Haiti - day one

In our evening prayer tonight, we took time to name one thing each of us had noticed in the previous eight hours.

• Buildings flattened pancake-like, with a twisted staircase
• A boy trying to make money by washing windshields of cars on the road when another car came close to hitting him: brought home the danger of this and the recognition that he is not alone
• The surprise of goats foraging in trash along the road
• The amazing beauty of both the landscape and people
• The tent cities all around us
• A man propped outside a tent city, totally limp, looking like he was dead and wondering if he was
• The teachers who keep coming to trainings to improve: so dedicated!
• The statistics at the school about 50% of children going to school; 1% going to high school and the story of children not at Peter's school who sneak in or press themselves to the gates to see what is happening.
• The rusted buildings as a sign of what could happen if things don't change, especially politically (elections are Sunday)
• The delight in children and the hope that is so evident in their faces
• The many people who are so well-dressed, even when living in tents (more care for personal appearance than many back home)
• The sight of three school girls arm-in-arm, walking up the street and a recognition that happiness and love are not precluded because of suffering or poverty
• An amputee with his stump pressed against the chain link fence outside clearing customs; pleading that we see him and help

And all this amounts to only a glimpse into these first hours in Haiti...

The trip from New York was blessedly uneventful. The arrival in Port-au-Prince easy enough with all luggage arriving with us and both Jonathan Chan and John Engle meeting us to spirit us away. After getting some freshly roasted peanuts and big bottles of clean, cold water, we went to a school where a teacher training was taking place. Then we went in our little van (14 of us) through the city to a high point overlooking Petionville and Port-au-Prince. Our bus slowly meandered through significant traffic on the rugged, twisting road up the mountain. Most of the time we looked out windows, gasping as, wide-eyed, we saw evidence of the quake in the rubble and tent cities. An astonishing enormity of need etched into the landscape and in people's faces....

At the end of the day we drove a good ways up the hillside described in Kent Annan's first book (Following Jesus through the Eye of the Needle). About half of us dared to walk the final kilometer or two up that steep (really steep), rocky road. An adventure, especially in the upper 80s and high humidity! In time, we all arrived to the joyous welcome of John's family and colleagues. Soon after we were shown around the house and to our tents where we were delighted to find comfortable cots with pillows...and a welcome to stretch out for a few minutes before dinner.

We feasted:

• Fried plantains and a spicy (seasoned "mildly" just for us!) cole slaw
• Rice and beans (with Haitian, not USAID, rice)
• Chicken / sauce
• Eggplant
• Mangoes and Papaya

Good conversation has been steady throughout the day. And we look forward to a very early morning with a full day at three of the Haiti Partners schools. If time allows tomorrow, we'll update the blog and share more thoughtful reflections. For now, this is just to get a few of our impressions recorded and shared.,

We rest now... /JEE