Things are moving along here in Haiti, and they are much smoother than you would have expected overall. Although, there have been many things to figure out. I’m still amazed that we are here with heavy equipment and are working daily.We have had a few scares. Yesterday, we were approached by a group of people demanding money as we were going to empty the trucks at the dumps. They were wielding machetes and screaming, but I could not understand them because of the language barrier.
After that incident, I hired someone to drive with us at all times who could interpret. What’s been happening is when we get within a mile of the dumps, people start running alongside the trucks, and they jump onto the trucks and climb up the sides, while we’re still moving. As we get closer to the dump sites, they begin to go through the rubble in the back of the trucks, looking for metal. The reason being is that they can take the metal and sell it for food and clothing.
Sometimes when you write about it a day later it’s easy to be passive about it, but I remember at the time that it was pretty scary.
Probably the most moving part of the day was at the end. The sun was going down, and I found a safe place to dump the concrete debris way in the back of the dumping area. There, I was greeted by a group of little boys. Most likely, they ranged in age from 4-7. They were barely clothed, waiting for me to dump the truck to see if there may be anything of value in the rubbish.
These little black skinned boys were covered in white concrete dust looking up at me speaking loudly in French. My interpreter said, “They are telling you that this is their new home, they have no place to go, their parents and family were killed in the quake, and they are hungry.”I stood there for a little while. We just looked at each other. I knew there was nothing I could do. I knew there were tens of thousands of boys and girls like this. I could do nothing. I would have a picture in my blog about this, but decided it was not right. How could I even capture that moment in a photo. It is a terrible thing that has happened here to these people. There are so many different views. Some religious people say that this happened because years ago the country was dedicated to Satan. Others say there is no hope for these people because the government has done them wrong for so many years due to its corruption. Then some will go as far as to say these people were poor already and they are lazy and are looking for a handout.
I say, there are a lot of hurting people here. There are a lot of hurting people all over this world. As far as I’m concerned, what I see here are victims; victims of a terrible and vicious earthquake. We can’t make everything better. All we can do is help; help one person at a time, one good deed at a time. May we all make an investment in this life that our time will have a good return. Help those victims that you may see in your own world.
I’m thankful for the opportunity that I have been given in this life. I’m thankful for good parents; I’m thankful for being born in America. I hope that you and I can be thankful and responsible with the opportunities that we have been given in this life. It’s the only one we have here. Make each day count.
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