May 21 & 22 - Carrefour & Caseau

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May 21 and 22 - first road trip with SA truck, driver and translator. We delivered mattresses to both Carrefour and Caseau. Also, delivered Numana to Carrefour. Each box contains about 220 nutritionally enhanced rice meals. Delivered 60 mattresses and 30 boxes of Numana to Carrefour to be distributed among vulnerable in the community. Also delivered 18 boxes of Numana to the Caseau community.
This was the first trip outside PaP. You will note that in subsequent trips, I will have more pics and descriptions of the damage all along the routes I travel. Damage to infrastructure is severe. In many places, what’s left of roads are simply scraped aside and work is being done to rebuild them. Damage in PaP is estimated to be in the 65% range, but damage throughout the rural areas is estimated to be as high as 93%!
Note the pic of the street going up the hill to Carrefour SA Corp. It gives you a little flavor of the damage. I honestly thought we wouldn’t make it up that hill. Thank the Lord it was not raining the day we went.
You will hear me say - time and time again - how welcomed I was in each community we visited. Many wanted their pictures taken with their gift. In Carrefour, the first mattress was received by an elderly lady. She was so very pleased. Came to me later, took me by the hand, and led me to her tent so I could see the mattress. In English - she said ‘thank you’. Really warmed my heart. I have scads of pictures of these deliveries (I began to feel like Santa Claus) but I must tell you their gratitude was always warm and deeply felt.
If you notice, these mattresses are about what we would put on a cot-really quite thin, but they were a treasure to them.
Interesting sidenote. When I got back from Carrefour, checked my email and I had a message from my cousin Jim in Rochester, NY. He indicated that when he looked at the map of Haiti on the blog and went out wider (coincidentally he was honing in on Carrefour). After a few clicks out, he noticed what appeared to be the image of a man with arms outstretched. He told me it looked to him like an image of Jesus watching over me...and Jim didn't even know I was in Carrefour! Do I need a stronger message of His care?

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Photos

Street to Carrefour
Amazing we made it up. Note rubble and tents where homes used to be.

Lady receiving mattress
Lady in Carrefour receiving mattress. She was so pleased.

Another lady
Not to be outdone, this lady also wanted her picture taken!

First lady and tent
As mentioned, first lady wanted me to get a picture of her tent. She was so proud of what little she had.

Carrefour - Numana
Unloading boxes of Numana. Hard to believe one box will make about 220 meals. Of course, a crowd quickly gathered to see what we were doing.

Caseau - mattress
Unloading mattresses at Caseau - a very small Corp church.