To our Hope Church members and friends,
Much of the work of Non-Governmental Organizations around the world is to do “relief” work where it’s needed. Last week the work we saw that needs to be done in Haiti looked more like needing “re-creation”. Some of the wreckage and ruin in southern Haiti was the result of Hurricane Matthew but much of it was much older systemic neglect. Either way, it was a sobering look at the plight of the Haitian people.
Thanks to your generosity we left for Port au Prince on Thursday evening, October 27 with over 30 tarps, 50 jars of peanut butter, a dozen solar lights and an expense account of $1,000. After a night in Detroit we arrived in PaP Friday afternoon.
We spent Saturday and Sunday at the Haiti Foundation Against Poverty compound repacking large inventories of pills into small zip lock bags, purchasing the building supplies and needed tools, and attending worship.
Monday morning four of us boarded a small six-passenger airplane for an hour flight to Jeremie, a small coastal town in the extreme southwestern part of Haiti. While Port au Prince was mostly missed by Matthew, Jeremie took a direct hit. While the mountains and coastline looked serene from 5,000 feet, the view from the ground was like a war zone. Blown off roofs, twisted and destroyed palm trees, a lot of blue tarps and deep mud. And lots of suffering people.
We were hosted by missionaries Aaron and Andrea Taylor, and their four children. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we drove each morning an hour east of Jeremie to a very small rural mountain community of Rouseuex. There we distributed the tarps, lights and peanut butter (which were lusted after!) and, to each of 36 families, four 2×4 timbers for roof joists, four 1×4 boards for purlins, and fourteen 3’ x 6’ sheets of corrugated galvanized tin for roofing.
We were able to rebuild three of the homes’ roofs in our remaining time there. We believe that the remaining families could see how we used the materials and copy what was done.
Most of these families were living in houses with no roofs or whatever small scraps of tin roofing they could find, some torn rags and tarps for side walls, dirt floors, and nowhere to retreat to completely avoid the rain or the sun. They lived totally outside— old grandparents, young parents, little kids, and recently born babies. ALL outside and ALL exposed to whatever weather came their way. It was not easy to observe. We felt blessed to be there and give what little relief we could, but so much more needs to be done.
We left Haiti with a sober reminder that we live in a blessed place and worship with a generous and loving church congregation. Thank you so very much for supporting us. Please continue to pray for the Haitian people.
~Ben Sikkink and Larry Mulder