(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 third of several daily impressions from his week there. His previous dispatch is available here.)
By Norman Jameson
At the end of the day I peered into a just-completed 12’ x 12’ shelter to see Klely sitting on the table in the center of the shelter, three children by her side, a smile of pride and joy on her face no less luminescent than if she had just been given the keys to the city. She will share that shelter with her husband, Jeanlues Macenat, and their eight youngest children.
Volunteers are building shelters and holding medical clinics in Haiti, the 36th team sponsored and coordinated by North Carolina Baptist Men since the dramatic earthquake Jan. 12 that killed an estimated 250,000 people in 30 seconds. Samaritan’s Purse is providing the shelter material, prefabricating them on the grounds of the Global Outreach compound where we are staying.
Three members of Compass Fellowship Church in New York are with the team, celebrating the partnership between North Carolina Baptists and the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association. They are Pastor Daniel Lee and his son Nicholas, and member Sam Green. Green was plagued with a scratched cornea from the dust here, but there are plenty of medical professionals on site to help and he feels better tonight.
Through a process fraught with mystery — and likely familial and political pressures — local leaders decide who will receive a shelter. Samaritan’s Purse workers drop the materials at the site and Baptist Men volunteers put up the shelters, along with other volunteers from other sources. Walls are preassembled. The site crew must square up the site and level it. When the walls are placed and nailed, two wall-length shelves are installed; they can serve as beds. A tin roof is applied and the frame is wrapped with durable blue tarp.
The hillsides are dotted with blue tarps and some areas are covered completely with blue. Bill Barker of the team says everywhere you see a tarp is a spot God has touched. In just two days the North Carolina team put up nine shelters — learning the process Monday and teaching a Haitian team the process today. The team has several professional builders, so they are very much of the “measure twice, cut once” mindset.
When rain pattered on the roof last night team members took deep satisfaction in realizing several families were dry in their own shelters instead of in the weather or crowded under makeshift shelters composed of a ratty tarp held aloft by tree limbs.
The construction crews draw a crowd wherever they go. Haitians want to watch, or jump in to help, hoping for some payment or at least a bottle of water from the cooler we take to the site.
This morning we gave away too much water and were dehydrated by the time we came back for lunch. We’d run into difficult site preparation in soil that is simply various sizes of rock.
Children constantly flag our attention by saying, “Hey, you.” Often those are the only English words they know. Sometimes they just want to be acknowledged. Other times the phrase introduces a plea for something — anything you want to give them.
After lunch we headed back into a 120-degree heat index to build in the afternoon. Our first stop, though, was to take 20 surplus Army cots to Victorious Kids Orphanage. It was started a year ago by Oscar Jeanmendes and his wife, Christine, who took orphans and teenage mothers into their home to get them off dangerous streets and start their lives on a brighter path. Chad Hodges had brought with him a large suitcase of children’s toys; they were a huge hit.
North Carolina Baptist Men funded most of the construction with Haiti relief money. Tonight, 16 children are sleeping on cots who had previously been on the cement floor, getting wet, chilled, and sick from it, according to Oscar.
By late afternoon a refreshing breeze rose from the ocean and the temperature was the most pleasant that on-site coordinator Scott Daughtry remembers in his seven months in Haiti. That doesn’t explain why I’m sweating as I write this, sitting in front of one of 26 fans working to cool the 25 people in the house.
We passed the Tuesday market several times in our travels today. It was smoky and teeming as farmers carried their produce down from the mountains on pack animals. The ”parking lot” was filled with donkeys. Haiti has been deforested as its people burn wood for fuel, and many charcoal vendors sat by ash covered sacks of charcoal pieces the size of your thumb.
Tomorrow the medical teams are going to an orphanage. Medical volunteers from North Carolina are visiting as many orphanages identified by the United Nations as they can reach.
Although the early response to the earthquake featured medical teams exclusively, not every team has a medical component any longer.