Rain, a reason for concern


Last February I was in Carrefour to celebrate Jean-Elie Millien's 75th birthday. It was a joyous time. The year before, I was there in April. The difference? In February it was hot and dry. In April it was hot and rained daily.

One afternoon, as I stood on the balcony at the School, I watched storm clouds muster and then attack. The rain came down in sheets. Within minutes, the narrow side street adjacent to Écloe le Bon Samaritain was a torrent. Water cascaded off roof tops, congregated in pools, and then gushed downhill sweeping everything in its path. This is how the trash and garbage are cleaned from the streets. Pedestrians danced on high ground under sheets of plastic and the occasional bumper-shoot. Many simply walked stoically as buckets of water soaked them head to foot. 


This is the next disaster for the people of Haiti who now have no where to go, who are homeless and live/sleep in/on these streets turned freshets. Before, at least, some of the soaked and sodden got home and slipped beneath the tin of a semi-dry roof.


With the rainy season come mosquito born diseases and all the other problems associated with living in close quarters with little, if any, sanitary conditions. If the earthquake and its aftermath were bad, and they were, what's to come is equally wicked. 

Then, imagine a hurricane ... or two. In 2008, Haiti suffered from not 1, not 2, not 3, BUT 4 hurricanes in 2 weeks! 


What to do? This is another clarion call to keep Haiti, and specifically our small corner of Carrefour, on your radar screen. The end is no where in sight. The beginning may be waning, but the haul--as in long-haul--is just settling into the starting gate. 


What can YOU do? 1) Don't forget! 2) Continue to support our efforts financially and with supplies. 3) Buy and send large, family-sized tents. This is a precarious-at-best solution for the short-term. Not adequate but something. 4) If you are of the praying sort, pray and hold these good and kind people in your hearts day and night.