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| "If God had a face, what would it look like?" Joan Osborne |
Haiti - Part 4
Today we're heading to downtown Port-au-Prince to tour the ruins of the January 12th earthquake. This is our first trip to the wrecked Presidential palace.
The weather's been mercifully fair and cloudy all week - low 80s, some drizzle - so we can ride in the back of the tap-tap (flatbed truck taxi) without scorching in the sun. Mercifully as well, aftershocks have been mild.
The city is destroyed as far as they eye can see. Rich and poor, famous and unknown, white and black - every neighborhood equally devastated.
Driving in Haiti is nuts! Carts and people often block the roads, there are very few traffic lights at intersections and drivers use whichever side of the road is open.
The weather's been mercifully fair and cloudy all week - low 80s, some drizzle - so we can ride in the back of the tap-tap (flatbed truck taxi) without scorching in the sun. Mercifully as well, aftershocks have been mild.
The city is destroyed as far as they eye can see. Rich and poor, famous and unknown, white and black - every neighborhood equally devastated.
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| We nicknamed our tap-tap (truck taxi) "big blue." |
Driving in Haiti is nuts! Carts and people often block the roads, there are very few traffic lights at intersections and drivers use whichever side of the road is open.
Our tap-tap (truck taxi) gets blocked by a dump truck stuck on the narrow dirt road. We climb out of the tap tap to see if we can find anyone who needs help since we won't be going anywhere for a while.
We're sorry
A young man calls to us in Creole. "He wants help recovering the bodies of three family members so he can give them a proper burial," our interpreter tell us. "They died when their house fell on them in the earthquake."
What can we do? We don't have the heavy equipment needed to move the tons of stone that became their grave.
What can we do? We don't have the heavy equipment needed to move the tons of stone that became their grave.
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| Dane Melberg photo |
For a moment, I wonder why God sent us here if He wasn't going to do miracles like He did when He parted the Red Sea. Why is God so seemingly blind to a nation's despair? I long to see God do something Hollywood filmmakers couldn't copy if they tried a hundred years.
Our driver inches forward as traffic starts moving. "We're sorry," our translator tells the man as we jump back in the tap-tap, "We can't help you."
If a miracle happened that day, I didn't see it.
A mother's touch
Back at base camp, I'm overcome by a sense of futility. What difference can we make in the face of such tragedy?
It may not seem like much, but there is one thing...I walk to the orphanage and cradle a starving infant - abandoned without ever knowing a mother's touch.
Back in the US
It hits me that I did see miracles in Haiti.
I saw the miracle of faith as doctors, nurses and others said, "I'll go."
I saw the miracle of hope as they set broken bones and comforted broken hearts.
I saw the miracle of love as they held strangers and gave water to thirsty children...miracles you see not with your eyes, but with your heart.
Back at base camp, I'm overcome by a sense of futility. What difference can we make in the face of such tragedy?
It may not seem like much, but there is one thing...I walk to the orphanage and cradle a starving infant - abandoned without ever knowing a mother's touch.
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| baby Kevin holding my thumb |
It hits me that I did see miracles in Haiti.
I saw the miracle of faith as doctors, nurses and others said, "I'll go."
I saw the miracle of hope as they set broken bones and comforted broken hearts.
I saw the miracle of love as they held strangers and gave water to thirsty children...miracles you see not with your eyes, but with your heart.
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