Thursday dawned with anticipation for me. Breaks from routine are usually welcome for me. Pastor Henri offered to take us to the southern part of Haiti to see the flood devastation. So we left at 10:45 and we soon realized we needed this time out. Bobi and I found every little thing hilarious, which made it a fun trip. Bobi, Matt (from Clean Water for Haiti) and I went. One of the special things about the trip was driving in an air-conditioned vehicle.
In Cabaret, we saw the tents that are set up for the ones that lost their homes. Now if you think of going camping, they look wonderful. If you think of living there, I think of "hot".
We went about 1 1/2 hrs West of Port au Prince.
That's a very pretty, green area of Haiti.
We stopped at a small, new lake that got formed with these waters. No place to drain.
Past Petit Goave a ways is where the existing lake expanded it's borders by about 100 feet or so, now covering the Highway #2 by about 5 feet. Some trucks kept trying to get through. A gasoline semi truck got stuck and somehow spilled it's gas into the lake. It's still sitting there.
They have now barricaded the road with a couple loads of gravel to keep other daring drivers making the attempt. It's a zoo there. Everybody traveling there has to cross on canoes - I saw one speed boat. All the cargoes - vegetables, charcoal, beds, suitcases, etc has to be hauled to the canoes, crossed, and then hauled on the backs of people to the waiting trucks and buses. Can you try to imagine that?
Next time you drive, imagine what the vehicles you see have in them and imagine hauling that on someone's back. Of course the situation with our bridge is similar, only we're very thankful not to have to use boats yet. I looked at these people, and just felt nobody should have to work so hard!! But they do what they have to do.
There's a path that we took that is right in front of people's houses. In fact, it ran between their house and their gate;
and right outside their gate is the water, with people there constantly. What a sad place to live right now!!
They're talking of making a complete new road higher up the mountains that are running right beside it so who knows how much longer this will be. The water doesn't look like it'll go anywhere any time soon.
One past time that we find hilarious while driving is looking at all the art on vehicles. Pastor Henri was a wonderful tour guide pointing out this and that. Then: "and here we have Abram killing Isaac". At first we're like, What? Then we looked at the following bus in front of us:
On the way back P. Henri took us 10 minutes up the mountains to give us a beautiful view of Haiti.
This has taken awhile to send because I've been waiting to send it with pictures and I'm unable to post pictures from Canaan. Internet is too slow. So I managed to get some uploaded at Chris and Leslie's today. We had our bimonthly meeting again today. It's good to get out and meet other people.
The temporary bridge in Mont-rouis is now passable and we have all our vehicles back at Canaan. How nice that feels. Now we need to pray that that bridge will hold all the traffic. I haven't seen it yet but I understand they put culverts in the river and covered them with gravel. Our other broken bridge seems more fragile than ever. There's talk of it breaking more. Hopefully it won't, cause that would really be bad for foot traffic, etc. And dangerous.
Yesterday, Bobi, Mark and I were able to take the afternoon off and spend some time in the ocean. We needed that time. I had tried to relax in the morning too - Saturdays are our times of relaxing, but if there, there are always all kinds of interruptions. They're preparing a "bachelor apartment" for me and doing the last minute painting. Maybe by next weekend I can move in. Yea!!! Now to go shopping for some curtains and furniture. Will see if/when that will happen.
I hope you all have a great week! Touch someone's life in a personal way!!
Elsie Kornelsen
