A Tap-Tap is a truck with bench seats in its bed and a Camper shell welded on Posts for shade. Tap to get on and Tap to get off. It seemed every Tap-Tap was painted with a message such as God is Good, Thank You Jesus and Scripture Romans 8:39. They were everywhere.

Haiti is very (for better terms) "lively". Lots of traffic and people about, amid the trash and rubble. The living conditions are horrid, dirty and dangerous. Tent cities everywhere there was flat ground. There were people even living in the median of a 4 lane road. Limited toilet facilites and baths. Most everything is done outdoors except sleep. Tents and Tarps are the shelters of these people.

Each and every one of the people we met was beautiful inside and out. We laughed, sang spoke and prayed with them. They are just beautiful people in a dire situation.

These people are very resilient and seem to be taking it in stride. But stress is often hidden. There are 1.5 million homeless and the death toll keeps rising. 

The Country is broken both from an infrastructure and Governmental position. What is not broken is the faith of the people, and to me it seems to be what is holding the country together.

Basic needs are hard to obtain. City power is only 3-4 hours a day. Hospitals and clinics are understaffed and under funded.

One of our team members asked our translator Jean Claude, where he was during the earthquake.  He related his story of being trapped for a day in a building with concrete pressing on his head causing damage in his neck vertebra which still causes him pain and bouts of high and low blood pressure. Our Team Nurse took his blood pressure every day and encouraged him to sit and rest while translating for us.  One of our team found a clinic down the street where he was able to get a neurological exam and referral for a MRI. 

Jean Claude told us that his brother and sister-in-law were killed during the earthquake.  Their 2 children were spared and now he and his wife raise them plus their own 2.  So, his job as translator helps and is really needed unless you speak Kreole.

Some of the people that passed by our project everyday asked for something to eat. Although we are not supposed to give food out I know we asked some of our Haiti workers to slip out a few sandwhiches from our lunch.

I had never been asked for the shoes on my feet before, but it happened on the 1st day. I was reminded everyday not to forget to leave my shoes. I did, as well as my jeans and t-shirts.

One afternoon after work the Pastor took us on a walking tour of Thor. In the neighborhood we saw some progress and friendly people who acknowledged us and spoke with the Pastor.

On Sunday we attended the Methodist Church of Thor and heard Pastor Michel give a dynamic sermon on Zacchaeus, the rich tax collector who climbed the tree to get a better look and hear Jesus as he passed by. He delivered it in a most forceful manner. However, I did notice a couple of people nodding off, so it is pretty much the same pew action as here.

The church had been spared from earthquake damage with its rounded metal roof, but across the street a two story building had collapsed, pancaking  whole concrete floors and roof  with about 12 people inside whose bodies have  not yet been  recovered.  So, the people are constantly reminded of the tragedy.

The church was full, people dressed in their finest, the congregation and choir singing with gusto.  One woman rose to give a prayer, earnestly praising and beseeching God with her voice and cadence rising and falling.  Afterwards we took photos of the young women of high school, college age who sang acapella for us and practiced in unison English phrases on us.

The song in the film you are about to see was sang to our crew after church service by these young women.

This mission was both physically and mental taxing. The sights and sounds of  horrid living conditions for 1.5 million people are instilled in my mind.

Our mission  there was to work on a Manse which is the home of the pastor an hour's drive each way to a suburb of Port-au-Prince called Carrefour, particularly, a neighborhood  called Thor. Its bottom floor is to be used as Volunteer guest house. We removed rubble via a bucket brigade.

Heavy Equipment is impossible to use in most places because  the people are occupying every flat piece of ground.

Our crew was headed by Boss Weshe. The were 17 in all, crew members, each with a smile and new Gloves, Hammers and Chisels provided by our team. We removed rubble from the interior of the house to a pile on the street while the Haitian crew mixed cement and mortar to resurface and rebuild the inside walls, support posts etc.

Working along side of the Haitian crew was great. One young fellow thought I looked like Sean Connery for which my team was relentless in calling me Sean. They sang with us, rested with us, which was bout every 15 minutes because of the heat. They shared our water and we funded lunch for them at a little makeshift stand where women made lunch cooked in the open. Mostly rice based dishes.

The overall mission is to get volunteer shelter built and begin recovery. The Country is still in the relief phase.

Each team brings with it $3500 plus a match from UMCOR to pay Haitian workers to work along with us in salvaging of pastors' houses, churches, schools, clinics, $7000 total to buy construction material in Haiti and pay workers.  The Haiti Methodist Bishop and pastors decide the priority of work to be done.  The agreement is to hire two Haitians for each VIM volunteer, thus getting money directly into the economy and to the people.

While I and 3 others worked on the water supply system at our guest house for a couple of days the remaining team members spent two mornings with the children of the church and community,  about 85 each day.  Our team had purchased art supplies and games to use with the children. It was like a giant birthday party with art flowing and faces, getting their minds off the tragic events that they had seen and experienced.   A number of the parents were there to help them organize and keep the children involved. 

We were to stay the whole time at the Church of Haiti Guest House.  Currently, it is managed by 3 American staff, one on leave from his pastorate in New York, the other from Louisiana with FEMA experience and an UMCOR intern.   The rest are 14 Haitian staff who run the Guest House and cook wonderful Haitian meals for us.

Several evenings we attended a soccer match. Our team brought quite a few soccer balls and jerseys provided by the San Jose Sharks.  They certainly were a big hit. They also would disappear quickly.  We had a team member dress in his referee uniform for the games. Our campus contained school, a tent city and a basketball court. Half the court was basketball the other half soccer.

Other teams were coming and going with their first and last nights at the Guest House, then assigned to other communities and churches from two to 5 hours driving time from P-au-P.    So, our team got to interact with all these other teams, including the Methodist Bishop from a Florida Conference which has a special Covenant relationship with the Haiti Methodist Church.

UMCORs first goal is to relieve human suffering. We saw relief in the faces of women and children and the men on Sunday morning as they came to be encouraged.  I saw God in the face of a mom and her little boy who came by the Pastor's house to watch us work. I saw God in the three days it took a man to take an engine out of a truck put it in the dirt, take it apart and put it back together and drive away. I saw God in the work we did.

Our Team

Our conference UMVIM team was comprised of seasoned leaders of UVIM trips, and strong personalities.  We had our confrontations, apologies and finally bonding as a team.   We came with different skills, styles and points of view.  We left with visions we can't articulate and memories that are forever etched in our minds. The beautiful people of Haiti are strong but they are living in a broken country. This is the largest natural disaster in our hemisphere and happened to the poorest of the poor in our hemisphere.

Our team was the fourth to help on the Pastor's house in Thor with two more scheduled to complete the task.  As of early Sept., some 700 VIM volunteers had been to 15 different communities to help EMH to rebuild churches, schools, clinics and to encourage Haitian congregations.

The United Methodist Church is active in helping the people recover from a devastating event that took what little these people had.

I purchased this bell from one of the artisans outside our compound gate. On it is a Haitian proverb that says….