March 17, 2010
 

Dear Friends and Family,
 

Sunday morning in Jubilee I packed up the few belongings I had brought with me from Bohoc and got ready to hitch a ride to Port au Prince with Emory and Mary, the missionaries at whose house I had stayed. Laura Lynn was also going along to see her sister who was in Port au Prince for a week. Our trip led us past the many sites in the Gonaives area where the hurricanes of the last few years left their devastating marks. Houses swept away, roads swallowed up, large lakes waiting to evaporate and streams of dried up mud. There was even a more than 5 year old tent city. I wonder how many people know that in 2004 more than 3000 people were killed when hurricane Jeanne hit this Haitian coast. The same storm killed 7 people in Florida. The ride brought many sights of beautiful rugged beaches and calmed in a way the somewhat nervous anticipation I had of the scenes I was expecting to see in the capitol. Well before we got there the first signs of the earthquake became apparent. Cracks in the road, garden walls fallen over, and an occasional collapsed house. Without a warning all of a sudden a large mountain side blanketed with countless tents showed up straight before us. I cannot tell you how horrifying the look of that was. Not just the realization of how many thousands who were living there but the choice of the location. Of all places: why on a steep mountain slope? No sign of public bathrooms or latrines. While looking at this scene the thought of the coming rainy season made me very somber.  A little further along the road on both sides more tent cities were popping up. These were even more shocking than the ones I just described. The word ‘tents’ is flattering for what was put up. Most of the dwellings consist of four poles with plastic drop cloths and/or trash bags nailed on top of each other. Others were made out of paper cement bags nailed over holes. All of this was located on large fields that only showed black dirt. The structures were so close together that one would have to squeeze between them. The idea that babies and small children were living here without any sanitation is very disturbing. Laura Lynn commented that when she worked in this down town area the temperature often was ten to fifteen degrees hotter than elsewhere. With summer coming, living here will surely be too hot to survive, if the rains and the likely resulting diseases have not wiped these poor people out already.
 

Our entire way into the city was lined with ‘tents’ as far as you could see. More and more concrete buildings lay flat between oceans of tin huts that survived. The closer we got to the orphanage in Delmas 31 the more destruction we witnessed. The sour smell was getting stronger and Laura Lynn said it had not been that way in the first weeks after the quake nor had there been that many makeshift dwellings. The open sewers were filled with rubble in many places and as a result raw sewage was flowing over the streets. In the midst of it all were merchants selling their wares like they had always done, many of them sitting next to collapsed houses that had not been cleared of bodies. It was a surreal mix of death and life, one that I will never forget.
 

We reached the orphanage where Laura Lynn stayed for a couple of weeks before she went to Jubilee. It is located in the school building behind the former one that had collapsed. The two story building was not finished and the need for room had interrupted the construction process. Little children were everywhere climbing over building materials and makeshift school rooms were lining the sides of the courtyard. I found my way to a place on the second floor where a bed had been set up for me to spend the night. I did not pay much attention to the temporary tin roof over our heads, something that I would regret a few hours later.
 

After meeting some of the staff I wandered off to the street and talked with several people who asked me for something to eat. Pretty soon I was surrounded by little kids pointing to their bellies and they were surprised that I asked them in creole if they were hungry. The adults became a little friendlier and I decided to risk a riot by buying the kids cookies from a local vendor. The group of ten grew to twenty-five within minutes and I knew that I had to get away. I paid for the snacks and had to work my way through the adults who understandably wanted to benefit, too. I felt bad that I could not do anything more for them. What an intensely sad situation!
 

Back in the orphanage I listened to some of the leaders who were planning a food distribution for about 500 families the next day. We discussed some ideas about handling the crowd. It made me think back to the clinic a week ago where 600 people had been crowding around Laura and me for help. We prayed for a peaceful mood among the people and JT, the young man in charge, felt a little better about the day ahead.
 

It was time to go sleep and I wrapped my mosquito net around my bed. I drifted off amidst the sounds of the city and the loud and fearful praying of a man in the tent next to our building. Just when I fell asleep the first big rainstorm hit. Within seconds the gaps in the roof turned the stack of mattresses next to my bed into a cascading waterfall that poured its stream into the middle of my bed. I tried to get out of the net but it was too late. I was soaked. My roommates woke up to my fussing and helped me to relocate my bed to a dry section. I flipped the mattress and was ready to try sleeping again. Just when I lay down I heard a drip and before I realized where it came from this time, the rain poured on my mattress again. I was upset for a little while but then thought of the people outside and their plight and made peace with my situation. Luckily the rain stopped after about an hour and it stayed dry the rest of the night.
 

The next morning the sun was out like nothing happened and I left for the airport to go back home. I never liked Port au Prince before but my dislike of it has turned into an intense mourning for what happened and what is still going to happen. There is no doubt in my mind that many lives will be lost in the weeks and months to come due to the horrible circumstances. As a builder I have not much faith in the reconstruction of this city where, although the risk of an earthquake was long since known, nobody bothered to prepare for it. The money simple will not be there to do a much better job in the future and corruption and lack of education will let people get away with the same mistakes they made before. I had dreaded this visit to the city and it was worse than I could have imagined. I am so glad that my calling is in the country and I ask you to pray for all of those who live and work in this nightmare. The world still has a long way to go to help this nation out of the hole. I hope that world leaders will see and act upon their responsibilities.
 

In my next report I will fill you in on the status of the land project and the food transports.
 

In Christ, the true Light that is needed in the darkness of Port au Prince,

Hein