For those who know me--I send out a flurry of emails during the first week back from my trips. Just too much to write about!
First, check out this article I just saw that shows photos of Sisters Fidelis and Jo!!!
I was supposed to meet Katie (the woman mentioned in the article) in November, but alas...
I went to a really neat church service this morning with Ezai and Dany, my hosts/friends. They are FANTASTIC people (Ezai and Dany). Now that I'm picking up a few words of Creole (and fumbling badly, but still trying! Despite, I might add, Anderson laughing at me scornfully. But I just think he's nervous that I'm going to put him out of a job :) it is so much more fun and enjoyable to interact with people. Even if it's "Mwen pa kontan" (I don't understand). That's my favorite Creole phrase so far.
Actually no. It's "Ki kote Bvd. Jean Jacques de Saline ye?" (Where is Jean Jacques de Saline? A phrase I learned from the CDs. I think I REALLY impressed Anderson with that one)
Yesterday I met Dr. Seneque's other brother--also a physician. He'll be working in Les Cayes, and he's worked all over the world. I think he does mainly public health and hospital admin.
I tried to convince him to go out to Pestel. Worth a try, eh?
I want to comment on my observations of PAP. I didn't visit all of it, so there are a lot of caveats to what I'm going to write. But here it is:
PAP is back in swing. The streets are busy busy busy. Street vendors are in business. The trash level is back to baseline, which is to say that in plenty of places it is under control. The people I interacted with are not consumed by election results. They are back to PAP-living.
EXCEPT the people living in tents. I don't see any progress, frankly. This remains shocking. Large fields with tents. They are more organized, to be sure, and many of the shabby 'tents' have been replaced with larger, sturdier tents. We saw one organization making prefab houses that looked pretty nice. But with 4 houses on their lot, that ain't gonna do much.
I think the tent village issue is abominable. There are a host of complex reasons why things are the way they are. But it is still abominable.
May God truly bless the hands of those who are laboring to resolve this issue by providing permanent shelters for all these thousands of families who have lost everything.
Ben
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