Dear Mary,
I'm so glad to hear from you. I am sending you a copy of a letter
that we are sending to several people. As you will see in the letter we
have left Port au Prince and do not plan to return any time soon so I
don't think that we will be much help to the news folk. However, I have
a very good friend who has lived in Port au Prince (they have the guest
house we were staying in) many years. They are right in the middle of it
and could be available I think. Greg Benson
his email address. Mary, I have thought of you many times over the years
and am glad you contacted us. I will continue to pass along to you what
we see out in the country side. I hope all is well with you.
This email will go out to many people who have varying levels of
knowledge of who we are and what we do so I will start with a short
history. Faith and I moved to Haiti with our four small children almost
fourteen years ago. Since then we have raised our children and operated
a small mission hospital in a remote part of northwest Haiti. One of our
responsibilities is to go to Port au Prince every 6-8 weeks to purchase
supplies both for the hospital and our family. It is not a trip that we
look forward to as it takes 10-12 hours of driving over very poor roads
to get there; then three days of driving around in the city trying to
find everything we need, followed by another long trip home. We have
always stayed at the CSI (Christian Service International) guest house
in upper Port au Prince. The folks who operate it are like family, and
the guest house has truly been our home away from home for over 13
years. Faith and I had driven in on Sun. Jan. 10 for one of those trips.
Faith was originally scheduled to attend meetings the first two days at
the Gheskio Bureau. Our little hospital partners with them in the effort
to provide treatment for AIDS in our remote corner of Haiti and these
meetings were to discuss changes in the program. They had decided to
postpone the meetings but we needed to go purchase supplies anyway so we
went to Port. We spent Monday Jan. 11 purchasing medical supplies, doing
some banking and working on renewing our resident visa's (which required
us to turn in our visas and passports). The next day we planned to spend
the entire day downtown in the old original part of Port au Prince.
Traffic is so bad getting to and from downtown that we always try to do
everything we need to do there in one trip. Most trips this requires
almost an entire day down there. I say "down there" both figuratively
and literally since the guesthouse is up the mountains several miles and
Down town is along the bay. The figurative part has to do with how
crowded and depressing it can be just being "down there" In a city with
over a million people and very little sewage facilities everything tends
to run "down there". We had a very productive day down town and
accomplished all we had hoped to,(which is unusual). Our last stop
downtown was the Gheskio bureau. Even though our meetings had been
canceled we still needed to go there and turn in some accounting
reports. The Gheskio bureau sits in a particularly polluted part of the
city in an area that once was in the bay but has been filled and built
on. The building has been added onto several time and is like a maze
inside. I stayed in the truck out front parked right next to the
building, (there is almost no parking space), while Faith went to turn
the reports in. I have spent a fair amount of time in recent years
sitting in front of this building and have many times noticed how the
ground jiggles up and down when heavy trucks go by on the street about
fifty feet away. I have also sat there and wondered what would happed if
an earthquake were to come ripping through that area. I have also
wondered what would happen to the tens of thousands of homes built one
on top of the other going up the sides of the mountains and crowded into
narrow ravines.
I will return to our trip but this seems like a good time to discuss the
fact that anyone with any understanding of the history of Port au Prince
(a terrible earthquake two hundred years age and faults running
underneath the city), along with a basic understanding of what poorly
constructed concrete block houses stacked one on top of the other would
do some day could see that it was only a matter of time until this
tragedy happened. I have said to Faith many times over the years, "I
hope we are not here in the city when the Quake comes". However, mankind
has a habit of building up scenarios for tragedy and then acting shocked
when it happens. It is in man's nature to flock to the cities in poor
countries and and build shelter wherever he can. Haitians are not unique
in this.
We left the Gheskio bureau and that part of town about 2 1/2 hours
before the quake. We have been told that that entire area was destroyed
including the Gheskio bureau. We went on our way to transact other
business unaware that we were parting with people for the last time.
After a few other stops we were ready to head to Caribbean Market to
purchase some groceries and exchange some money. For 13 years we have
shopped for groceries almost exclusively at this place. They also allow
us to write an American check and exchange it for Haitian money. I was
very much wanting to get there and exchange some money since we had very
little in hand. As we were headed there Faith asked about one other item
that we had been looking to purchase and if we should stop at another
place and look for it. I reluctantly agreed and we did find the item
which took more time. After we left there we continued on our way to
Caribbean Market but traffic was bad and it got later and at the last
minute we decided to wait until the next morning to go there. Instead we
went back to the guest house and unloaded the supplies that were in the
truck. Faith went upstairs to our room and I sat on the porch visiting
with a friend. When the earthquake started it was a tremble and we
immediately stepped out into the yard. Within a few seconds the tremble
had turned into a strong shake and I turned to look at the building. At
that moment something much like a wave went through the ground and I saw
the entire building sway back and forth about two feet. It is a two
story building made of concrete block and poured concrete pillars,
floors and roofs. As it swayed I realized that it might actually
collapse and I remembered Faith was upstairs so I decided to go get her.
As I started towards the porch a second wave came though the ground and
all the windows on the porch shattered and much of the first floor walls
started to break apart and collapse. I remember very clearly thinking,
"If it doesn't stop shaking the house will collapse before I can get to
her and the kids will lose both of us. I have to wait". Thankfully about
then it started to taper off and within ten seconds I was able to enter
the house and work my way through the rubble to the second floor where I
found Faith standing in our room which didn't have a single crack in any
of it's walls. This in spite of the fact that the two interior walls
underneath that room were rubble. I went from terrified that Faith might
be hurt or killedt to very angry that she was looking for her shoes and
grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out. She said the shock of the
quake coupled with the fact that in our room nothing was braking apart
made her unaware of the fact that the house was about ready to fall in.
The Caribbean market that I was so hot to get to completely collapsed,
four floors of concrete one on top of the other. Had we not changed our
minds we would undoubtedly been inside of it. We have a friend who had
just walked out of it and was in the parking lot when it collapsed. How
many times in our lives do we walk by death and even brush shoulders
with it but are not aware that it has happened?
We spent the first night on the street and then in our truck listening
to the never ending wails of people crying for the dead, but also the
singing of hymns and prayers of thanks that they were alive. I don't
know how many dead there are but 100,000 seems like a conservative
estimate to me and I wouldn't be surprised if it was double that. A very
large densely populated area of almost exclusively concrete structures
lay in ruin. Many of these houses have twenty or more people living in
them. Few have less than ten. The next day we decided towards evening
that we should try to go home on Thursday if possible since we had a
truck load of medical supplies for the hospital and funds for the
hospital. Haiti has a history of people blocking the roads in time of
trouble and we decided our first obligation was to the hospital and the
people of Bombardopolis. God granted us a safe trip home yesterday. We
are helping the Mayor of Bombardopolis coordinate efforts to bring the
many children of Bombarde that attend school in Port home if possible.
We have pledged some funds to help with this.
I know that many countries are gearing up for a big relief effort. This
is so important because we fear that if security and supplies are not
quickly brought in many tens of thousands could die from disease,
hunger, thirst and violence.
Here in Bombarde there is no physical damage. However, Haiti is a
country in which every family has relatives in Port au Prince. I would
not be surprised if a quarter of the population lives in the capitol.
This means that it is a tragedy for the entire country and the effects
both psychological and material will be felt by the entire country.
There are so many other things that I could tell but I think that I will
stop for now and try to get this sent out if we can get a signal. Please
pray for this poor, sad little country which has had so much tragedy in
recent years and now has one greater than all the others combined.
Steve and Faith
Friends, we too often take our blessings of food and safety for granted.
It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.
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