More about Hannah

....More on Hannah....

So Leslie picked me up today to go see the Montrouis bridge. WOW! Apparently the high waters of the river have washed away the ground under the big cement pillar. It’s not a pillar exactly, it’s the whole width of the bridge (maybe they call them that anyway, I don’t know). So the whole base sunk further into the ground on the one side, which then separated the point where the bridge comes together. So the bridge isn’t exactly broken, but the middle of it goes down. I’ll try to send some photos if Leslie will email me hers. My camera has gone berserk – everything comes out looking like red sunset streaks. (anybody know what that means in a camera???)

This road is the main road to all of the northern country. With the bridge uncrossable, people are going to run out of food and living essentials pretty quick. Pray it won’t take long. They have a ‘cat’ in the river, piling stones and gravel to the middle of the river in order to divert the waters from the pillar. Looks like that could take awhile yet. There is another road somewhere in Haiti, but it’s a bad one, and who knows if crossable. There’s a dinky road that runs on the top of the mountains, but I can’t imagine that one having all it’s puny bridges so this one has to get fixed. One blessing is they have a lot of heavy road equipment close at hand already. We’re glad we have two vehicles on the other side of the bridge – at least we can go to Port for supplies. The bridge is still walkable. It’s a mayhem there. Buses and taptaps are now parked on either side, and people are hauling produce over the bridge on wheelbarrows and their heads. It’s a zoo.

The situation in Haiti is REALLY bad!!

If you’ve heard about the city called Gonaieve that was flooded in 2004 (I think), the same city is again totally flooded. And that is only one place. It’s both in the north and the south. AND the problem Haiti could be facing now is that international ‘people or companies or governments’ don’t want to help because last time the funds/products weren’t spent well. So the people suffer because of the corrupt government.
So many people have died already. Even in Montrouis. Houses swept away with the people in them, or huge boulders/rocks hitting houses. (don’t imagine your house; imagine huts). The frustrations lead to other pains as well. I don’t know if this is the reason, but one of my little 11 month mamba patients was brought to me today by her 9 or 10 (I’d guess) yr old uncle. Said the mom brought the baby last Thursday to the paternal grandma and said she had nothing so now the grandma could take her. Apparently the father doesn’t help either. They don’t know where the mom went. And she’s such a cute little thing! The stories could go on.

We’re in a bit of a dilemma because everyone thinks Canaan has money, we have to help them. Compared to them, we do have a lot, but cash isn’t exactly flowing for an orphanage of this size. They can’t seem to grasp it. So pray for wisdom on who and when to help. The hearts of some of these people are amazing to watch. Some of them aren’t getting much more than $20.00 USD a month, and they told Sister Gladys she can use that money, they’ll waive their monthly wage to help someone else. Would we do that??? It puts me to shame.

.... to be continued I'm sure

Elsie