01/30/10

This past Sunday, we had learned that we would be closing the school for the next three weeks. The main concern was the view of our ministry to the community. Many schools had been closing and many within the community had the belief that we didn't care about the tragedy of Port au Prince or the victims since we continued with school. Of course, this is mostly coming from people who don't have any idea what is going on here. On Wednesday, the following day after the earthquake, we skipped teaching our first hour and had a time of prayer and singing with all of our students. Later in the week, we closed for two days. One day we all met at the school and had a memorial service, again with a prayer time and singing. We also had a few victims from PaP come up and give some insight as to what they saw. Many of the stories were very hard to hear. Following the service, we split up in groups and visited nearby hospitals to pass out water and to pray and sing with anyone in the hospital. It's a bit different here. You can walk into the hospital without permission, not knowing a single person, then proceed into a room of victims and just walk up to people and pray. The culture here is very different than that of the States. Not only is the security not a concern within the hospital (no one is showing up to do harm) but the victims don't desire privacy as you or I would if we were in a room at the hospital. They welcome visitors who they don't know and everyone enjoys when groups come in to pray and sing for the entire room. I have heard that when you visit a victim in a hospital that it is somewhat expected that you would pray for them and might sing for them as well. In any case, though we were closed for two days, we decided to close for three more. During this week, we found out that schools in the area are actually opening soon, and we were then told that yes, we should be opening. So, tomorrow (Feb. 1st) we will be starting again. It's a little frustrating to be getting mixed messages from the community, however it is good to be starting again. Three weeks off would have been such a loss to our students. There isn't any reason to suffer through a loss (one which you cannot control) and then to purposefully stop everything for such a period where you sustain another loss unnecessarily.

Having said all of that, having this past week of was much needed. Looking back, we wouldn't have been able to do everything had school continued this week. We had all been wanting to help out but obviously, with our responsibility here, we couldn't leave to go to Port au Prince. Therefore, we focused on helping the refugees who were coming here. On Monday, we met at the school and gathered supplies. Many of the teachers put together items such as extra clothing, soap, towels, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc. We wanted to make up care packages for those who came here without much other than what they had on their backs. Lenny, the bible college director, organized this and suggested that we create a food program to aid those in need for four weeks. With limited resources and our focus of teaching, we aren't able to help out on an ongoing program nor would this help those in need if we constantly provided food and created a dependence.

Tuesday, many of us met at the school to begin processing refugees. The plan was to bring them in and interview them as to assess their needs. Some people were given a card that allowed them to come back to receive a one time care package. Others are able to come back once a week for four weeks. The interviewing was done by the missionaries here who not only have lived here for a very long time (one upwards of 20 years) but who knew Creole very well and could speak to them fluently. Unfortunately, as I don't like to say, we had to filter out those who really weren't from Port au Prince and weren't directly affected. We have taken people from Port de Paix and allowed them to get aid, but only because they had family from Port au Prince staying with them. The goal is to lighten their burden when some have taken on five or so into their homes when they don't have the space for their own family. Of course, we were probably taken advantage of from those who really didn't come from PaP nor did they have family from there. However, we would rather err on the side of generosity in a situation like this than to turn away those in need. The sad reality is that in any case, those who waited for four hours or more to get an interview simply for rice and beans must be in need. It is always hard to turn people away, but with limited resources, we had to focus on those who needed it most such as those with children, people who only have one leg or those who had to be carried upstairs because they were too weak to walk.

So, as we began on Tuesday morning with our plan, we were surprised a bit by the amount of people outside. It was a bit hectic. We were at the gate and could barely hold people back as we constantly reminded them to not lean on the gate. We weren't looking forward to having the gate break, get crushed and then trampled. Well, I wasn't. Thom who was with me might have been.... he does like adventure. In all honestly though, those outside the gate weren't being unruly or harmful toward us. The chaos was within themselves and their fear that some would get in and others wouldn't. We tried to let one family in at a time, but that became too difficult. The front gate was so big, and since it swings out, it was impossible to open to let anyone in as too many people were pushing on it. We had to opt to let people in the side gate which goes directly into the generator area and then right back out into the school yard via another door. Since there were only around 100 or so, we just let them all in at once and shut the gate for good. Anyone who came after that point were late and would have to come back Friday. After everyone rushed inside and realized that they would get seen, they were incredibly calm. Again, they weren't rude or aggressive toward any of us, but just fearful that they might not get help as they know that supplies usually run out and that not everyone would get help. Fortunately, the group was small enough that we could see them all. Once we got them all upstairs and seated, I stayed down to watch a side gate that we have. It's a smaller gate which leads toward the construction site. We had to leave this open as workers are constantly going in and out. I stayed there to keep people from sneaking in. On occasion, people would walk in and I would have to escort them back out. We also used this gate as our way to let those who had been interviewed out. The process took about four hours. It was a bit stressful and a relief to be done.

The following days we would see those who were given cards and begin passing out supplies. We did interviews and pick-up days on separate days to maintain the crowds. Those who weren't seen on Tuesday were told to come on Friday. The fear of us all was that gave them two full days to spread the word (though it was supposed to be on a small scale and within their families as our pockets aren't terribly deep) and we didn't know how many would show up. Friday finally came and as expected we had a large crowd outside the gate. I couldn't go in the front gate, so I went around to the side. Once I got in, I stayed back as to not draw attention. Those in the street were being quite calm until a few went up to give them directions. At that point, everyone rushed to the gate and it began to bulge inward. Part of the lower ironwork broke and was welded later that day. We wanted to get there early and let people in before the crowd grew, but they had began gathering since 6AM. By 9:30, there was already a few hundred.

Once the gate was finally opened, the crowd came rushing in so quickly that they began trampling over bushes and pushed so hard that about thirty people got trampled themselves. At this point, Thom and I were up in the stairwell. Our goal was to allow them in but to stop at that point. We needed to maintain order. I was amazed by how many people came in and that they weren't nowhere near as calm as the group on Tuesday. They came in so fast that Thom and I literally had to shove them back as we tried to maintain our ground. The one distinct thing I remember about it was that the entry filled so quickly with people, that I remember a wave of heat and humidity which came at us as it rose from them and traced the ceiling and up the stairwell. It was stifling. I understand that a group of people in a room can eventually cause the temperature to rise, but this happened so suddenly it was a bit unreal.

Fortunately for us, a few people from the neighborhood and some of our Junior boys were there to help get some order. It was the strangest thing to see. I couldn't believe my eyes. There were about three guys who were taking the lead and telling everyone to be quiet and were getting them in order. I had thought they were refugees that were just realizing the absurdity of the chaos and were trying to make order out of it. I found out later that they were just people from the neighborhood helping out. It was very reassuring to see this. The first thing was to get them to be quiet which didn't take too long. After that, we began to get two lines formed. That took about a half hour, but significantly calmed everyone. Of course, some were not happy about the wait, but then, who does like to wait? In any case, the rest of the day went well though it took us until 5PM to finish. I had counted 382 but didn't start immediately and since my count we let a few more in the gate who had a referral card. I would estimate that we interviewed between 400 and 450 on Friday. Fortunately, the difficult part is over. Now we just need to create aid packages. This is time consuming, but much easier! Please pray that what we are doing is effective and does help many get back on their feet as they look for a new start in life, a new job and a new home. Thank you.