Haiti Herald, Feb. 23, 2010

There was another earthquake in Haiti on Monday. It was reported to be 4.7 but was strong enough to panic the people. It has been reported that there have been 130 aftershocks since the major 6.1 earthquake of Jan. 12. (Le Nouvelliste) President Preval now estimates the number of victims to be as high as 300,000 once all the rubble has been removed and all bodies have been rescued.

Two minibuses loaded with aid that had been donated to the Haitian earthquake victims were stopped in Dajabon, DR. The goods were being brought into the DR to be sold here for profit. The buses contained clothing, mosquito nets, toothpaste, shoes and food with the labels from the international aid agencies still on them. Another vehicle completely full of canned food was also stopped and confiscated by police.

A UN convoy of food was attacked near Cap Haitian on Monday. The convoy had crossed the border in the northern part of the country and was headed to Port au Prince. A crowd of over 100 people blocked the road and threw rocks at the convoy, demanding aid for them and their families. Under pressure, the Chilean soldiers accompanying the convoy distributed the food to the protesters. (SF Gate)

Dominican police have also stopped several truckloads of illegals crossing the border. The Haitians said they paid $150-200US to be transported from Port au Prince to Cap Haitian. From there, Haitian traffickers got them across the border and then asked them for $3000-4000 Dominican pesos to take them to Santiago. The trucks were carrying 127 Haitians. (Listin Diario)

Haitian senators have asked President Preval to extend for another month the "state of national emergency" which has now ended. There is still $11 million US available to be distributed under the emergency plan that could be used to help people who are still in critical situations. The senators asked for these funds to be spent rapidly and without constraint. (Le Nouvelliste)

The Haitian ambassador to Spain said this week that it will take 25 years to rebuild Haiti. She is asking Spain to donate tents and prefabricated houses. An estimated 20,000 homes were destroyed in the quake. She is also asking Spain to donate large machinery to help in the demolition of damaged buildings and in the removal of rubble. (Listin Diario)

A serious concern in the tent cities is what to do with all the human waste. Cases of typhoid and diharrea are on the rise. There are no sewage system treatment plants in Haiti. Human waste is dumped in the city dump along with garbage and medical waste. There are some portable latrines but even these overflowed after the rains of the past week. Aid workers are looking for more portable latrines but that also means setting up a system and paying someone to regularly empty them. (SF Gate)

All of the country's embassies have been inundated with people asking for travel visas. Haitians stand in line from sunup to sundown, in the rain and in the sun, waiting for their number to be called. Many will even sleep on the sidewalk overnight so as not to lose their place in line. The most coveted visas are for Canada, USA, France, Mexico and Senegal. (Le Soleil)

Dr. Michel Chancey, Haitian Secretary of State, responsible for the distribution of food donations in Haiti warns that too much aid will only slow down Haiti's economic redevelopment. The constant flow of free food will make if difficult for farmers to market their products. The planting season begins next week, but many farmers are discouraged about planting since they fear no one will buy their products if they are able to receive them free in a handout line. The government is distributing 10,000 tons of rice every two weeks. Chancey said that before the earthquake Haiti produced 45% of it's own food, imports were 50% and 5% was international aid. Before the earthquake 500,000 were receiving food aid. That number is now 2 million. Chancey would like to see a gradual reduction of the food aid so the country can reestablish it's agriculture system and reduce the dependence on international food aid. (Le Soleil)

Ronany

Ronany, the daughter of Rona Abraham, turned one this month. She was born here in Santiago and has papers as a Dominican citizen. Her parents had a small get together to celebrate.











She enjoyed the cake and the toys and for the most part is a very pleasant and happy one year old.












Rona is a very proud and happy father. Now that he is making two week long trips into Haiti to do exploratory work, he will not see very much of his daughter. Ronany and her mother will be staying here in Santiago.

Haiti Herald, Feb. 18, 2010

The rains are coming early this year. There have already been several heavy downpours, causing fear and panic among the people and making even more desperate the need for stable housing. An estimated 600,000 people still do not have "tents" (more than just cotton sheets). The rains have an adverse effect on the amputees as their injuries make it difficult for them to avoid the rains or move quickly. If it rains hard there is no place for the rain water to go - it stagnates, becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Once it starts raining, belongings will not have a chance to dry out and mold will develop. The rains also cause despair and anger among the refugees.

On Monday a school collapsed in Cap Haitian after a heavy rain with high winds. Four children were killed. (Le Nouvelliste) The Haitian government would like to have more schools permanently open by March, but many children are still traumatized by the earthquake. They are afraid to be away from their parents or to be under any kind of ceiling. Schools outside of Port au Prince have reopened but many children are not attending.

The Port au Prince airport will recommence commercial flights this coming Friday. Since the terminal was severely damaged in the earthquake, they will only be operating from a portion of the terminal. There are approximately 1,000 planes still on a waiting list to land with donated aid.

Several countries have offered to rebuild the government buildings. France, Canada, Brazil and Chile have all presented plans for reconstruction in Port au Prince with an average cost of $12 million US to get things started. The President and his Cabinet are currently working out of the airport police station. (Haiti United Press).

President Preval estimates that it will take 1000 trucks working every day for 1000 days - just to remove all the rubble - three years. (Press Network)

Fellowship Service

Leaders of Haiti's two official religions, a Catholic bishop and the head of the Voodo priests - joined Protestant ministers for a prayer service near the National Palace. A Muslim preacher also attended. (Haiti Press)

A Day of National Mourning was declared for Feb. 12. Catholics, masons, muslims and voodooists were all invited to participate.

A voodoo priest said to the congregation that the earthquake was a time to unify all faiths. (Haiti Globe)

A woman sang a song honoring the snake spirit.

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It is always surprising that people who talk about the Scriptures as the truth can believe that joining together with those of other faiths is pleasing to God. The entire Old Testament teaches us how God patiently tried to teach his chosen people to remain separate, to guard the truth as their most precious treasure, to not mix it with the pagan practices they saw around them.

When we see the massive crowds of people all joined together, people of all faiths joining in a worship service, it does fill us with emotion and we want to feel satisfaction at people coming together working for the good of man. We know, though, from Scripture that these types of joint services are not pleasing to our faithful God. His truth is not to be contaminated with false teaching. He still calls on us to guard his truth and to keep it pure from false teachings.

Daniel faced a test when the king built a statue and ordered everyone in his kingdom to bow down before the statue. Daniel, in faithfulness and worship to God alone, refused to join in any kind of worship contrary to God's will. He refused to obey the king's orders even though it meant a death sentence for him. He put his service to God above the friendship of men.

What can we think, then, when we see these massive groups of people joining together in an ecumenical service? It causes us great sadness. In their desire to seek peace with men and obtain God's favor in ways contrary to God's will, these leaders and their followers are rejecting the peace with God that He wants to give them through faith in Jesus. And if they do not repent and trust only in Jesus as their Savior, in the end they will bring the wrath of God down on themselves. That would be a far greater tragedy than the earthquake. We pray that the hearts of the people in Haiti would be opened to know the truth of the Scriptures. Rona Abraham (our Haitian pastor) is currently in Haiti doing exploratory work to begin mission work there. Please pray with us that God would bless his efforts and bring people to believe the truth of his Word. God will not share his glory with another and he will not be mocked.

Haiti - One Month Later

Today was a day of National Mourning in Haiti - many churches also declared three days of fasting. An estimated 217,000-250,000 have been declared victims of the earthquake. Thousands still live in makeshift housing. Some are still being found beneath the rubble.

Housing has come to the forefront of necessities to be resolved. A rain shower on Thursday afternoon evidenced how fragile many of the "tent" shelters are. Many of these "tents" are nothing but sheets strung up around a mattress. The rain easily penetrates, soaks the mattress and whatever other items the people may have inside and creates streams of water that carry mud, human waste and trash along with it. This was just a random shower. When the rainy season begins at the end of March, it will rain every afternoon for several hours, usually accompanied by high winds.

Some organizations have decided not to distribute any more tents in favor of dedicating efforts to beginning construction of more stable housing. For now, the best option seems to be to bring in prefabricated houses that they hope will come in the form of donations from developed countries. There are still some estimated 700.000 that are in need of housing.

The beginning of the rainy season also changes the health perspective. Water-borne diseases are now becoming the focus: cholera, dysentery, malaria and dengue.

Cell phone coverage has improved but is still not completely restored. Haitians can call out to the Dominican Republic, but we still are not able to call there. When you do try to make a call, it may go through but gets cut off right away.

The government is trying to organize the schooling situation. As of Feb. only 15% of children have returned to classes. The earthquake destroyed 5.000 schools and a million and a half children are waiting for classes to recommence. There is also a shortage of teachers since many of them were killed in the earthquake. The DR is making plans to donate 15 mobile classrooms to Haiti to help them get started with classes.

The food situation has also taken a new turn. Of the food that is available prices have shot up. Rice and corn are up by 25%, price of wheat has raised 50%. The World Food Program alone distributes 680 tons of food every day but it is estimated that 10% of that ends up on the black market. The food is in the country, is being distributed, but still is not reaching many of those who still need it.

Tamboril

Tamboril is a small town located between Santiago and Moca. It lies at the foot of the mountains with lovely panoramas of the surrounding countryside.

We made a trip to Tamboril, along with Pastor Alex from Moca and his family and Nelson and his family. We wanted to make an evangelism visit to some of Nelson's family members.

After we got to the house, Nelson's family took us on a walk up the hillside. When we got to the top, we could see all the way to Santiago. It was very beautiful. Nelson wanted us to stay until night time because he said it was even a more spectacular view in the dark with all the city lights shining.

As a result of our visit, Nelson was able to set up classes with his family members. He hopes to study Christian doctrine with them and then use their home as a base to reach out to other neighbors in their area. We are thankful for this opportunity to witness and pray that the Lord will use Nelson's zeal and his efforts to reach many more hearts with the good news of forgiveness in Jesus the Savior.

Haiti Herald

Since so many of you are interested in continuing news on Haiti, I will try to post whatever news we see in the newspapers here or what is printed in the Haitian press. I will try to intersperse these posts with continuing news on the Dominican mission.

It was reported in the Dominican press that a barge of food in Barahona, DR was looted by Dominicans. The barge, loaded with donated food, was waiting to be loaded into trucks to be taken into Haiti. A large group of Dominicans ran off with the food and when someone asked them why they were doing this one man answered, "Everyone says there is so much poverty in Haiti, but there is a lot of poverty here, too."

The Haitian government is starting mass vaccinations, especially of children. There have been some cases of rubeola and they are worried about a mumps outbreak. Only 28% of the Haitians were vaccinated before the earthquake.

It has also been reported that there is a dire security problem, especially in the tent cities. Many families lost husbands and brothers who were the family "protectors". The problem now is a severe rise in the number of women and young girls being raped in these camps.

There are several reports of abuse of the donated humanitarian aid. One UN food distribution center was shut down when it was discovered that the people waiting in line were using counterfeit coupons. Each coupon gave the person the right to receive a 25 pound bag of rice which should feed a family for two weeks. It has also been reported that anyone caught trying to sell donated items will be sanctioned or jailed.

The UN has also warned that it will stop its shipments of free medicine to some of the Haitian hospitals that are now beginning to charge patients for care and for donated medicines. The UN sent in about $1millionUS worth of medical supplies, all donated from their warehouses. Also, it is not necessary for the hospitals to charge patients in order to pay the doctors since the medical personnel are also being paid with donated money.

Clean-up crews have been working around the city. The goals are sanitation, shelter and schooling. Poor sanitation is causing illnesses and also is harmful for people coming out of the hospital (especially to those moving in to the tent cities). Doctors now have to deal with untended or infected wounds. Shelter is also a concern as there are still not enough tents to go around. They also want to get people into more stable housing before it starts raining - hurricane season is coming! The Haitian government will also have to decide what to do about the schools, about 75% of the schools in Port au Prince were destroyed.

Jimani

This past week the director of our Administrative Committee, Bob Smith, and a representative of the Committee on Relief, Mark Vance came to Santiago to meet with the people here. We had a day of meetings on Wed. including the seminary students, Rona-the Haitian pastor, several members of the church, and a visit to the Red Cross. After a busy day of meetings we began our trip to Jimani, the Dominican border town in the south that is close to Port au Prince.

We left Moca at 10:40PM with Juan Manuel as our Dominican driver (he is Alex's older brother), and he drives like a Dominican! We made it to Santo Domingo where we saw a HUGE convoy of military vehicles lined up at the toll booth. Most of us were trying to get some sleep but just when you almost fell asleep the van would hit a rough bit of road and bbbbrrrrrmmmm you would be rudely awakened, or we would hit a pothole (same result). So sleep came in small doses! Juan Manuel did know the way which made the drive quicker. We only had trouble in one spot where they had taken down the sign that was his landmark. We had to find someone awake (it was 3AM) to tell us which way to go. (We saw several watchmen and policemen sound asleep on their watches!).

We arrived in Jimani at about 5:30AM and decided to try to get some sleep in the van, while we were parked. That's when we all found out that SOMEONE snores!! So one person got a nice rest (where are the potholes when you need them?). Eventually a policeman came and told us we had to move the vehicle off the road, so we drove into the area where the international groups had set up camp. We found someone from the Defensa Civil who gave us some information about the situation in Haiti.

Everyone going into the country must now show their vaccination records. Everyone gets tetanus, rubeola vaccinations and malaria pills. These are the three main concerns at the present time. You are also warned against going into the country on your own. It is best to go along with a guarded convoy. Muggings and robbery at the border are quite a serious problem. During our conversation, we were informed about a hospital nearby that was caring for a large number of Haitians. We drove there to meet with the doctors.

The hospital was in two large houses that had been converted into hospitals. The first one was being used as the operating rooms and the second one housed the patients before and after their operations. We saw a constant stream of patients being brought in for surgery - most of them need amputations. The doctors explained that they do try to save the limbs, but many times the amputations are being done because of infections and gangrene. We also saw the area where they were receiving donations and Mark was able to contribute the medical supplies that he had brought along.

We walked down to the other building and saw many Haitians in various stages of healing. Because of the trauma of the earthquake, many of them have a fear of being inside a building. They are fearful of the building collapsing down on them - the children especially have this fear- so we saw many people who had dragged their mattresses outside and put up makeshift walls around them. While we talked and witnessed with some of the patients that spoke some Spanish, Rona began witnessing to them in Creole and spent a great deal of time trying to witness to them and give them some comfort and hope.

We started on our way back to Santiago and were enjoying a nice ride when we had a flat tire. We got the tire changed and then stopped in Santo Domingo to buy a replacement. There was a place not far from the highway that was open. The owner of the shop brought a used tire that was the right size and all SIX of the guys from the van examined the tire before a consensus was reached that this tire was acceptable. The new tire was put on and now we were ready for the last leg of the trip back to Santiago.

All in all, it was a very nice trip and we were able to accomplish our objectives: Rona was able to witness to some fellow Haitians, and Bob and Mark got the information they needed to set up further aid to Haiti via the possibility of volunteer WELS nurses and medical workers going to Jimani to serve there. We thank God for keeping us safe in all our comings and goings.