Mission to Haiti – December 12, 2010
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| Colonial Williamsburg decorated for Christmas |
As those of you who are now aware of our blog at http://www.jdmhaiti.blogspot.com/ will know, we have spent the last week in Williamsburg, Virginia doing a little relaxing, a little Christmas shopping, and a little weather watching. I don’t know what is happening on the north side of the great lakes other than we heard that a total of up to four feet of snow fell in the London area last week, but the south side has seen snow, snow and more snow in the lee of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Unfortunately the route we need to take to get home runs right through this area of “weather.” We now understand that Saturday, December 11th is our best bet to get through this gauntlet of snow and back into sunny Ontario. So, if you happen to see us in church today at St. Andrew’s you will know that we were successful in our run for the sun.
This past week in Haiti appears to have been a return to the troubles following the election on November 28th. We are told that American Airlines has cancelled flights into Port-au-Prince, traffic is no longer running along the highway outside the seminary and the manifestations (demonstrations) of roadblocks and tire burning have escalated following the release of the preliminary election results. Not only do ordinary Haitians feel that they have been cheated, but the U.S. and U.N. have both cast doubts on the validity of the results. What happens now insofar as it relates to a run-off between the top two candidates on January 16th remains to be seen, but it could be a stormy month politically in Haiti. Only time will tell. This morning we were reading Proverbs 16 where it says that the king as head of government should make decisions that are fair (verse 12) and should value someone who tells the truth (verse 17). Unfortunately in Haiti it has been far too long since they had a president who had attributes that would be seen as truthful, honest and caring. Those that might have brought about positive change were either deposed or murdered. Let’s pray those days will soon end.
The cholera epidemic continues, in what appears to be its inevitable march, through the Haitian population with over 2,000 dead and close to 100,000 infected with the parasite. The OMS clinic at Vaudreuil continues to receive patients, and we continue to receive stories telling of the sorrows that are being visited upon families. The latest tells of a father carrying his young daughter to the clinic only to be told that she was already dead; or of another, where the father came to the clinic with potions he had received from the voodoo witch doctor, took the IV out of his child’s arm, and then left with his child and his potions to treat her at home. All the clinic staff could do was watch and pray that the child with a temperature of 101 degrees Fahrenheit would survive.
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| Governor's Palace at Williamsburg |
And it is while all this turmoil and despair is happening in Haiti and feeling some-what guilty that we are not there to share and to feel what our fellow missionaries are feeling, that we are sitting in a nice cozy condominium eating things that are mere memories when we were in Haiti, and shopping in stores that are loaded with things that would be unthinkable, let alone unattainable in the north of Haiti. What we have noticed and remarked upon while shopping is how the crowds do not appear to be as large as one might expect this close to Christmas, an indicator of how much the U.S. economy is hurting these days.
May the peace of Christ be with you each one of you.
Dorothy and John
