Thursday, July 29, 2010

haiti update - july 28, 2010

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
1 Timothy 6:12

Hi! It’s nice to be back in Haiti after a 3-week vacation in Canada. Karin Bosma did a good job at looking after the place while I was gone. Kimosabee caused a couple of problems for her though. A few weeks before I went to Canada Kimosabee had an accident with a water truck and the rear signal light cover was broken. We never had the time to replace it. The police never caused me any problems but Ysmaille and Karin got stopped and the police took Kimosabees’ papers away. They were given 3 days to fix the problem. Now there is a new signal light cover in place and the papers are back. One day Karin asked Amos to put Macdonald in the truck as she was going to drive over to Sherri’s place to see someone. The next thing she saw was Amos driving Kimosabee down the street. The only problem was that Amos doesn’t have a drivers’ license and doesn’t know how to drive. Poor Kimosabee ran into another vehicle. Amos took responsibility though and repaired the other vehicle.
We were driving in the Delmas 18 area and saw a water vendor that was walking at the side of the road suddenly grab another man, put him into a headlock and start to beat him. The man he grabbed was screaming and crying in fear. We stopped and went over to help break up the beating. The man who was beaten was a mentally handicapped man and was well liked by the people in the area. We asked the water vendor why he did what he did and he said that the other guy stole some water from him. The people were mad at the water vendor and told him to move on; though not before telling the handicapped man to punch the other guy in the face first as they thought this was the right thing to do. It was good that in the end the water vendor turned the other cheek and walked away!
Exam week is over here at Coram Deo and the students are now on summer break. The report cards will be issued to the parents at the end of this week. Thank you for your financial support to make the school program possible. We look forward to adding a couple of classes for the upcoming school year. Pray for the preparations that we will be making with regards to the deaf and visually impaired students that we have.
Repairs to the property and house are continuing. A new electric line was installed and we are getting a good current in the house now. The back and side walls have been parged and the dormitory depot is done. The remaining 2 tents were taken down. The outside shower drainage problem was fixed this week. We made a channel out of ½ of a PVC pipe and ran it through the yard to the road. We had to do this because part of the yard was starting to get a little swampy. Maybe now there will be fewer mosquitos! One of the sliding glass doors in the living room was smashed during the earthquake. Instead of replacing the door with glass we had the company put screen instead. Now there is better ventilation in the living room and less rodents visiting inside the house. The older guys have been helping to do some painting inside the house now that they are done school. The ceilings and the inside and outside walls of the house all have to be repainted.
The Brazilian UN came through the neighborhood counting houses which were destroyed/condemned (red mark), damaged /repairable (yellow mark), undamaged (green mark). Manu enjoyed speaking with them. A Dominican Republic work crew picked up the rubble across the street from us. Pray for all the ongoing rubble removal going on throughout the city. The process is very slow but I did notice change in our neighborhood over the 3 weeks that I was in Canada.
Fonise celebrated her 20th birthday yesterday and we celebrated it with a birthday cake. Her father returned back to Haiti last week from Martinique, where he was medically evacuated after having his foot amputated by a falling wall during the earthquake. It is good to see him standing on 2 feet again! His prosthesis still gives him some pain but he is able to walk around well with it.
We helped Jackenmy’s father get a death certificate for Jackenmy. We never were able to find Jackenmy or Samuel in the ruins of the GOC University. Now Jackenmy is officially considered dead and not missing. Jackenmy’s father is a carpenter and he told me that anytime we had some carpentry work to do to contact him and he would donate his services as a thank you. He is a good man and raises his family well. Continue to keep praying for Jackenmy and Samuel’s family.
It is rainy season and life is difficult for those living in the refuge camps. Tuesday night the people living in the ravine across the street from us had difficulties because of the rain. Several of the students in our school program here at Coram Deo live in the ravine area. One of the students, Naval came to the house wanting us to come and look at what happened. When we entered the area people came up to us wanting to talk and show us what happened. The earthquake in January left a lot of damaged walls. Some people have moved back into the damaged ravine area. Shelter/houses have been built with tarps and wood scraps/tin. Other people live in their damaged homes. The rains Tuesday evening brought one property wall down onto the damaged house/shack below. The house collapsed and fell onto the people inside. They were hurt and the people helped them get medical care. The ravine waters rose and combined with the water running down into the ravine people had to evacuate the area. The strong carried the weak and the children out of the ravine to get away from the waters. The people are angry with the government. They say that no government people have come to talk with them. They just want some help to rebuild. The people showed us their tarp shelters and explained how they don’t protect them from the rains. People had a sleepless night Tuesday because of the rain. It is the same type of situation every rainstorm. Pray for all those living in tents/shelter throughout the city. Naval’s family lives next door to the house that collapsed during the rain. We told them to not attempt to sleep in the ravine area and stay in the refuge camp instead. We want to help the families of the students in our school program and help them rebuild their homes but how can you help them rebuild when their home is in a dangerous location?
Today a group of people brought an injured woman in a wheelbarrow to the house. She had been badly burned when a pot of boiling bean sauce fell on her. One side of her body was badly burned. She couldn’t walk and was in a lot of pain. We put her in the truck and transported her to the Medecins Sans Frontieres field hospital on Delmas 31. They have a special unit there for burn injuries. Pray that she recovers well from her injuries and pray for the work of Medecins Sans Frontieres here in Haiti. They help a lot of people.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good week!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo

No comments: