Blogs from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Central America Caribbean - page 7

June 8 - lots of work at the office Demaris flew back home to Germany today and Henk assumed Incident Commander position. Since he's pretty busy with that, I got tapped to do some interesting things. First I got to the bank. SA banks with CitiBank, which was destroyed in the quake and had previously operated out of a 'hole in the wall' office. Today, they opened their brand new bank building, so I helped initiate it. Then our 3 new Carribean officers arrived. Since I am a 'senior' staff member now (no pun intended), I got to greet, orient and tour them around. Much to my surprise one of them, Ulrick, is the uncle of Roodolph! It really is a small world. See picture of these new team members. Ulrick will be liason to Petit ... read more

Monday June 7 - Distribution at the SA Camp. Today and tomorrow will be a major food distribution at the camp. Recipients had lined up early (as we knew they would) for the trucks' arrival at 8:00 a.m. Security was provided by the Brazilian unit of the UN troops stationed here. This is necessary to ensure an orderly, safe process of distribution to camp residents only. Trucks onloading any goods always draw a large crowd of residents in the nearby area. The design of this process also allows for good control. Four loaded trucks back down along a canal roadway adjacent to the camp. An opening is made for camp residents to flow through and form a queue. Each resident in the distribution has a bar coded card created specifically for them (or head of household) ... read more

June 3 - Thursday. We discovered this was a Haitian holiday not listed on the official website. Banks were closed and our office was closed. Apparently, this is a Catholic holiday Fete Dieu - Day with God Celebration. The day started with the sound of music in the street outside the hotel wall. Several of us climbed up on the wall to see what was going on. A large truck with loudspeakers blared music and in the truck were a group of men and women singing. Following behind was a large group of men, women and youth walking and singing, with hands raised. Each Catholic Church had its own marchers to their particular churches, so various streets were affected. Perhaps this would be a good time to tell you what I have learned about the Catholic ... read more

June 4 - Prayer Shawl My brother-in-law is Alan Bill, pastor of the Barton and Lockwood Methodist Churches. When my sister, Diana, and Alan found out I was being called to Haiti, they placed me on their churchs’ prayer lists. One of the members of their church knits prayer shawls and I was asked to come and select one to bring with me to Haiti. I was charged with finding someone that God would want to have this shawl. I selected this brightly colored blue one. I have, indeed, been praying about and looking for this special person. I have had many conversations with Major Hertj (you’ll remember my roommate from Norway, who is active with the SA children’s school). She had stayed with me only 2 days and then moved down to the school compound ... read more

May 30 - Sunday The rest of the team had planned a whole day’s outing to a Haitian officer’s Corp church to hear him preach (French). His church was about 2 hours west of PaP. He has been working with us and negotiating with customs officials for release of containers in port. They planned to eat lunch there and tour the area (which I had seen on the way to Saint Marc and Rossignol). They would have dinner on the way back at one of his friends, arriving back here quite late. I decided not to go for two reasons. First, I was physically tired from so much traveling in a truck over rough roads. But more importantly, I was in visual overload, having seen so much devastation over the course of the week. It is ... read more