Tearfund Haiti one year on

Cholera and Hurricanes

This has already been a terrible year for Haiti. The earthquake killed over 200,000 people, and many hundreds of thousands more were left homeless and without food or income. Then a couple of weeks ago cholera was discovered in the north, which is slowly spreading, though not as fast as had been feared. But so far there have been over 300 deaths and nearly 5000 people sick. Now a category 3 hurricane is forecast to hit Port-au-Prince directly on Friday afternoon... It really will be devastating if that turns out to be the case. There are hundreds of thousands of people still living in camps under tarpaulin which they will lose in the high winds, as well as on mountainsides which if there are landslides will result in more deaths. How can one country suffer so much in such a short space of time? It is hard to know what to say in these situations. We continue to hope and pray for better things, but instead it seems to just get worse. But we must continue to hope and pray... This would be a good time for their forecasting to be really wrong!

Election Fever

The elections in Haiti are due to start on 28th November. I say "start" because they will go on for over a month! Already demonstrations have begun, and the general view is that they will only get more frequent and more violent as time goes on. There is increasing unrest about the lack of progress on moving out of camps. People who look like dodgy car salesmen smile out from 10 foot high billboards all around Port au Prince, and there are rumours that the key candidate (the son-in-law of the current President) has $12m to spend on his campaign. And as we run up to the elections there are more and more posters appearing. People want to know why he has such a ridiculously large amount of money to spend when there are thoousands of children who cannot go to school because their parents cannot afford uniforms and school fees. They see it as throwing money away and more abandonment of the people of Haiti, for the sake of political gain. People are sick of failed promises and false hope. We need to pray that a good candidate gets in to power. Someone who genuinely wants to change people's lives, and not just their own!

Money, Money, Money

Everyday I get junk mail from a variety of people offering me money: usually around 30 e-mails a day in my junk mail. This can range from someone who says they have a terminal illness and no-one to leave the money to, to the Swiss lottery announcing I have won a competition that I never entered, to someone posing as Microsoft or even on one occasion Bishop Desmond Tutu!! Today I was offered £156m that is lying unclaimed in some bank account somewhere. Sometimes these offers make me laugh, but sometimes they make me sad.  Who comes up with such terrible stories of terminal illness, sons who have died in Iraq, or money that came from Saddam Hussein? Who can be so evil as to prey on the desperate? It is after all only the desperate who would respond to such obviously ridiculous offers. Someone will end up losing what little they have becasue they will be desperate enough to believe it is true. There was a story of a lady recently who gave £60k to someone she had never met because he said he loved her and needed her help. It is sad to know that people are so lonely and vulnerable that they will believe anything that makes them feel a little better. There are so many people in the world who are lonely, and sadly there are people who just want to profit from that. Befriend someone today and make their lives a little happier!!

Storm Damage

I was out of PAP today until late on. Coming back into the city the roads were jammed and I had no idea why. Then I found out there had been an unexpected (i.e. not forecast!) storm earlier in the day. Trees were down, power lines were down, giant billboards had fallen. It was really bizarre because other than it being wet, and being stuck in an interminable traffic jam, there was almost no trace of the earlier storm. But I have discovered that thousands of already homeless people have now also had their tents blow away or be destroyed, and so have now lost even more if that is possible... People who had managed to put together some semblence of a life under canvass have now lost everything once again. The broken but vitally important items now even more damaged or lost for good. It is hard to imagine what life must be like for these people in their camps where they live every day in fear of their lives and worried their children may be abused, only to have more trouble brought down on them. We can only pray that a hurricane does not come this year!

Mud!

I was thinking I would have a nice easy day visiting a couple of places where we work. It was a beautiful day, sun shining and lovely countryside. We got out of the car and began to descend a long path. I was thinking "I have to walk back up here". Then it began to rain... and rain... and rain. We sheltered in the porch of a house for 90 mins and decided we couldn't wait any longer. So we began to walk back up the hill. The only problem was I only had my crocs on, and they are really slippy in the rain. So on the mud they were useless! After about 25 yards trying to go uphill I had to take them off and walk in my bare feet. But that didn;t help! It was like Bambi on the ice. Poor Matt who was with me had to practically drag me up the hill. I had mud all over my feet, squelching between my toes. As my boss pointed out, some people pay lots of money for mud treatments and mine was free! Eventually we got so far up the hill  and got the car to come down and meet us. The only problem was it couldn't get back up again. So we had to get lots of local people to push us, and at one stage we were sliding backwards down the hill and heading towards a deep ditch! After much prayer, a broken pickaxe and a lot of pushing we finally got out. I washed my feet and was grateful I don't live in that every day! And just to prove I don;t mind embarrassing myself: pictures...

River fun

I went to Leogaqne on Friday to visit some of our kids clubs in South. I had no idea how difficult it was to get to them! We went over miles of tracks which only a very good 4x4 could get along, through, and along rivers, and then we had to walk for 20 mins. We also got stuck in a river on the way, and had to get out and push... The joys of working in a disaster zone. It was so worth it though! The kids were amazing! They were singing songs about malaria, as well as learning all about how to avoid all kinds of diseases and receiving psychosocial support. Then they played games, and had loads of fun. I realised that I need to make time to spend visiting all the work we do to remind myself why I'm here. Noit that I've forgotten, but it was just such an uplifting and encouraging experience that I kind of wished I could spend all my time playing with the kids!.They are so cool! So I have made a mental note to myself to get out to the programme as much as I can and see the difference we are making in people's lives, and see the smiles of the children as they have fun and forget for a little while the trauma they've been through. Here's a video of them playing...

Lack of control

Ever feel that your entire life is running away from you?  I went to New York but ended staying longer than planned because I was interviewing people. Then I got sick while I was there and came back to PAP with flu, and it's taken a week to get over that. It feels like life has passed me by for the last two weeks, and I am not in control of what I do. There are so many things that need to be done, important meetings to attend, donors to see, contacts to make, and yet I can't do what I know I need to because other priorities or demands get in the way. Sometimes I feel that things are out of my control, and if you know me, you know that is not a comfortable situation for me!! I am someone who likes to be able to go with the flow, or to be spontaneous. Instead my life is mapped out weeks ahead, and then things happen to get in the way that I cannot control. So I have to accept my limitations. I can only do what I can do. I am not multi-handed, and cannot clone myself so I am in a hundred places at once! I am not God, so I am not omniscient or omnipresent. I am just me. So instead I focus on what's important: why I'm here, and what I can do to change the little part of the world I live in, and pray I don't screw it up!

When rain turns into a river...

I was out the other evening meeting with some NGO colleagues when out of the blue it started to rain. The rain was so heavy it was impossible to walk in. We managed to get into our car under cover to go home, but then we had to go up Delmas, the main street in PAP that runs from the port up to Petionville, where we live. It is a steep hill! It had only been raining for 15 minutes, and already Delmas had turned into a fast flowing river. It was pouring down, and was above the bottom the engine and halfway up the car even on 4x4s. Women got out plastic bags to cover their hairdos and weaves (a very common practice in Haiti and funny for those of us not used to it to see a woman walking around with a supermarket bag on her head!) So there we were driving up a deep river flowing very fast downhill. It seems the drainage trenches that used to exist were destroyed in the earthquake, so the water had nowhere else to go. Pretty soon cars were stuck and being abandoned, and I wondered if we would even get home. Then suddenly it stopped as quickly as it had started, though the river kept flowing. It was in a way fascinating to watch. But then all I could think about were the people living in their tents. They would be very wet, even if their plastic tarpaulins could withstand the force of the rain, and the vast wastelands they live on would have turned to mud. Some even had their "homes" collapse. Hurricane season is coming, and there is little hope for Haiti to avoid it. More misery awaits, as even the few belongings people have left will continue to get wet, damaged and destroyed. I live here and yet I have no concept of what it means to live like that. I can only be thankful, again, that I get to live in a house, and work even harder to raise the money and build the houses that these people need!

Devotions

In devotions this week, one of our Haitian staff members explained that it is being suggested that the earthquake is a result of God punishing Haiti for the sins of its past. For example voodoo has been a big tradition here, and the government has a history of corruption. According to Transarency International, Haiti is indeed the 10th most corrupt country in the world. Even now, INGOs are unable to get vehicles out of customs because the government wants to charge 40% tax and is delaying the paperwork while charging a daily rent for keeping the vehicles... So in the midst of disaster it is still depriving its people of what they need. But to suggest that God is somehow punishing Haiti by sending an earthquake is just wrong. I believe God is able to bring good out of terrible situations. There are thousands of people who have come here, many as volunteers, to try to make a difference, and are able to see just how extreme the poverty has been here. Haiti was the poorest country in the western hemisphere before this happened, but was so often ignored. People are finally recognising the great need in Haiti and that now is a chance to rebuild it into something better than before, and leave a legacy for its people. The point of the devotions was that God forgives sin completely when we ask Him, and that He does not then punish us for past mistakes. There are many Christian people in Haiti who have nothing left but to believe that God cares and can help them. Why would people try to take that away from them too?

Haitian Revolt

Today a strike was announced: "All of the workers that have lost their assets, those living from under the tents, must be given decent housing, their children must go to school and they must be offered financing to get back on their feet." It is completely understandable that people feel like that. Living in tents in torrential rain for the last few days would wear anyone down. Haitians have been living like that for months. To do so with thousands of other people, each tent containing an extended family, and not having enough to eat, cannot even be imagined by those of us who have not had to go through it. Two demonstrations were organised last week that came to nothing. This one seems to be gaining momentum, but again may come to nothing. They are demanding that President Preval act within 3 days to change the electoral system in order to have "non-fraudulent elections". The Haitians have a history of strikes, revolutions and overthrowing the government. Whether they have the energy to do so now is very difficult to predict. They have been very patient up to now, but it has to give sometime. Tearfund, like many other agencies, is working hard to give people transitional hurricane-proof shelters, but we are already into hurricane season, and it is an impossible task to provide them for everyone soon enough. We must hope that whatever we do makes a difference, and pray that no big hurricanes hit an already devastated country this year.

Back in Haiti

I have been back in Haiti for 2 weeks now, and am beginning to understand the changes that have taken place as a result of the earthquake. As someone who lived and worked here for a year before the earthquake happened, it is easy to see some changes, but others are hidden much deeper. I can see the devastation in terms of buildings, rubble, and seas of blue tarpaulin that make up people's tents. I can see how little people have as whole extended families live on a patch of ground 2m by 3m. I can see the dirt and dust, more of it than before, and people washing in the street trying to maintain whatever dignity they can. What is harder to see is the bewilderment as they wonder if this is how they will live forever, and the sense of hopelessness as they try just to get enough food for each day. Many people seem lost. Some think this is the end. And yet there is real hope: the pride in staff as they work, wanting to do the best job they can; the smile that lights up a child's face as I pass by; knowing that whatever I do may be so little, but it better than doing nothing at all. Haiti has changed beyond recognition, but my job here now is to bring hope and to do what little I can that will change someone's life for the better. I am glad to be here!