Feb. 9, 2010

Roger, Albert and two trucks full of food and other essentials arrived safely in the H2H compound yesterday evening. Pastor Luc's brother, Hoslais, and two uniformed policemen sat inside the cabs of each of the trucks, making their presence highly visible, and thankfully, there were no problems at all getting from the DR to Heart to Heart.

Uhlrick (the Haitian man who has been helping Roger and Albert in the DR) will be travelling into Haiti with another vehicle full of food tomorrow (escorted by the police again). We will be giving some of these goods to CHO, an orphanage in Carrefour, who phoned earlier in the week asking for help, as they had very little food left to feed their children. These kinds of exchanges are typical of how Haiti has been operating since the arthquake. The world response of compassion and action towards helping Haiti seems to be the same respose within the country. For the most part, it has been neighbours helping neighbours; charities sharing with each other. A "horder" behavioural trend would be understandable in a climate of post-trauma and extreme poverty, but instead, the tone so far ahas been largely sacrificial and generous. H2H is feeding 600 people in our compound, and in addition to that, Pastor Luc is delivering food to six different locations within Grande Goave. We are giving, but we have also received - food and service from the US Military, food from GLA, an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, and fresh water from Doctors Without Borders.

After a long day of last-minute coordination and travel, Roger and Albert got to H2H to a large welcoming committee! Both kids and adults were so excited to see theeir brothers. Many hugs and stories later, as the night wore on and mattresses were pulled out and lined up on the basketball court for yet another night outside, a few of the boys ventured over to the Children's Home, wanting to sleep inside, but still afraid of what might happen. Roger and Albert pulled a mattress into the boys' room, instantly making it safe. Within minutes they were surrounded by peacefully sleeping ittle boys - curled up, content, protected - sleeping soundly for the first time since January 12.

Today was spent cleaning our community well, playing with kids and further assessing the damage to our buildings. (see Rebecca's blog for pictures: www.rebeccalarkin.blogspot.com) We need to be in consultation with engineers, but we are optimistic that our Children's Home may only need to be repaired instead of demolished and rebuilt. Our first floor of the school also appears to be in reasonably good condition. The second floor of the school is completely flattened and it will take major work to remove the rubble and then rebuild. The kitchen/dining room/guest house is completely destroyed and the church apppears to be beyond repair. Our perimeter wall was badly damaged, but work to repair it began several days ago and it is now almost completely restored.

We are still hoping to secure the dump truck and backhoe/loader from the business man (Jose) Roger and Albert met in the DR. The logistics of getting the equipment to Grande Goave, findiing a qualified operator and Jose having to return soon to the US are a few of the hurdles to work out.