(Editor’s note: Norman Jameson is visiting Haiti Aug. 22-29 to report on the work of North Carolina Baptist groups working in the aftermath of that nation’s devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. This is the first of several of his daily impressions of his week there.)
By Norman Jameson
“Haiti is a disaster that had one,” according to Scott Daughtry, North Carolina Baptist Men’s on-site coordinator at Titanyen, a few miles north of Port-au-Prince, which was devastated Jan. 12 by earthquake.
I’m in Haiti this week with a team primarily from Scotts Hill Baptist Church in Wilmington, N.C.. At 23 members, it’s the largest team Daughtry and his wife, Janet, have coordinated since Feb. 1 when they moved to Titanyen to coordinate North Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief efforts.
This team includes several doctors, nurses, a couple of pharmacists and a physician’s assistant. We arrived Sunday about noon, and in the Haitian heat and chaos about all we could do was get to the compound where we will stay, learn the ropes, learn what not to drink and get oriented. It’s 8:30 and everyone is in bed.
Some AT&T phones work, team members are receiving texts and there is wi-fi at the compound we share with Samaritan’s Purse and Global Outreach, from whom we are renting the house.
On the way from the airport we passed a poorly marked mass grave. The official estimate is 80,000 unidentified bodies in the grave. Dr. Vladimir, with whom the medical teams will go out Monday, said there are more likely 200,000 bodies in the grave.
Haiti is not a country of specifics. The last census was conducted in 1982, according to a man I’ll call Samuel, a Haitian-born businessman, who is now an American auto-parts distributor I met in the airport. He is grateful to North Carolina Baptists for our help in his native land. He said every time he returns he sees North Carolina Baptists working on behalf of his people.
Samuel admitted the government is inefficient and corrupt, which is probably the main reason systemic infrastructure has never been in place. There is no trustworthy system of security, or of taxation that results in government services.
It takes months for important items to clear customs and get into the hands of people who need the materials. Tragically, it took months for the “Buckets of Hope” collected by Baptists nationwide to get through customs, out of the port and into the hands of hungry families.
Samuel said for any business to be conducted in any way efficiently requires a “franchise” agreement with the government. While there is no “franchise fee” listed in any government document, he said $50,000 in payments to the right officials — whose signature is required on the franchise agreements — will effectuate such an agreement.
North Carolina Baptist Men has extraordinary success in working with national entities and local officials. While volunteers have built 301 shelters in the area, Daughtry lets local leaders make up the list of who gets a shelter next. Each 12’-by-12’ shelter, with tin roof and tarp sides, shelters an average of eight people according to the records Janet Daughtry keeps.
Jimmy Suggs, administrative and missions pastor at Scotts Hill, is leading the team. He reminded us at devotions Sunday night that mercy ministries are marvelous, and building shelters is super, but the hammers and nails are not nearly so important as is taking time to talk with the Haitians who will swarm the sites where we are working. This is people-to-people ministry.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and certainly the poorest place I’ve seen. And yet, as we were riding the airport bus to customs, I noticed a Haitian family boarding a private jet. In moments a dozen men scrambled to “help” us with our bags, each one hoping for tip enough to buy a meal.
The heat is constant; we live in a sticky sheen. And we haven’t really started to work yet.