haiti update - january 3, 2010

“As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God?” Psalm 18:30,31

Hi! The time between Christmas and New Years Day here in Haiti is spent visiting family. Many people in Port-au-Prince will travel to the countryside to visit with family who live there. Paulna went to stay with her family in Bonnette and Benson spent some time with his aunt and mother. Johnny’s family in Jeremie sent a couple sacs of food by boat and we drove over to Wharf Jeremie to pick them up. The guys went along as well and we spent some time on the docks and wharf area looking around. We saw the small boat to Pestel being loaded with supplies and people. It is amazing how much these boats carry. You can see photos on my blog. The Jeremie boat is a large boat and we were able to go inside and look around while it was docked. There was a lot of traffic on lower Delmas and on Wharf Jeremie and we spent an hour getting through it. While waiting in the traffic jam on the wharf a motorcycle was passing vehicles on the outside. A man was crossing the road in front of our vehicle and he didn’t notice the oncoming motorcycle. We didn’t have a chance to warn him and the motorcycle hit him. The man was sideswiped and didn’t fall down, but the motorcycle driver and passenger went down along with the bike. It was amazing that nobody was seriously hurt. The guys called the man who was walking Ironman because he didn’t go down. 5 minutes later while we were still waiting in traffic we saw a wheelbarrow being pushed with the body of an old man curled up inside. At first I thought he was dead. There were a few people with the man and they went on ahead. When we finally reached the intersection we pulled up alongside the wheelbarrow and asked the people what was going on. They told us that they were trying to save the life of this man. Wharf Jeremie is a very poor area that is near Cite Soleil. In order to get help for this man they placed him in the only transportation that they had which was a wheelbarrow. There was no family member with this elderly man and we asked the people if they wanted to take him to General Hospital. We offered to transport them. They told us that they didn’t want to go to General Hospital. In Haiti if you don’t have money you don’t get medical care. We don’t have money ourselves to pay for hospitalization. We ended up leaving the dying man in the wheelbarrow, as the people didn’t want to go with him to General Hospital. There were police at the corner directing traffic so hopefully they convinced the people to bring him to General Hospital and provided transport for them.
On New Years Eve people are outdoors visiting or attend all-night church services. Manu asked if he could stand out front with the older guys and his friend and I let him. We watched a DVD with the other children and when it was finished at 8:30pm I went out front to check up on Manu. He wasn’t there. Another of the guys told me that he went with Fedner to the store. Around 9:30pm Fedner was in the yard and not Manu. It was then that I found out that Manu and Ganna went up to Delmas by themselves with some money that Ganna’s aunt gave to buy something. We then played the “Where in the world is Manu” game and drove around for an hour in our search for him. We got back home and I waited outside thinking that now people are going to say that I am not a responsible parent and let the children run around until all hours of the night. 10 minutes later Manu and Ganna walked into the yard. They enjoyed their excursion up to Delmas! Manu even helped to catch a thief! At the Big Star market he saw someone steal a drink and put it in his pocket. Manu went up to the security guard and told him. The person was caught. In our search for Manu we noticed a lot of people on the street. There was a lot of traffic on Delmas and lots of people walking around. By the new park that has playground equipment in between Delmas 31 and Delmas 33 we saw around 100 children running and playing (not a parent in sight!) This showed me that Haiti is changing for the better. A few years ago you wouldn’t have seen this sight. It was a festive atmosphere on the streets this year. Pray that in the New Year the country continues in its stabilization.
The new prime minister of Haiti, Jean Max Bellerive recently returned from a visit to Canada where he met with the Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the mayor of Montreal, and Governor General Michaelle Jean. The Canadian government is providing an additional $15 million CDN$ in assistance over the next 2 years. These funds will be used to improve the condition of prisons and towards improving security of the frontier zones. This assistance is in addition to the $555 million CDN$ that will be provided over 5 years (2006-2011). With the additional aid $4.4 million CDN$ will be used for prison construction, $4 million to purchase 5 police boats and to repair Haiti’s coast guard base and $3.6 million to re-enforce border protection with the Dominican Republic.
The UN as well has changed their operational focus for 2010 to its’ ability to deploy rapidly and to monitor remote locations, especially the border areas and Haiti’s coastline. The focus is to control the illicit cross-border trafficking of people (especially children), and drugs, arms and other illegal activities. There are several nations represented as part of the UN here in Haiti. Soldiers will be placed in each department of the country according to nationality lines with Spanish speaking troops being placed along the frontier points of passage. The UN will also provide logistical and security assistance for the upcoming senatorial and presidential elections in 2010. Pray for the work being done by the UN here in Haiti and for a calm election year.
Haiti has also improved its score on the Transparency International 2009 Corruption Index ranking. In 2008 Haiti was in 4th place for worst corruption. In 2009 Haiti has improved a few places and is now in 10th place for corruption. The worst country for corruption continues to be Somalia. New Zealand is the least corrupt country and Canada is in the 9th position as least corrupt country. Hopefully in 2010 Haiti will continue to improve its corruption index scores!
That’s all the news for today. Have a good week!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo