will see more in my next 2 ½ weeks.

Now I am in the dorms at Pastor Pierre’s house. It is very, very warm. Hot actually. There is a team here from Nehemiah’s Vision, so the house is a little full. But tonight, I want some time to think about Day One.

The Call to Haiti

I will be heading to Haiti on May 18, and I sure could use your prayers!

Just before the big earthquake in Haiti, Global Aid Network had a plan for Haiti—we would set up a warehouse—and fully stock it—for the next big hurricane. We shipped 1 million rice-soy meals there with 3,000 pairs of Crocs shoes. We were in the process of shipping more when our plans changed.

After the earthquake, Pastor Pierre (the Campus Crusade director in Haiti) distributed the food to the needy in a city called Chambron just outside of Port-au-Prince. Since then, we have shipped 16 more 40-food tractor trailer containers of aid—as well as construction materials.

We have had several staff in Haiti working on logistics, receiving aid, distributing aid, and supporting other ministries there. Now, I will be going to help in those areas, but also to collect stories and photos of what is happening right now in Haiti. Many of our staff who go down there are so busy receiving the aid, working with Customs, and meeting needs that they have very little time to send back word about what is happening. So I am thrilled that I will get to use my journalism skills to try to capture everything I can.

Would you pray for me:
• That God will show me what He wants us all to see
• Help with the language barrier (they speak Creole)
• Packing: I will be traveling until 2 days before I leave. I need to pack in 2 days.
• Safe travel
• Good health and good sleep
• That I can get used to 100 degree weather quickly
• That God will fill me and use me in any way He desires!

Thank you for your prayers! I will be back June 5!

Serving Him with You,
Joey Payne
Global Aid Network (GAiN)
JPayne@gainusa.org