Before I came to Haiti I found myself sitting on the couch in my living room watching the news of the Haiti earthquake and wanting to turn off the TV. 8 day’s after the quake I found myself sitting at our office in National City watching Terry Snow, the YWAM Haiti national director calling us to come and to help them rebuild. 6 day’s later I found myself standing with a few of my friends in Haiti.
We are staying at the YWAM campus in St. Marc, Haiti and working with the team here to help set up long term outreach for teams to come and help. It has been great, but we feel like we are not in Haiti, we are in an office. So, today my friends Lindsay, Matt and I decided to get off of the YWAM property and go for a walk on the street.
Outside on the street were hundreds and hundreds of refugees from Port Au Prince lined up at the YWAM door trying to get in so that they could get identification cards, food, money and a job. While I was out on the street I was seeing the same images and things that I had seen on TV 14 days earlier, but it was different. The difference was that I could not just sit back and be an observer, now I was in it. I was a participant and I couldn’t just turn off the TV or change the channel. People were telling me that they were hungry, needed water and asking for money. One person also talked to me today and motioned that his family had died in the quake and that he needed help. They were desperate and I felt helpless and stuff.
This is why I came to Haiti, because I need to be here. I need to feel helpless and stuck because that is when Jesus gets the opportunity to shine through me. I can’t just sit on the couch any more and watch, I have to get involved, I have to be a participant. Attached to this story is a picture of the lines of people outside the YWAM property that we were with today.
Thanks for the update from the ground. My question is, not sure if you’ve heard or seen reports…Will the UN or whoever disperses these billions of dollars in aid…are Haitians involved in dispersing aid or rebuilding efforts yet? I can’t help but think how much quick recovery the people and the country could see if they were involved in and paid for their efforts in reconstructing their country. I hope that this is where some of the aid money goes and quickly… is simply to pay Haitians in reconstruction efforts.
This is a big deal for sure Lyla. People are wondering where all this money is going, have not heard yet. The thing that they hope is that it is not all used to send food, rice and beans, etc. over. The problem if they do that is then the small business in haiti goes under because everyone is getting free supplies, so then no one will buy then the stores go out of business and then we have new problems. This is what they Haitian’s were talking about today.
The other thing is that the UN are referred to as bullet magnets here. The main UN building was hit and approx. 200 people died in the quake. SO, they have sent in new UN workers who are new to Haiti and are not sure what to do, as a result the UN are just seen as people who are buying up property and not doing much of anything. It is frustrating
Phil, i’m not sure if i’m just not smart enough to find it, but i don’t see the attached picture of people waiting in lines. The only picture I see attached to this article is a picture of a TV.