Gary and Al started out nice and early this morning to go to Port to get food. Nancy is in Port, volunteering at Matthew 25, a Guest House, that has all kinds of things going on and Nancy can translate as well as organize, etc. She called us to say she had a food connection, made arrangements. The person wanted to know how many we were feeding and how much we wanted. Gary said 30 people for one month, just pulling figures off the top of his head and all too low from my perspective but that's not the point, the point is that it sounded rather official. They were supposed to deliver the food to Matthew 25 which would have been quite helpful.
Needless to say, as things go in Haiti, the food was not delivered to Matthew 25, Gary had to go pick it up. He had to go up and down the mountain until he found the street. You see, in Port on good days, you can't find where you want to be. If you stop and ask they say, "Umba" meaning down or they flick their hand to say continue on. We asked Yvesner once about directions in Port and he said, "You have to know where you want to go." That was a pretty interesting answer. So, Gary circled around the pole at the police academy which is no longer there, down the street, turned into a dead end alley way, turned around and low and behold the gate he was looking for. Inside the gate a yard and in the yard were bags of rice, beans, oil, fish and corn meal. She had his order all laid out. She was a rather young woman, her children running around playing, nothing official at all because this was black market supplies. She'd gotten them someplace and perhaps paid a small fee herself, then sold it for a higher price but still below market price. And that's the way business is run here, especially, after a disaster. The free rice will never be free and if and when it is, there is a riot. Like at the hospital in St Marc today. They were passing out free food to the patients and their families, word got out and today it was a total riot.
Gary was a little sick at the thought that he was buying black market supplies but we need them to feed people with. I suppose that makes the black market work … necessity. He went to a parts supply store for truck things, like filters. The quake knocked everything off the shelves and of course, the parts man was not going to sift through it all on the floor to find Gary's filter, so Gary went upstairs to the manager and ended up with a filter that was not in a box, but a filter none the less, another very necessary item.
The big challenge came when he got stuck in the worst traffic jam ever in the center of Port, nothing moving anywhere. Mind you he is in a vehicle, our KIA truck, that no longer has air conditioning and it must have been 95 today. When he and Al got home they were mopping the dirt off their sweaty faces. A lot of dirt at that. Al was soaking wet, Gary a close second. And to top it all off, he didn't get to stop at the orphanage because it was getting too late and he needed to get out of town.
Remember that I mentioned fish. Well, this is the worst smelling dried fish ever. It sort of permeates the air until you want to gag. With it in the back of the truck and the air not working, windows down, they smelled it all the way home. Haitians love this fish and they use it for their sauce to go over rice. I remember years ago when we decided it was a good deal to use fish in the spaghetti sauce. The first week, I thought, "not bad." The second week, I thought, "I don't think I like this." The third week I decided, "No, I can't do this." That was the end of our using dried fish in the spaghetti sauce.
We sent the fish home with Al to give to the cook that makes the cornmeal for all the hungry children around there. They will consider it a treat to have. We also sent rice and beans and oil to the orphanage for their meals for a while. So, even though it's black market stuff, we are feeding quite a few people with it. You can pray that we find a way to get some of the supplies coming in free of charge. In the Haitian market, rice has risen to an all time high, nearly 500 dollars Haitian for 100pound bag. Beans are out of sight as well. These are difficult days and no one knows the end of it all.
We have a nurse from Canada here working at St Nicholaus Hospital in town. Her first day yesterday, her first patient died and her last patient died. The last one was a three month old baby. She was petty bummed out when she got home. But today was a better day and she actually was able to organize meds. More free stuff that came in and was in a heap and no one could find anything. Sort of like at the auto parts store. But, she got it going and tomorrow will be an even better day.
Saturday we have Bible school. Pastor Cesar will be there with his list of supplies needed to build the church so we'll get that going real soon. We are wondering how many students we'll have since so many people have family in Port and are going back and forth trying to help with their needs when they have needs themselves. It was the first time Al had been there and he simply shook his head when I asked what he thought about it. It's beyond belief ….and we just had another tremor. Feeling them often, several a day actually. Sometimes I think, it's me, it's my heart causing the bed to move or the floor to shake …that's a bit of a stretch.
Had good news from Service International, they will begin coming in next week. They will set up camp, here for the long haul and use our land for a refugee center. Now I know why we were unable to build on that land. Three acres should house a lot of people. A big project but this organization is up to the challenge having worked in Kosovo, Shri Lanka, Katrina and other places.
I think I'll go to bed and start again tomorrow. Blessings to all and to all a good night.
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