ERDO BLOG...

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We have just completed four days of in-country assessment of the crisis in Haiti. We spent considerable time with PAOC’s global workers, Michel and Louise and Bob and Tammy. Michel drove us through the heart of downtown Haiti. We were left reeling by the complete destruction. CNN images only supply a small slice of the reality. Through the busyness of our documenting, observing and evaluation we stopped in the realization that people lived here, died here and still remain under the concrete.

We paused for a moment.

A child’s photograph lies on top of the rubble outside of a broken prison wall. A Christmas tree, white with dust, lay wedged under the weight of two floors collapse. People pick up the pieces and move on. Street vendors sit outside of what were once shops and businesses. They are dazed and overwhelmed by loss and yet forced by the urgencies of hunger, thirst and shelter to continue moving.

We met with a number of the agencies that were first on the scene. Our review of the efforts to this stage had us connecting with the Samaritan’s Purse relief team director, CRI, the coordinator of the medical response facilities in the country as well as our long-time partners at the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. We drove out of town to listen to rural community leaders describe their plight. Large businesses have collapsed, not only burying buildings but also employment in the aftermath. The nation’s flour-mill is gone; the flour for bread will now need to be imported.

We visited with another of our partners on the field, David, who until a month ago was simply running a small orphanage of 50 children. Today he was heading out for his second distribution as he attempted to feed the 5,000 people who are calling for help. The local mayor called and asked him to care for another 200 children. David would like to say yes, but he is not sure if he has the supplies or the capacity.

Notions such as relief, recovery and rebuilding suddenly take on a depth of meaning beyond another headline. These priorities may actually mean life and death for the hundreds of thousands who remain camped in the temporary shelters on any spare bit of rubble-strewn ground. The government directive has asked the people to continue to sleep outside rather than go back inside of the existing walls of their homes. Very few were inside anyway. Fear rules here as families wonder when the next aftershock will come. For thousands there are no more homes only blue tarps and braided palm tree walls.

We are challenged but committed to simply walk forward into the next step. This is what we know: we need to pray, continue to listen, engage and give generously.

The rain has just begun, the first since the quake. It looks like the brief delay in the start of the rainy season is over; these temporary shelters won’t last long.

Written by David Adcock and Mark Crocker