Faye and Gustav hit us with a little bit of rain in St. Louis and both was after the hurricanes had passed by us and it looked like Hanna was going to miss us so we were like "sweet." Then what does that "tropical depression" (yeah right), do but decide to stop right on top of Haiti and stay there for a couple of days. Thanks a lot Hanna. The wind and rain was just UNBELIEVABLE, I mean it fell in all sizes, directions, and several times I could have sworn that Tortuga and the mountains behind the mission were gone. You have to understand that I am from Pennsylvania so I am used to the snow making things disappear, but my gosh, when the rain does it, even I wonder what is going on. I don't know if fortunately is the right word but where I was specifically and the orphanage in Port-de-Paix were not that effected by Hanna because of all the concrete and the high walls everywhere. We just go wet from the rain and had to hold our hats on real tight. Our far west location on the other hand, was not so fortunate. They got some pretty serious flooding. From what I understand it came into all three building on that campus about 18 inches. They were able to get their stuff out of harms way though, for the most part, however they had to ride out the bulk of it from the roof of one of the buildings, since sitting around/sleeping in 18 inches of water did not appeal to any of them. After Hanna finally decided to move on, we had 2 BEAUTIFUL days of sunshine and got to survey some of the damage and make sure that our staff members and family were for the most part ok. Port-de-Paix got a good amount of flooding from the river and the ocean, to the point of it being over peoples houses, however the death toll remained at zero for us in the Northwest. Goniaves, however was NOT so fortunate, they got VERY devastated by Hanna, lots of death and destruction, and when that happens it does not bode well for the rest of the country. ALOT of commerce goes through Goniaves by truck and bus. When you can't take the bus the airlines get PACKED but lets remember that they also had not been flying for a while. So people are EVERYWHERE trying to get home or to family. Not only people are stranded but gas trucks, food trucks, etc can't travel either, so what you have gets sold quick and for ALOT more money than normal. Supply and demand is amazing.
Well after our 2 days of sunshine, Mr. Category 4 shows up and pounds us for 2 days. What I did not think was possible was that the wind and rain was more severe this time around than Hanna. WOW is all I could say. I mean, we could not keep up with sweeping water out of our facilities. Most places did not have enough time to recovery from Hanna fully so it just made all the previously discussed devastation worse. Fortunately right before Ike hit we were able to get our far west staff to St. Louis to power through Ike with us. During Ike I had the most eye opening experience I have had since I have been here. Moleon came to me to morning of day 2 of Ike, it was Sunday and POURING. I did not expect to see him because of the weather and he asked me for a tarp that had been hanging from one of the walls and some nails and a hammer. I of course sad yes, and then as he was getting ready to leave I noticed that he was crying and I asked him what was wrong and he said that his house was starting to lean to the right and he did know how he was going to keep it from falling on his wife, 3 kids, brother, and cousin. And it just dawned on me that, sure we have more than the Haitians and they might look at our possessions and want them, but when it all boils down to it what he wanted more than anything I could have given him was to be able to protect his loved ones during a hurricane, and there I sat dry as can be worrying about a little water on the floor. Man, what the heck. Fortunately, there are better people than me at the mission. One in particular that day was Curtis Rogers who heard what we were talking about and asked me if we had any wood at the mission and of course we do. So, he suggested we take a few 2 x 4's to Moleon's house and re-enforce his house for him. Moleon loved this idea and so the three of us headed to the back of the campus and found three nice beams and hiked up the hill to his house and in the rain nailed three boards to his house to keep it from falling down. The look on his face and the faces of the rest of the residents of that house were just AWESOME. Ike died down later that day and we have been storm free since then. Cross your fingers the others wait a long time or just miss us all together.
After it got a little nicer and drier the Rogers, the Jumps (a couple living with the Rogers for a year), Mischler (the security guard at the bay) and myself headed out to the west to survey the damage from Ike and try and bring back some stuff for them since they would be staying in St. Louis for a while. We had to take a mission truck to the river, cross it by boat, and then take a tap tap to the turn off to the bay, and then hike the 3 miles to their house. It was a lot of fun, I mean aside from it being ridiculously hot, and the fact that the tap tap (a 2 door toyota pickup truck) we rode had 27 people on the back of it and 2 plus the driver in the front. We got to make the hike with our overnight bags, a few army duffle bags to bring stuff back in and a 5 gallon jug of culligan water because the pipes at their house had broken and they had no water. When we got to the house, the families were surprised that the water had only been about twice as high as it was after Hanna, and the guy that was still out there watching the house, did a wonderful job of protecting what he could. So we spent the rest of the day, accompanied by about 20 children and maybe 10 adults, dumping buckets of river water in the house to make the dried mud turn to water so we could push it out of the house with tote lids. It was SOOO much fun to slide around with the kids. After we got done we took a walk through town to see some of the damage they got out west. It was unreal to go places where there used to be buildings and see a new ravine filled with water. The next day we got up and got what they wanted to take with them and got into a boat like the Tortuga boats only with a motor and no sails and headed back to Port-de-Paix. It was so much nicer than the truck and I am convinced that if the motor had not stalled like 6 times it would have been ALOT quicker. Oh well, we made it back and it was a wonderful trip. That was Wednesday, and today (Thursday) we said goodbye to Maureen who finally was able to get a flight to Port-au-Prince after trying for several days. She is getting ready to be enjoying her vacation in Italy, lucky (like Napoleon Dynamite if you can hear it). We also, got to say welcome back to the Castillo family, who arrived today after being gone for a long time. It was good to see them, and just catch up and brainstorm a little about things to come.
AND THE BEST THING OF ALL HAPPENED ON WEDNESDAY!!! GIGI DECIDED THAT SHE WAS READY TO WALK BY HERSELF AND NOW THERE IS NO KEEPING HER DOWN. AND MY GOODNESS IS SHE QUICK.
Stay tuned, who knows, maybe there will be more. ;)
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