Thursday - May 27

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Today Nixon Blanc and I drove through Pétionville and Port-au-Prince to get a first hand view of the damage caused by the earthquake, to connect with some of the people we know, and to begin the process of discovering what it is that we can do to help in the recovery. I think the most important gift we can give is our compassionate presence. I hope I did that today, in each encounter with the people we met.

Today I had an opportunity to stop by Matthew 25 House (formally Visitation House), to connect with the people currently managing the house. The house itself wasn’t very badly damaged by the quake, compared to the other houses in the area. Two of the sleeping rooms were destroyed. But the bath and shower areas were all working. You can see a picture of what one bath looks like without the sleeping rooms. The major transformation is in how the soccer field has been turned into a tent city. I do not know how many people are living in the tents (nor did I ask). My guess is there are at least 200 tents in the soccer field, and they have a school organized in the back yard area.

From the Matthew 25 House, we drove by the former home of Roger Desir. It is now just one big pile of broken and crushed cement. I knew it was badly damaged in the quake, but I didn’t expect it to be this demolished.

We next drove down into the center of the city so that I could see the Palace, the Catholic Cathedral, and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. I’ve included some pictures of each of those sites. I did see evidence that the people at the Trinity Cathedral are attempting to protect one of the paintings that adorned the walls. All three of these buildings, along with a host of others, will need to be demolished before anything new can be built in their place. I was encouraged to see that Trinity Episcopal Cathedral had already demolished the school, and built temporary classrooms so that the children could continue their education.

I was amazed to see that many buildings were not damaged by the quake, while buildings next door were completely demolished. I wonder why. Perhaps it has something to do with the way the buildings were constructed (use of rebar and a lot of cement)? Or perhaps it has something to do with the way the earthquake manifested itself in various locations. Or some of both.

One of the positive impacts of the quake is the large number of jobs available. Where previously up to 70% of the people were unemployed, today a lot of those folk have work. And there is a lot of work to do.

Now, may the rest of the world help in the reconstruction of Haiti, not only the buildings, but also the quality of life for the Haitian people. May they have quality education, medical care, clean water, good roads, etc. That is were you and I have a role to play.