Friends Hurting in Haiti

(Joseph, Rosario, Eddie, Adam, Nixon (back), Gracia, Mike, Michelin, Watson)

(Visiting General in the hospital)

It's been two weeks since the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Like many around the world, I've been consumed by searching the news for information, crying, praying and giving. I've not wanted to write about it before because we have Haitian friends in a village near Leogane that we have not been able to connect with but for a very brief email through another American friend.

We think everyone Evan knows is alive. Junior (the president of the fraternity) and his family are alive. His 6 month old son has a terrible abrasion on his face. They are sleeping outside beneath the trees. What meager homes and possessions they had have been destroyed. There is no food, water or shelter. There are no medical facilities or aid workers. If aid has been slow to reach a large city like Leogane (the nearest town and epicenter of the 7.0 earthquake), small communities throughout the country will most likely have their suffering prolonged. Sadly, suffering is what the Haitian people are all too familiar with.

(Pictures from previous visits)

(Junior and his wife)

Evan has traveled to Haiti five times in the past three years to Neply a small community of perhaps 300. He had fallen in love with the people and was grieved by the terrible burden of poverty they struggled against. He asked one Haitian friend how often they ate. He replied, "We are lucky if we have one meal a day."

(Gracia, Jimmy, Evan, Isaiah)

In Neply a local group of Christian men had formed a fraternity whose goal was the betterment of the community (photo at top of post). They were blessed to have a water source in Neply- a communal well. Many of the trips there were projects to help dig trenches into the hard packed soil, mixed with rocks, with pickaxes in order to lay small PVC pipe to connect homes to the well. A spigot outside the house was a pure luxury (no running water in the homes themselves). There were still many homes left to connect to but we have no idea if the well survived.

(Junior)

Most homes were small, unreinforced concrete structures and some crafted of simple wood, dirt floors and (if lucky) corrugated tin.

(Junior & his mother in front of her house)

(Milfort's adoptive mother's house)

Shelter.......food......water - so problematic for the Haitian people to obtain before in "normal" times and now........it's inconceivable.

Here are photos from Junior, of Neply and his family, after the earthquake:

(Junior's 6 month old son's injuries)

We wonder how General, Isaiah, Rosario, Michelin, Gracia, Gladimir, Sonny, Asher, Nixon, Joseph, Pastor Antoine, Eddie, Milfort, Prof. Franken, Elifet, Adam, Junior, Jimmy, Gregory, Elam, Yram, Steven, the ladies: Jonika, Eve, Samantha, Madame, Carlina and Anitas (an elderly man) and all of their families and friends are.

Please continue to keep Haiti in your thoughts and prayers. It's going to be a long, difficult road for them and they will need the help of those of us in the global community for some years.