Our Night in the Domincan

We got to Santo Domingo about 8 that night. We caught a cab from the bus station to the hotel where we had reservations, thanks to North Carolina friends in the US. Most of us expected we would be spending the night in kind of a dive, which was fine, we wouldn't be there that long anyway. So when we pulled up to a hotel that looked more like a location on the Vegas strip than the hostile we expected, we could hardly believe it.

Once we got checked into our rooms we grabbed dinner at the hotel buffet and for the first time in three days, we relaxed. Anyone sitting near us must have thought we were crazy. The longer dinner went on, the goofier we got. The stress that we had all built up was being released in roaring laughter. Then some guy dressed in a tux sat down at the grand piano conveniently located right next to our table and started playing Disney songs, and there was no hope after that, we kind of lost it, but it was fun.

Once we got back to our rooms, we were able to take advantage of two things that had been missing from the previous days--showers and internet. We were able to reply to all the emails from news stations and update everyone with our travel plans, we even got a few phone calls out to family through skype. I caught everyone at home in the living room at the same time, that was great!

Throughout the night, the feeling and mood in our rooms definitely fluctuated.

At one point, I remember sitting on one of the beds with Tyler and Eyleen watching the news, the first EQ coverage we had actually seen, and it kind of hit us that we were going home. 24 hours earlier we were in Haiti and in about 24 more we would be home and out of chaos and safe, but when Actionnel got home, he would still be in Haiti. Haiti is home for him, for his family and all the people we had lived with for the last week, they didn't get to be done with the chaos left over by the earthquake any time soon. For a while, it was like "what are we doing leaving?" When we stepped back, we knew we had to leave--staying in Haiti was not an option, there would not be enough resources, and if nothing else as Actionnel had said the night before "our families needed us home." But we were all in Haiti because its a country we love and we want to help, and now more than ever we wanted to be able to do something, anything we could. It was so hard to accept the fact that the best thing for we could do for Bayonnais was to leave them.

When we watched the 27 news coverage from a couple nights before, and all we could do was laugh. The news guy was so over dramatic as he read Eyleen's post on our travel blog "We are O K" he read, enunciating every syllable. Really, really.....

While I watched TV that night, the coverage hit me like disaster coverage never really had before, it was so real. Every picture and video they showed reminded me of Bayonnais. I felt like any of those people could have been the people I had come to love over the last week. For me, it was definitely worse than 9/11. I was so little in 2001, only 12, I didn't really get it when it happened. At that time, it took me weeks to really understand why planes in New York mattered to people in Wisconsin. But, this I understood. I knew that this earthquake had already changed the country forever and that life everywhere in Haiti had just gotten so much harder than it already was. Every once in a while, there was the glimmer of hope that maybe this relief would be the beginning of a new revolution in Haiti.

We all got a good night's sleep that night in our ridiculously nice beds and headed for the airport first thing in the morning.

Lessons on the Bus

On the bus, I really wanted to sleep, but couldn't. I thought about journaling, but wasn't up for that either. So, I wrote this list instead.

Things I've learned in the last week

Most hotel shuttles don't pick-up after midnight

Airports get pretty cold at night, even in Florida

Haitians and Americans define functioning roads very differently

Haitians cook great food

Soda out of a glass bottles is definitely the best way to drink it

Always be open to exploring a plan B

Places where people stop you on the road just to chat every time they see you do still exist

Creole for beginners:
Bonswa = Hi Sava? = How's life? Blanc = White

Surveying is way more fun in Haiti

Language is powerful

Facebook is universal

The best strategy while playing dominoes is definitely to slam the table as hard as possible

"Shower" is a loose term in Haiti and bucketing is way better anyway

Why the "least of these" will be the greatest

Never underestimate the usefulness of carrying a knife, duct tape, and a bandanna in your pack

Always fill your camelbak all the way, even if you're just planning on being out for a couple hours

Haitians are fascinated by toe shoes

Patience is a virtue

Banana trees really do yield bananas when not grown in a sunroom in Wisconsin

God prepares us for trials whether or not we realize it at the time

Haitians love like no one else

Assessment trips can turn into implementation trips at the blink of an eye/crack of a pipe

Worksites where no one is getting paid at the end of the day are the most rewarding

4" couplings don't necessarily fit directly onto 4" pipe

God appoints the leaders of His church for such a time as this

Real men cry

I am blessed

I think I know what Paul was talking about when he wrote Romans 12:15

God is sovereign

I don't understand sovereignty

Stars in Haiti at 4AM are unparalleled

Hymns in any language are beautiful

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Here's a few I have added since being home

Prayer is powerful, even across oceans

God's put some really great people in my life

January 8th was ages ago

I love Haiti and can't wait to go back

God's called me to tell a story

Leaving

Thursday morning we woke up at about 3:30 to leaved at 4. Believe it or not, but it was still very dark at 4AM. I've never seen a sky as amazing as we saw that morning! The weather had been a little downcast while we were there, so there was only one night we had been able to star gaze. This early morning sky blew us all away. There was literally no ambient light anywhere, the stars were so bright, breath taking. Any other time, I would have loved to simply stand beneath the stars and wait for the sunrise, but instead we grabbed our bags that were ready from the night before and loaded the bus.

A few men from the village were going to accompany us for the day. Everyone was pretty quiet. Even though we were all pretty awake, there wasn't really a lot to say. Every once in a while, Actionnel would start singing hymns. The words were in Creole, but the tunes were familiar. At one point, he chose "Amazing Grace."

As the sun came up, we all started to get more talkative. We weren't leaving the way we came, so the drive was new for all of us. We drove through the mountains, which was beautiful. We got a little glimpse of what Haiti was supposed to look like, the moisture in the mountains is the perfect environment for the jungle that used to cover much of Haiti.



The drive for the most part was pretty uneventful. We got to the border and got through fairly easily, there was a very long stretch of about 20 minutes when we were separated from our passports, but for the most part everything was pretty easy. The officials at the border let our Haitian friends walk us to the bus station. We waited with them for about 45 minutes and then our bus left.



As we started our long bus ride across the country, stress that had built up the last few days slowly began to lessen. You could see everyone starting to decompress. The Dominican really is another country compared to Haiti. They definitely still are in need in a lot of their country, but there is an infrastructure and access to things like building materials that is not at all present in Haiti. It's unbelievable to me how an arbitrary line in the sand, drawn hundreds of years ago separates two different worlds.

Probably the Longest Day of my Life: Part 2

So my goal is to be done blogging Haiti by the end of the weekend.

Wednesday night when we returned from the pipe life had started to resume around the house. The atmosphere was still quieter and more subdued than it had been the rest of the week, but more people were congregating and working around the house than there had been that morning. Actionnel and the other men still hadn't returned from their trip to Port-au-Prince, so we all had some time to hang out before dinner.

Most of us were just chillin in our rooms and washing up while we waited for dinner. Tyler, Eyleen, and I decided to try a couple of the spigots around the house to see if the water had made it's way to the house yet. As we got to the steps of the house, Actionnel's truck was pulling up to OFCB. The three of us were just frozen for a second, we watched as hundreds of people followed the truck to the house. We decided to give everyone a minute and just continued to the back of the house to check the spigot.

As we had kind of expected, the water still hadn't made it's way to the spigot. We started to head back to the house and while we were a few steps off the gate we heard screams erupt from the crowd in front of the house. Right away, we weren't really sure what to think, were those good or bad? We kept walking back toward the house and as we made our way though the front gate, women were running past us throwing their arms in the air and screaming in Creole. Tyler and I looked to Eyleen for something, any kind of translation, but she had nothing.

It didn't take long for us to figure out that this was not good. There was no way that this was a celebration for the homecoming of their students. We made our way to the front of the crowd and Demielsant was trying to quiet everyone down so he continue giving them the update from Port-au-Prince. Eyleen interpreted as best she could for us; he said again that they couldn't find either of the students, that their school had collapsed, and even though they were only able to take their truck down a couple of streets, from what they saw the city was 90% destroyed and would take years to rebuild. With every statement, the wails from the community got louder and more desperate.

The three of us just sat there on the side of the house, while the community continued to fall apart around us. At some point, Michael joined us too; right before Actionnel had made it home he had walked down to the pipe crossing. I don't really know what else to say about that night. At the time, I had no idea what to think, and I'm still trying to figure it out a little.

Honestly, I just sat there, going between watching what was happening around me, taking everything in and closing my eyes with my head in my hands. What do you do, really what do you do? What are you supposed to pray for, what is there to say? I was desperate for God to do something, but felt like there was nothing that could make it better. At one point, I know I asked God just to end, seriously, I have never anticipated Heaven, never truly desired an end to the suffering of this earth, more than that moment. I don't want to sounds over-dramatic, but that's what I truly felt in the moment.

I think we sat outside for about an hour. Once the crowd thinned out enough for us to get through the door to the house, we went inside and talked to the North Carolina guys. We decided that it would be best to get out as soon as possible. The longer we stayed, the more resources we would use, the odds of us getting home timely went down. It was such a blessing to have the support and help of the North Carolina churches and the leaders in Bayonnais. We decided that Actionnel and some other community leaders would drive us to the border of the Dominican the next day. We would leave at 4AM and catch a bus at the border to Santo Domingo.

So that's what we did. We all left the NC guys room to pack. We had a plan for travel, but we didn't really think travel would go as planned, so we packed in such a way that we could drop bags if we would have to. Most of us left what would help at OFCB and put the essentials in our backpacks and things we could afford to lose in the rest of our luggage. It was so weird getting ready to leave.

Probably the Longest Day of My Life: Part 1

Ok, before you even say it, I know I did not blog every day or every other day last week. This is taking a little longer than I expected, so rather than hold onto this post until it's done, I'm posting what I have and will hopefully finish soon

Wednesday morning was pretty surreal, I think that's a good word for it. I woke up a little later than I had the previous days, but that seemed to be the norm for everyone. When I finally made my way out to the main room, the activity that normally accompanied the morning wasn't present. Some of the Carolina guys had left early that morning for a hike they had planned at the beginning of the week, so they weren't around, most of our team was sleeping a little late and none of the Haitians seemed to be around either. I went out to the front steps to sit and watch the kids come in to school like I had the two previous mornings, but by 7:45 no one had entered the school gate. I found out a little later that school was canceled for the day.

Eventually the morning started to move forward. Even though the kids didn't have school that day, they still began to roll in to hang around the guest house. Most of them still didn't really get what was going on. The adults walked around with sad faces that reminded me of the days following 9/11, while the kids sat at the dominoes table trying to be as intimidating to eachother as their dads did every night. They were just having fun.

Pretty soon the North Carolina guys came back from their hike and we all sat down for breakfast, without Actionnel though, Yoland told us that he had gone into Port-au-Prince with some other leaders to look for two students from Bayonnais studing there. After breakfast we headed out for what we planned would be a pretty short day or surveying, it seemed a little futile to go out an survey while the country was in an official day of emergency, but it's what we came to do, so that's what we did. We only had one survey station left, so we figured we would be back at the house early.

As we walked to the pipe crossing, Tyler tried one of the water spigots along the road, just to check that the pipe was maintaining its pressure since being fixed Monday. Instead of water shooting out of the high pressure nozzle, a few drops dripped to the ground, bad sign. We got a little closer to the crossing and ran into a couple of the "sub-contractors" who had been working on the pipe earlier in the week. We started to talk with them, communicating mostly through Eddy, one of the NC guys who was born in Haiti and spoke Creole fluently. The men said that the pipe had broken some time during the night. They still had a lot of steel pipe left over with threads didn't match up. They were going to try to fix the pipe with that, but they didn't know how they would do it. We told them that we had brought a coupling with us that might be able to help them get around the problem. Eddy had been thinking about staying Haiti for a couple more weeks, so he said that he would keep the coupling and help the guys fix it later.

We got to the pipe and saw the break. We were pretty disappointed to see the pipe broke, we knew this meant no fresh water for 10 miles of community, just another thing to go wrong. But, we still went on to finish our surveying. Alysen, Michael, Eyleen, and surveyed while Tyler finished his scouting around the river for other projects we are working on.

As always, we had plenty of helpers with us surveying.

We got done surveying a little about 1ish. When we walked past the pipe on our way home, the sub-contractrs were back. They had taken down the broken PVC and had hauled the steel pipe back to the crossing. We stopped to ask them what was up. They told us they had decided to try to fix the pipe that now rather than wait for a while, so, of course, we decided to stay at the crossing and help.

Work at the pipe looked like the 6 of us brainstorming, planning, and making plans, while the men implemented the plans. Having Eddy at the crossing was such a blessing, communicating without him would have been rough. Eyleen did a great job too, her Creole just keeps getting better. Finally, after a few hours, we had a plan with all the bugs worked out. We were going to be able to use the coupling we had brought and the fix would be the most permanent fix the pipe had seen yet.

You can see in this picture the local men who were working with us.

Check out the homemade "scaffolding" they're standing on!

Finished Product and the whole team:We walked home from the pipe SO excited! We had left the house that morning feeling almost useless, we went out to survey because there was nothing else to do, but felt like it was nothing. Now we felt like we had all been part of something so much bigger, like we had helped bring a solution to a real problem.

Tuesday--Post -Quake

Once we got back to the house, it was just about dinner time. They took care of us so well in Haiti, Actionnel's wife, Yolande, is such a great cook! So we sat down for dinner with Actionnel and the North Carolina guys. We all traded stories of the day, not the least of which was where everyone was during the earthquake. Actionnnel confirmed that the community didn't experience any structural damage. He did say that the two-story school shook quite a bit and the kids bolted out.

After dinner John was the first person to grab his computer and check the headlines for the day, nothing was the same after that. John went to the NY Times website, the front page story was the earthquake in Haiti. Most of us were still stalling at the dinner table chatting when he came in and told us the EQ was at least a magnitude 7, it's epicenter was really close to Port-au-Prince, a hospital in Petionville had collapsed. When John stopped reading the article, Actionnel brought his hands to face and asked out loud, "God, haven't we had enough?"

From this point on, time began to crawl. It seemed the hours just kept going. I don't know if we really noticed it at the time, but looking back, we couldn't seem to understand how 3 days seemed to last 3 months. Also from this point on, details get a little shaky. I remember just about everything that happened, but a few things may be a little out of order.

Once we realized that the EQ was a much bigger deal than we had first realized, we got online, sent out some quick emails and updated blogs. Internet had been spotty all week and we figured it would be even worse now, so we conserved the time as much as we could. It got dark pretty quickly after dinner.

Normally nights around the guest house were full of life. There was a table under the overhang of one of the school building that the men always played dominoes on. You should see Haitians play dominoes. It looks and sounds awesome. They don't just set the dominoes on the matching numbers and keep going quietly, it all about intimidation. They're slamming and sliding dominoes, hitting the table, shuffling tiles in their hands and on the table, and making sure everyone else at the table knows who's boss; I think it's probably more fun to watch than to play. Normally groups of the high school kids would hang around with us trying to practice their English by just making conversation. I spent most of my time at night with the littlest kids, I loved playing clapping games with them, you know life Miss-Mary-Mack, of course they sang sweet Creole songs I couldn't understand, (man I really want to learn that before I go down next).

None of that really happened Tuesday night. Dominoes was the last thing on the men's mind as they gathered around Actionnel's big, white pick-up truck, with the radio blasting the only news available being broadcast from Gonnaive. The station was pretty much just broadcasting phone calls they were getting from people close who had information about Port-au-Prince. Most of the high school kids stayed at home that night, but a couple of the older boys had come out to Actionnel's truck too. Most of the young kids didn't really get it. They seemed to notice something was up, they hung around the guest house just a little less active than usual.

That morning we had planned to do a hand washing clinic with some the kids. It didn't really seem like high priority any more, but we figured it would at least keep the kids out of the adults hair, so Eyleen and I did that. I got to take pictures and hang around watching her work while she taught in Creole. After the kids finished the class, they all got a sweet Bucky Badger magnet. They didn't quite understand the concept of a mascot, but they had fun.

Quick side note: That night it was really windy and really unseasonably cold. As soon as we went inside, I put on sweats and a sweatshirt. None of the kids we spent our time with that night had that option.

Once the kids all headed for home, Eyleen and I joined everyone back in the guest house. We talked with the North Carolina guys for a bit. We still didn't really understand the extent of the earthquake yet. We had been able to see some pictures of structural damage, but we didn't have the live video feeds you were all getting. At this point we were still hoping that American Airlines was going to open up flights on Thursday and we would be leaving Thursday out of Port-au-Prince exactly as we had been planning.

As if got later, numbers in the computer rooms dwindled. Eventually it was just Tyler, John, Eyleen, and me. Tyler decided to check his email before we shut down the computer for the night and waiting in his inbox were 3 emails from news stations who had figured out that we were in Haiti. We were pretty amazed, honestly. We worked together to reply with something short that wouldn't be able to cause much of a stir on any news report. We hung around together for a while and eventually got to bed late.