Some thoughts on Haiti filmed before traveling to Port-au-Prince Jan 24.

Haiti from World Relief NEXT on Vimeo.

by Matthew Smith

Things have been busy since getting back from Haiti.  A lot of people are asking a lot of great questions about the trip so I’m having a lot of great conversations.  Over lunch today two friends wanted to know where all the money being donated to Haiti is going because they want to host a fundraiser.  Later tonight I was part of a meeting that brainstormed a way for parents and kids to raise money for kids in Port-au-Prince.  The cool part is both conversations revolved around World Relief.  Also cool is the fact that President Obama mentioned World Relief today at the national prayer breakfast.  Word is getting out – World Relief is one of the best when it comes to disaster response, relief and development. 

One thing we’re doing to help World Relief spread the word about efforts in Haiti is the Haiti (5) campaign.  Designed to educate local churches about the five phases of disaster response, the Haiti (5) initiative will include print pieces, promotional material and a video explaining exactly how World Relief does disaster response.  The cool thing? Each phase explains the best possible way for volunteers/churches to lend a hand!

Things are still in the design stage, but here is a little teaser of what we have so far.

by Matthew Smith

It’s been a long day.  I woke up at 4:15 am eastern time.  I’ve been on a plane or in an airport since 5:15 am eastern time.  Now it’s 10:10 pm western time and I’m still not home.  Something happened with a plane in New York that re-routed a plane inbound to Atlanta from London that screwed up the schedule of a flight leaving gate B36 so, you know how it goes, my flight was a little late sow now I’m stuck in San Francisco.  Things wouldn’t be so bad, I suppose, if I weren’t fighting off this nasty stomach flu I picked up the last day in Haiti.  Of all the souvenirs to bring home from Port-au-Prince, I chose intestinal malfunction.

I am almost home… and that’s okay.  Even though all the really nice home amenities like a clean bed and a hot shower and fresh pressed clothes are waiting for me, it’s okay.  It’s okay because – well – two days ago I was sitting in a six person home made out of bed sheets.  I know it might not be fair to draw the comparison – but as I was rearing back to tell Delta just how inconvenienced I was by their service Haiti came back as a memory.  Standing there at the baggage desk, re-living the events still so fresh in my mind, I was reminded not to forget.  Does that make any sense?  To be reminded not to forget?  Perhaps I can explain.

A week before leaving for Haiti a bunch of us at World Relief NEXT sat in on conference calls regarding the Congo.  We are in the planning stages of taking the Congo Benefit Concert on the road to help raise awareness and money for the people suffering the violence of the decade long war.  Last Tuesday we received 1,000 more Congo Benefit CD/DVD’s in the mail to distribute around the country.  Benjamin Edwards and I are planning a trip to Congo in the next few months to work on a book project that will allow the Congolese to share their stories with a broad American audience.

Since Jan 12 all we have talked about on this blog is Haiti.  It’s fitting, and necessary, to turn our attention when disaster strikes.  In fact, I would say it is required of us.  But, if at all possible, we need to be reminded to not forget.  Congo sounds of gunshots every day.  Women are victimized in Congo every night.   Take the number of fatalities from Haiti (150,000) and divide it into the number of fatalities from Congo (5.4 million) and the results are staggering.  The death toll in Congo is 36 times that of the one in Haiti.  Does that minimize our responsibility to assist haiti?  No.  But imagine a devastating, heart breaking, world rocking catastrophe like the Haiti earthquake happening 36 times in a row. That is the unimaginable equivalent to the conflict in the Congo.  This is why it is important that we are reminded not to forget.

I wanted to remind everyone, as I was reminded today, that we ought not to forget.  We are running hard to help the people in Haiti, as we should, and we are as committed as ever to bringing peace and solidarity to Congo.  You’re invited to help where you can, if you can, if you want.  Remember not to forget.  Keep reading.  Keep learning.  Keep wearing yourself out with good deeds and sacrificial love.  If you need something to kick start your memory, check out this article I ran across today by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times.   Click below to be redirected.

by Matthew Smith

The World Relief office in Port-au-Prince was completely destroyed during the earthquake on January 12.  Considering the devastation it is a miracle that every single member of the 40 person staff was left uninjured.  Here are some photos of the damage as well as a quick video tour of the destroyed entry way.

World Relief Office in Haiti from World Relief NEXT on Vimeo.

Crumbling exterior

Items recovered from the building

Top floor of Kings Clinic - the neighboring building

View from the backside of the building

Damage to the neighboring building

by Matthew Smith

We took a drive through downtown Port-au-Prince today.  I realized after seeing pile of rubble after pile of rubble that this one drive through town is going to take me months to process.  I know the right words are waiting, but I don’t have them yet.  What I have tonight is a story.

Our drive today took us over to the old World Relief office.  When we walked up to the backside of the rubble I met a man wearing a red shirt.  He was supervising three young men pix-axing their way, swing by swing, to the bottom of three stories worth of concrete.  We shook hands and he warned me, “Please sir, be careful up here, it is very dangerous.”

His English caught my attention and I asked for his name.  ”My name is Woody…” he paused… “like Woody Allen.”  We laughed and then he turned towards the men digging.  ”These men are working for me. This was my office building.  I rented out the two lower stories.”

I looked down.  Dust was everywhere – on my shoes, my pants, my camera.  In my hair, my teeth, my lungs.  I looked back to Woody and asked a cautious question.  ”Did you lose anyone in the earthquake?”  Woody bit his lower lip.

“Yes.”  He pointed beneath us, “there are still three people buried here below us.”  He looked back into my eyes.  His hand came up and he held out three fingers.  ”Three… down there.  One is my mother.”

I couldn’t stand to look him in the eyes so I focused past him, on the men, digging.  Woody turned around, still talking.  ”I had to wait for help to dig my daughter out of this building.  She is only two years old.  It took five days – but we saved her life.”

“You saved her life?”

“Yes.”

“She is okay?”

“Yes.”

“Woody…” I stuttered.  The sun was hot on my back and my feet were itchy.  ”I’m sorry this has happened to you.  I’m thankful you’re daughter is okay.”

“Thank you sir… it is okay.  There are many people like me – missing family.”

Woody is right.  There are many – some estimates say 1 million – missing family.  This earthquake didn’t happen to a few people – it happened to a nation.  A nation.

Here are a few pictures from Port-au-Prince – the ever beating heart of this beautiful nation.

Swinging at the orphanage

View from the top of King's Hospital -

Ruined building

Woody - telling me his story

Woody digging through 30 ft of concrete

This was a wing at the university

World Relief water distribution

Water distribution

Waiting for water

Little guy at the orphanage

by Matthew Smith

This is Philip.  We met today in one of the many tent cities through out Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  He invited me into his home.  He moved here the day after the earthquake with his mom, two brothers and two sisters.

Philip Clip from World Relief NEXT on Vimeo.

by Matthew Smith

I have a lot to share in a little bit of time – only one hour until the generator shuts off and takes the electricity and Internet with it.  We started today off at a local church doing a WR food distribution.  Remember the 60 tons of food I mentioned yesterday?  Well, today most of that food found it’s way into the hands of some very hungry people.  There wasn’t enough time to count, but I’d guess about three to four hundred people showed up to collect rice, beans and salt.  It doesn’t sound like much, but you have to remember each person is representing a larger group of people ranging anywhere from four hundred to four thousand people.  Do the math and it sure adds ups quick.

After the distribution we spent some time with a soft-spoken man at Kings Hospital named Rene.  We found him sitting with his crutches on a stonewall outside in the shade of a tree.  His right foot was wrapped in white bandages.  His left knee was wrapped up as well – and beneath – nothing.  When the earthquake struck, Renee was caught in the falling concrete and his leg was instantly severed below the kneecap.  He spoke so soft we all had to lean in to hear him clearly.  ”When they pulled me out they brought me to the hospital on a motorcycle.  I had to wait for four days to receive pain medication.”  We asked just to make sure, “Not even a Tylenol?”  He shook his head. “No.”

After our conversation with Rene we caught a ride over to Demas St – one of the main drags through Port-au-Prince.  The Catholic school that was a school a little over two weeks ago is now home to thousands of people.  They moved in the day after the earthquake with what ever they could salvage from their wrecked homes.  Clothes.  Pots.  Pans.  Sticks.  Bed sheets.  They have built a city out of things you can buy at a Good Will.  We spent three hours walking through the labyrinth of checkered sheets, blue tarps and old t-shirts draped over sticks as doors.  We heard incredible stories (of which I hope to write more about soon) and left astonished by the optimism of everyone we met.

Our last task for the day was to visit an orphanage receiving a well with the help of WR.  Home to over 130 kids, the orphanage was in desperate need of clean, potable water.  Through several contacts all connected by the local church in Haiti, WR was able to provide the installation at no cost to the orphanage.  I had a chance to speak to Warren on the job site; he is one of WR’s technical experts here on assignment from the US.  I asked him about the project and he explained quite clearly, “You have to understand, without the local church this project could not be happening.”

Tonight at dinner I caught up with Paul Rebman.  He gave me a run down of all the things in the works and ended by shrugging his shoulders, “You know, we are moving forward step by step.  I guess if you want to help a million people you have to start by helping one.”

Rice and more rice and more rice

Waiting for rations at the church

Waiting at the hospital - her Mom is the patient in the background

Rene telling us his story

Little guy in the tent city

Baby girl waiting for her Mom

Baby girl in the arms of her Mom

Damage to the Catholic School

Tent City - Just one of many

Tent City 2

Well digging rig at the orphanage

by Matthew Smith

Not a lot of time to write tonight.  We are moving houses for the rest of our trip and I’m not sure what type of accommodations await.  I’m hoping for internet but I’ll settle for electricity.  Here is a real quick recap on the day.

We started out at Kings Hospital where we interviewed a 29 year old woman named Tamara.  She was trapped for five hours when her home collapsed on her during the earthquake.  She threw pebbles at a bucket in the street until people passing by took notice.  Her left leg was fractured, her right knee was cut and – yes, I promise I am not making this up – she was nine months pregnant.  Five days after the earthquake, in the care of the good people at Kings Hospital, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.  She named him  Jesula, which means, “Jesus is here.”

After the interview I went with Francesco over to the World Food Program to obtain food for the next few days.  He barged into the WFP office on the UN compound and proudly left with a Food Release Note measuring 60 tons.  His smile was ear to ear.  ”This will feed about 110,000,” he said.  It was somewhat of a headache to move 60 tons of food across town.  We lost one truck full of rice to a pothole (picture is attached.  They had to unload the truck, git it moved, and then reload it.  It was slow – but it got the job done.  Francesco had a pretty good perspective, “there aren’t a lot of people who get to go home after a day of work and say, ‘I helped feed 10,000 people today.’”  Nope – there certainly are not!

Tomorrow there are plans to visit one of the many IDP camps that have sprung up all over the city.  Then we are off to an orphanage where a new well is going to be dug.  Which reminds me, the well at Kings Hospital hit water today at 120 feet.  Tomorrow they will drop in the pump and, with a little hope, clean water will come out.

Here are some pictures from today’s activity.  I told a group of young men there are a lot of people in the United States praying for them.  ”We know…” one of them said nodding his head, “and it helps very much.  Thank you.”

Signs like this are painted all over the city

The new well at Kings Hospital

Food note from the WFP - If you do the math it adds up to about 60 tons of rice, beans, salt and oil

Food being loaded in the warehouse

Oops - A little trouble getting the rice across town

Little guys at the food distribution

by Matthew Smith

We landed this morning at a MASH unit.  No wait – it was a commercial airport.  No wait – what was it?  We taxied off the tarmac into a grass field were the engines sputtered and came to a stop.  Through the portside window I counted four planes lined up neatly in a row, all unloading brown cardboard boxes full of various life saving supplies.  We were the fifth of who knows how many flights today.

In the ten minuets it took us to unload our plane five helicopters took off.  Some were civilian, some were military – all whipped the grass around and kicked dust into furious little storms.  Francesco, World Relief’s energetic Mr. Do It All, meet us with a smile and we were off.

The drive out of the airport seemed – oddly enough – like Vietnam in the 60’s.  I could be way off, I wasn’t there – I’ve only seen the movies.  Green tarps.  Tents.  Shirtless men smoking cigarettes.  Armed men in flap jackets.  Big bold UN letters stamped everywhere (I guess that doesn’t feel to Vietnam-esque).

We spent our first hour in the country unloading pallets of food and medical supplies into trucks.  I met a guy near by working to launch an inflatable satellite that would provide the airport with wireless internet.  It looked like something out of Star Trek or The Matrix – very high tech.

As we left the airport I was thankful to run into World Relief Senior Vice President of Programs, Stephan Bauman.  We just happened to be pulling into Port-au-Prince while he was pulling out.  He has been here for just under two weeks mobilizing the disaster response effort.  I was eager to great him with a hug and tell him he has thousands backing him up with prayer.  In our short conversation I asked him what one thing I needed to know heading into Haiti and he shook his head.  ”You might drive around and wonder, ‘where is the earthquake?’  But it’s everywhere.  Not just in the wrecked buildings, but in people.  Everyone has lost someone.”

We spent the second hour at the UN headquarters with Francesco looking for a contact at the World Food Program (WFP).  It was beyond busy.  Make shift shelters were everywhere – even the grassy courtyard looked like an REI show floor.

We made it over to the Kings Hospital with little trouble and met up with the rest of the WR staff.  Paul Rebman, Disaster Response Coordinator, Dr. Morquette, WR Haiti Country Director were two among many others we were happy to greet.

For lunch we jumped across town to a church performing a WR food distribution.  When he wasn’t busy greeting families or assisting medical staff we were able to connect with the pastor of the church.   He told us about the distribution, “When you provide for someone it will touch their heart.  Then they will see the love of God in you.”

I’m not sure if I have the numbers right, but after the distribution 200 bags of rice weighing 25 kilos each were delivered and stored for tomorrow’s operation.

For all the news stories I’ve followed and images I absorbed over the last two weeks I’m a little surprised to find the things about Haiti that have always been, still are.  It’s hot, humid and smells a lot charcoal.  People are busy working, talking and sitting in traffic.  There is a grief in the air, but there is also resilience. Entire buildings have collapsed into themselves.  Entire families have gone missing.  Yet people are moving forward.

The generator just turned off.  The day is over.  Here are some pictures from today.

WR Food Distribution

Pallet of Supplies - One of Many

Church - Location for food distribution and overnight shelter

Airport

Supplies for Kings Hospital

8 am and already 5 planes have landed and unloaded

Unloading our plane

Rice Delivery

by Matthew Smith

Well… so far so good.  We all met up in Atlanta about six hours ago and now were sitting in a courtyard enjoying the Bahaman Breeze.  We just had dinner with some great local pastors who are organizing our ride to Haiti in the morning.  One of the gentlemen at the table was a Dallas Cowboys fan.  We talked football for a minute and then all wondered how exactly a $1 billion football stadium in Dallas can exist in the same world as Haiti.  They seem so at odds.

Now we are all wondering – can we be prepared for this?  We are aware that things have settled down over the last week, but the raw nature of disaster is still very real in Haiti.  We have a flight in at 6:30 am and from what I understand we don’t have a flight out.  Details.

The only thing we hope to carry in with us tomorrow is hope itself.  It will be two weeks since the earthquake tomorrow – which equals 14 days of being hungry, thirsty, wounded and tired.  We know our friends in Haiti are exhausted.  Paul must have seen something similar in the church of Galatia when he encouraged his friends to, “not grow weary of doing good.”  Paul must of seen clearly the relationship between doing good things and doing hard things.  It is expensive to be committed to others.  It cost a lot to give up your life.  We hope somehow tomorrow we might encourage our friends – the ones busy pouring out their lives – to not grow weary of doing good.

For a parting shot I’ll give you what was most certainly the line of the day.  It was a comment from Julian, the skinny guy with the big smile and white t-shirt in the picture (Ray is the on my left – he is the web guy).  Julian is British, but now he lives in Washington state with his wife and kids where he serves World Relief as a writer.  We had just landed in the Bahamas and were walking three wide down the glass walled terminal.  He looked out through the palm trees over the ocean sparkling orange in the sunset and said, “You know,  the Bahamas are basically just like Seattle without a space needle.”  Precisely.