Rescue Mission(s)

It has been a long week and I really haven't had time until now to sit down and write about what has been going on here. I've had a few people post comments saying they want to hear the stories from this week, so I'll try and get everyone up-to-date.

Let's start with last Sunday. We had our biweekly missionary meeting and a ton of people showed up. Everyone is finally back from furlough and we had about 15 people come. It was nice to finally meet the people that I had always been hearing mentioned in conversations and also having more people in our area to connect with. Chris was still feeling sick so when we were ready to start the meeting he told everyone that I was going to be leading worship. Well, I didn't realize I was going to be doing this so I went and grabbed his guitar and a few chord sheets that I had and gave it my best shot. That was the first time I have lead worship or played in front of more than a couple people. It was good though and I enjoyed having the opportunity to do it. After the meeting Chris broke out the ice cream we had made the day before and everyone was taken back about how good it was. We used some of the bananas and kówósól that came out of our garden.

Monday started out like any other normal day but ended up playing out differently than I had expected. The short version: Matthew and a gentleman from CAM stopped by on their way to Gonaives. Matthew was going to be visiting the local prison there. After they left, I had to make two trips to take water to the Canaan orphanage. I then made another trip to Montrouis to get a few plumbing supplies and 40 sacks of cement...this is extremely stressful because of all the mayhem that goes on near the broken bridge in Montrouis. When I got home and was talking to Chris about how busy the area is around the bridge, he got a call from Matthew saying they were stuck on the bypass road in Gonaives. Apparently they had a little run in with a dump truck and the front rim on their motorcycle got the worst of it. It was bent and they were unable to continue to ride home. I hopped in the truck with Evens and we headed toward them. Now, Gonaives is the place where some of the worst flooding has happened in Haiti. I have never been north of Saint-marc and was glad to have Evens with me in case something came up along the way. We drove for a little over two hours and finally made it to Matthew. We loaded the bike up and then drove another two and a half hours back to Pierre Payen. When we got back to the mission, I had just enough time to hop out of the truck before Chris told me to get back in. We were going to drop Matthew off at the bridge in Montrouis and then go to Canaan for dinner. On the way Chris told me he had gotten a phone call while I was gone and through a friend of a friend, we were being asked to help transport 40 or so orphans that were stuck in Gonaives. I said that I would be up to help. After we dropped of Matthew we headed to dinner at Canaan and I felt a little grubby and sorry for the people sitting close to me. Driving in Haiti is anything like driving in America. The roads are horrible and it can be extremely stressful...with all the dust and sweat that occur during a drive, you end up feeling and looking like you have run a half marathon.

Anyway, on Tuesday I was supposed to pick up some Americans around 7:30 am in Montrouis. They had arrived in Haiti to help the orphanage, but were unable to travel to Gonaives because of the impassable bridge in Montrouis. This is where our mission comes in. We have a large truck that could transport the kids from Gonaives to Montrouis. Well, we didn't get a call until 9:30 am saying that the cell phone towers were not working in Montrouis and that the Americans were there waiting for us. In headed out and met them close to the bridge. They went back across the bridge and dot their supplies. While I was waiting with the truck I was talking to two kids that were hanging out close to me. While we were talking one of them pulled out a set of headphones...the small ones that fit in your ear. I could see that the wires coming from the headphones were cut and didn't lead to anything. He put them in his ears, tucked the wires inside the neck of his t-shirt, and then started to dance. I asked him if he heard anything and he said no...all of us, including him, just laughed and we kept watching as he tried out his moves. When the Americans returned, we loaded up everything and we headed out to Gonaives...a little later than we wanted, but that's how it goes.

This story probably begins once we got the the bypass road in Gonaives that I had just been to the day before. The bypass road is pretty ruff and has to be taken slow because there are large holes and water that is hard to know how deep it is until your driving through it. As we were driving, one of the Americans in the back of the truck decided to throw out some food to a couple kids near the road.....not a good idea. It only took a couple seconds before they had screamed "manje" (food) and kids were running out of everywhere. I was afraid that one was going to run out in front o the truck. After we escaped the scene we told the guy who threw the food not to do it again and he agreed that it probably wasn't the best idea.

After we got off the bypass road and back onto Route National 1, we saw how bad the flooding still was. I snapped these pictures out the window of the truck as we were wading through the water that was still covering the road.

The first time we got the truck stuck was because a strip of asphalt had been washed away in the road and was covered in water. Our right side, front tire fell into the crevice and we were unable to move forward or back ward because of how deep it was and the lack of traction for the rear wheels. After assembling a half a dozen locals, we were able to push it out and get it back on a solid part of the road. For a while after that, someone walked in front of me with a stick to test out all the puddles and mud to see how deep it was and if it was safe to drive through. We dropped some off their supplies at someone's home in the area and then headed for the orphanage. The pastor of the orphanage was riding in front with me and was supposed to be telling me where he thought it was safe to drive. At one point he got a phone call, and a couple minutes after he started talking the right side of the truck ended up in mud and water that was up to my knee. We were there for about 25 or 30 minutes trying to push and pull the truck from this mess, but to no avail. Over a dozen locals came to see what was going on and ended up trying to help us get it out. All together it took about 15 people pushing to get the truck moving and eventually free it. After a couple more incidents we finally were within 200 yards of the orphanage before this happened:

After 45 minutes of shoveling and pushing, we decided it would be best to leave the truck where it was since we would have to drive right back out in the morning with all the orphans. The pastor knew some of the people that lived there, so we payed them to sleep in the truck and make sure nothing happened to it overnight. After the hurricane, people found their vehicles with missing tires, batteries, broken windows, etc...so we wanted to make sure we had something to get us home in the morning.

We got our bags and walked the rest of the way to the orphanage. On the way a large truck carrying diesel full came down the same road we were on. For some reason I didn't take a picture, so let me describe it to you. Imagine the front of a semi truck attached to a large flat bed that has three huge tanks for carrying diesel fuel. There are eight tires on the trailer and each is about five feet in diameter. Each one is somewhere around two and a half feet wide and they all stick out outside of the footprint of the trailer...basically this thing is a monster. As it passed the part where our truck got stuck, it tore up the mud and made huge ruts. I was glad we had not gotten through there because, there was not way we could have gotten out after that truck had torn everything up. Fifty or so yards after our truck the semi ended up getting stuck. We walked past and watched for a little bit, but there was nothing we could do because the truck was so heavy that no amount of guys pushing on it would do anything. Shortly after we got the orphanage it started raining. Just what the area needed.....more rain. They had already done a lot of clean-up of removing mud from inside the buildings, but a lot of the land was destroyed, walls had been knocked down, and anything else that was outside was either washed away or damaged.

We slept on the floor and in the morning we gathered up some supplies and all the children and loaded everything in the back of the truck.

It took about 10 yards before this happened:

By this time we were used to being stuck so we just followed the normal routine. We unloaded most of the older kids, started shoveling, and then had everyone start pushing. It only took a little little while and we were free and on to the next challenge:

We saw this one coming and before we simply headed into it like our normal routine, we knew we had to plan a little more carefully than normal. I could go through how we all discussed the best route and tactic, but instead I'll just let you watch how it went:

We only had to shovel a little bit after that and we were home free. That was the final time we got stuck even though we did have a couple more close calls. On the bypass road we did have to wait for a while because a Caterpillar 972H wheel loader had rolled off the road and gotten stuck in the mud. They brought another 972H and pulled it out...that was interesting to watch. When we finally reached the Montrouis bridge I got us as close to the bridge and ended up blocking everything and people started yelling at us, but my main goal was to unload all the orphans and make sure they made it across the bridge to the vehicles that were waiting on the other side. We got everything unloaded and they headed off to Cabaret where the orphans will be staying. I headed back home and after arriving, tried to convey some of what had happened and how Gonaives looked to Chris.

Yesterday, Leslie got back from her stint in America. It was good to have her back here and things are starting to feel more normal again. Last night I went with Elsie and Bobbi to the YWAM base in Saint-marc. Bobbi, who just arrived two weeks ago to help out at Canaan, met another girl (Shekinah) on the plane to Haiti that was going to be volunteering at the YWAM base. She invited her, and in turn Elsie and me, to her birthday party. I had never met Shekinah before, but I figured her birthday party was as good of a place as any....I'm not sure if that is rude typically, but in Haiti it felt pretty normal. We had a good time and played a few games, had cake, and made some new friends. It ended up being a late night, and I realized how few the opportunities are to have have a social life after dark.

Ok, this thing took a long time to write and it has been another long day with a funny story just waiting to be told, but that will have to wait for another day......