CORAM DEO HAITI UPDATE – NOVEMBER 27, 2016
“Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight
of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with
all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for
it is written, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, “if
your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so
doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. “ Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good.” (Romans
12:17-21)
Haiti is waiting for the results of the presidential
election. Last Sunday was a day for elections in the country. The streets were
peaceful and we visited several voting centres around the city. We were in the
Delmas, Canape Vert, Tabarre, Petionville, and Cite Soleil areas. There were
people who came to vote and couldn’t vote because their names were not on the
voting list at the centres they tried to vote at. A couple of older women came
up to us in Cite Soleil came up to us and told us that they wanted to vote and
they couldn’t. Some young guys who overheard told them off and said that they
shouldn’t be complaining to foreigners J
Jean Bertrand Aristide came to vote at the Lycee Jean Marie Vincent in the
Tabarre area. He was accompanied by an enthusiastic crowd of supporters of the
Lavalas political party. They were sure that Lavalas would be the winners of
the presidential election and that their candidate Maryse Narcisse would be the
next president of Haiti. The larger voting centres that we visited in the
Petionville and Cite Soleil areas were busy but smaller voting centres were not
very busy. It is being reported that 23% of the population exercised their
right to vote. People don’t have a lot of confidence in the electoral process.
Elections are a long process here in Haiti and results are
not quick. This week workers at the vote tabulation centre have been working
tabulating the votes and results will probably be issued later today or
tomorrow. Police are preparing for protests. People that I know have either voted
for Jovenel Moise of the PHTK party or for Maryse Narcisse of Lavalas. Some of
the voter tally sheets are posted on the CEP elections site. For the area near
Pastor Pierre’s church the people in the mountains of Kenscoff voted
overwhelmingly for Jovenel Moise. Lavalas supporters are making comments that
“weapons are legal” (which means that they will shoot to protest the results).
Pray for the election result day. Losing political parties may take to the
streets to protest. We have been making preparations for potential problems and
have a stock of fuel, food, water and supplies on hand. The police are on
maximum alert and will be out in force. Please pray for safety on the streets.
We are thankful that the hydrocephalus surgeries took place
this past week. 22 hydrocephalus babies and their mothers stayed at Bernard
Mevs Hospital on Saturday evening to await the arrival of the neurosurgery team
from Miami Children’s Hospital led by Dr. John Ragheb. We had a busy day on
Sunday visiting the election sites and also the hospital. Bettina Boniface and
her adopted mother stayed with us for a few days. Bettina is a 2-year-old girl
who was abandoned by her family beside the road in the Fond Des Blanc region of
the country when she was a young baby. She was abandoned because of her
hydrocephalus. A Haitian mother who already had 6 children of her own saw her
lying in the road. Dogs were keeping an eye on the baby. Her heart was touched
and she took in the baby as her own. She is getting support from the St.
Boniface Hospital in Fonds Des Blanc. She does the best she can to raise
Bettina. Hurricane Matthew tore the roof off her home and she is staying with
neighbours. We are thankful that Bettina got chosen for a surgery. Not all of
the 22 babies who came to be evaluated were selected. Surgeries took place over
3 days and by Thursday there were only 2 patients left at the hospital. Our
food service team prepared and delivered meals to the hospital twice a day this
week. Please pray for all the surgeries that took place and for those who
didn’t get selected for surgery; that they will be able to receive an operation
from a future neurosurgery team visit.
We have had a couple of people come to the house for help
who had some huge abscesses on their face. Jeff, a young man came to the house
on Tuesday and one side of his face was very swollen. His eye was swollen shut.
We were planning on bringing him over to Hopital La Paix and the abscess popped
open on its own. Fluid started to gush from his face. Within a few minutes his eye was not as
swollen. We brought him over to Hopital La Paix and they did a surgery to open
up the abscess further and drain the rest of the fluid .
A father came to the house and told us that his 7-year-old
son died after falling head first into a barrel of water. He drowned. The
family lives in Cite Soleil. Father Rick at Nos Petits Freres et Soeures
Hospital gave them a coffin so that the family could bury their child. Please
keep this family in prayer as they mourn the loss of their child to this
accident.
This week we had problems with both of our vehicles which
directly affects our mission work. We were driving on Delmas 31 and saw an
accident that took place between 2 motorcycles. One motorcycle driver cut in
front of the other and the guy who got cut off fell with his bike. He had a
lower leg injury. We stopped and talked
with him and he said that he couldn’t put any pressure on his leg. We offered
to give him a ride to the Medecins Sans Frontieres Trauma Hospital. When I went
to start Kimosabe Jr. (Ford Ranger) it wouldn’t start. I called Amos to come
with Kimosabe Sr. (Toyota HiLux) and a
mechanic. When the mechanic arrived Amos
took the injured man to Medecins Sans Frontieres Hospital in Kimosabe Sr. and we tried to push start Kimosabe
Jr. We had good exercise pushing the vehicle down the road. It felt just like
the “Cool Runnings” movie on how the Jamaican bobsled team trained J The truck wouldn’t
start. We rented a battery to drive it the rest of the way home. The alternator
was broken. Vehicle parts in Haiti are expensive at the dealers and after
getting a quote of 1,000 US$ the mechanic headed downtown to the black market
to look for an alternator. Some of the parts being sold in the black market
come from local chop shops who take apart stolen vehicles. Instead of paying
1,000 US$ we paid 300 US$ and have a running vehicle again.
We had trouble with Kimosabe Sr. on election day. It is
difficult to get the truck in reverse and into first gear but once we finally
get it in gear the 2nd through 5th gears work well. When
we approached the lycee where Aristide was going to vote at there was yellow
tape blocking the road. I tried to back up but the truck wouldn’t co-operate. A
friendly policeman let us cross under the yellow tape so that we could turn
around. The clutch/transmission problems are becoming more severe and we are
putting Kimosabe Sr. out to pasture until we can fix his problems J Pray that we can fix
Kimosabe Sr.
November is usually a high crime month as thieves prepare
for Christmas and New Year festivities. Stealing increases as people resort to
crime to get funds to celebrate. A couple of weeks ago Amos was driving a young
man who had surgery on his face home to the Puit Plain section of the city.
They passed a vehicle with a driver who had just been shot and who died at the
scene. Gunmen on motorcycle shot and killed him. Friday afternoon there was a
shooting incident on Delmas 48.
Motorcycle riding gunmen killed someone who was
returning from the bank after making a transaction. Another group of motorcycle gunmen killed a
woman as she was exiting her vehicle in front of the 4C pharmaceutical
administration building. Yesterday, the former prime minister from 2002-2004,
while Jean Bertrand Aristide was president was shot twice in the elbow and
wrist areas in the Williamson area of Arcahaie. Yesterday a group of 4 thieves
attempted to enter the Unibank in the Darguin area of Petionville. One security
guard was shot and one thief was killed in the exchange of gunfire. A manager
of a Haitian music group was robbed after he left a bank. A Haitian news
station is calling yesterday Black Saturday, not for holiday sales but for crimes
that took place. Please pray for the security situation in Haiti. Pray also
that something can be done about the bank bandits. It looks like people working
inside the banks are letting thieves on motorcycles know who has made
withdrawals. Even people who use ATMs are being targeted by thieves.
Due to the possibilities of protests once the results of the
elections are announced we told our students not to attend school until the
streets are calm. Results should be announced later today or tomorrow. Haiti
has a culture of revenge. If someone does something wrong, they take revenge. Pray that people aren’t
overcome by evil, but that they overcome evil with good.
That is all the news for today. Have a good week,
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo
For donations please send to:
Mission of T.E.A.R.S
Suite 504, 50 Gervais Drive
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M3C 1Z3
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