Our typical day in Haiti:
Basically our days followed a quasi routine of waking up to the sounds of kids singing the earth quake song ( a really catchy, newly inspired tune) We were exceedingly blessed with hot coffee made on a gas stove. Children rolling up their outside bedrolls and taking turns inside changing, brushing teeth, washing faces. The teachers would begin arriving and we would meet together to strategize, pray , worship together for a few minutes.
Please understand that this is now a construction site / school / orphanage / relief aid and food distribution institution. Otherwise known as Christian Light School . Sherrie Fausey is the Director and is one amazing (if not somewhat stubborn)red head!
The school children then began to arrive and the cooks made sure everyone had a bowl of porridge, some peanut butter bread or something to eat.
The medical team would have left at sun up to set up clinic and begin seeing patients. They took care of a staggering number of people with gaping wounds, burns, fractures, infections….headaches, bellyaches and the one that broke us in two, heartache!
Once school was started under the tarps around tables set up in the yard, the cooks and nannies began packing up the food packages. Creating packages out of whatever we had gathered the day before….rice, beans, peanuts, spaghetti, flour, cookies..whatever kind souls had given us at the airport or what ever boxes of rice sent from here had arrived.
At 10 am we would begin to distribute. Each tent community in our area had been asked to form a committee of three people and bring a list of all the families. From that list we get a grand total of the number of people they were providing food for.
SO in folks would come and we would offer them a seat and ask about how their community is doing.
If there were unknowns about the community , we’d say, ok , show me, let’s go for a walk. And off we’d go for a visit.
Once in the commmunity we discuss the program with all that are there and talk about the role of the three comittee members for being responsible to bring food in and distribute it. This keeps everyone honest.
This system seems crude , yet it really seems to work.
The most imporant factor is the visiting in each tent city ( community) by doing so we can see if there are any folks with medical needs and really look people in the eye and let them know they are not alone and they matter to us…to God and to the rest of the world.
Many times we’d have other small NGOs, like ourselves arrive with empty trucks that we could help fill, and Haitian Pastors that had taken on the burden of caring for hundreds when they themselves had nothing. So we would fill them up with the supply we had. It was a great honor to be a small part of this supply line!
After all the goods were gone, we’d shut down distribution and head back to the airport to search for a supply for the next day. THis involved checking to see if any more Rice boxes had arrived from Georgia through MFI, walking the length of the airport camps and “begging” for supplies from international camps set up along the way.
Head back to camp and join the kids and staff..and whatever unpredictable situations waited for us there!
As night falls, the kids gather their mats back outside under the tarp and spend 30 minutes singing (once again we hear the earthquake tune) and praying, they all press faces to the ground and beseech the God who loves them so to keep them safe through the night and help their beautiful Nation recover from this calamity of epic proportions. And He hears.
