Had the day off today. Woke up, had breakfast and headed to the mountains to one of the church plants that IMO has to attend church, that was an experience. The ride up there took us through Petionville which is where the orphanage is that I had stayed at 8 years ago on my previous visit. On the way up the mountain we passed by Fort Jacques and the Baptist overlook, also places that I had visited last time I was here. The road to the Robin church was about as narrow and crazy as you could imagine, there are pics on facebook showing it. Straight down drops with no shoulders or forgiving edges for slips, a driver has to stay on his toes.
After church we drove back down the mountain to have lunch for the last time with the West Virginia crew before they flew back to the States this afternoon. After seeing them off we headed downtown to see the damage to the government sector and grab a few souvenirs from the market. The downtown area of Port-au-Prince is pure devastation like nothing we've seen anywhere else on the island! I mean, it is beyond comprehension. They lost their entire government and legal sectors, there's nothing left. I mean, literally, there's nothing left but rubble. Their equivalent to our Supreme Court building was 4 stories tall and is now barely 6-8' of rubble with a 100% mortality rate within the building and the bodies within have yet to be claimed, it remains a tomb. The Presidential Palace looks like a bomb went off within it, every entrance is collapsed on itself. The Records building is gone, the prison is half gone but a total loss. The saddest part was when we drove up to the ruins of a large Catholic church, the first church ever in Haiti. What was its roof is now its floor, only the walls remain, and barely at that.
We got out at a side market and decided to cross the street to one of the larger "Tent Cities" that we had seen and just walk through it, I was amazed by its relative cleanliness considering its context, put it this way - New Orleans should be ashamed of itself. To draw a comparison of the disasters and its peoples reactions to them is to shame the city of New Orleans and it's people...and that's coming from someone who is from there. I wish I could get the aid that the spoiled, bratty, government subsidized babies of New Orleans whined about to these people who would actually cry with appreciation instead of spitting hate and spitefulness, its embarrassing for me. Rant done...
Well, we get to go home tomorrow and I'm happy and sad as I usually am. I do hope to come back and help more...I'd blog more, but I'm tired...
I may regret the emotional opine about N.O....so if you come back later and find that gone you'll know why...
No comments:
Post a Comment