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.
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