24 hours in Port Au Prince

Yesterday morning I headed from St. Marc into Port Au Prince to work at the rescue tent YWAM has set up across the street from the Presidential palace. Driving down there is still so surreal. It is hard to find images of the damage on the Internet or on the news as it has been over 3 weeks since the earthquake, but I assure you that things are still horrible. There is still rubble everywhere, firefighters are pouring diesel fuel in the wreckage and lighting it to prevent the smell of the dead (only in certain areas) and 1000’s upon 1000’s are living in make shift tents scattered in parks across the city.

2 day’s after the earthquake, Ome, a girl from the Dominican Republic saw a place of refuge in a dream. She rolled over to Port Au Prince, found the place and started treating people using water to wash out wounds and bed sheets to tie them off. Today there are approx. 100 volunteers, the Haitian SWAT team to provide security and dozens of doctors and nurses running a make shift clinic out of the police station across the street to treat the sick. There are two pediatric centers, a general operating center a kitchen to feed all the volunteers and sleeping centers (everyone is sleeping in tents). Outside of the clinic are 1000’s of tents where Haitians have set up homes after loosing theirs in the disaster.

In the 24 hours that I was there a baby was born, a deaf lady received her hearing back and started talking English (just kidding about the English part), a person had their toe sewn back on, a baby who was brought in not breathing was healed when prayed over and the lady who received her hearing had a demon cast out of her, gave her life to Jesus and burned her voodoo necklace. Sounds like something I read once in the Bible.  This morning I also watched the doctors treat a woman who lost her toe, give medication to a lady who had her foot crushed and saw our friend Peterson praying for a girl who had lost her right are in the quake. I am sure that this is just another day in Haiti since the earthquake 3 weeks ago, crazy.

I slept on the roof of a 2 story concrete building along with 30 other people in tents and on the ground. The building was surrounded by other concrete buildings that had collapsed in the earthquake so the thought of falling to my death in another quake crossed my mind, I even had my escape route planned. Well, I eventually fell asleep only to be woken up at 3am to the sound of singing, clapping and dancing. I thought it was a dream at first, but then I got out of my bed and saw the hundreds, maybe up to 1000 Haitians dancing, clapping and worshipping in the streets. So much pain, so much destruction, yet they still worship, they still praise, the still rage on.

I am loving my time in Haiti. It is not all dramatic and crazy like this. In fact, most of my time is spent in an office 2 hours away working with teams and co-ordinating things from over here. I just want to give a picture of Haiti that you may not see anymore. One of hope, new beginnings, healing, and moving on, yet still in desperate need of help.