Matthew 25 News

[bcholmes]

Latest postings from Matthew 25:

The top of Matthew 25 is being demolished. Sledge hammers bang away, and concrete dust flies everywhere. Downtown Port-au-Prince is the same. Damaged buildings are being torn down, and a dust cloud is added to the exhaust fumes. Roads are blocked with heavy equipment. There is too much of this activity to make it possible to route out detours, so drivers are on their own seeking alternate routes. The other day (luckily on the way back from the General Hospital) we turned off one blocked road, drove up about a block, and around a curve, and found we were blocked from the other direction.

We’ve seen during the past two weeks, that the permanent tent camps are being set up, and people have moved into them many of them. They are discernable from others because the tents are all alike.

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

WE HAVE TENTS !

Thanks to Catholic Church of St. Monica in Duluth, Georgia, Mark Coughlin who orchestrated the parish tent drive and accompanied them down here, and actor Sean Penn who provided transport space on his plane, we have tents !

We received in the neighborhood of 130 tents. They arrived on Friday, and the camp committe was able to use their camp census information to determine the sizes needed. The first thing done was to pull up the 60 Lions Club tents, and rearrange them to make more space. The tent supply was sorted, and tents erected. Then, each family was called forward, and welcomed into their new shelter. There wasn’t enough daylight left to distribute and erect all of the tents needed, but it was a good start. The skies had been overcast all day, and several hours later rain began to fall. It was a gentle rain here that lasted until about midnight.

Other parts of the country did not fare well. The rains were heavy both north, and west of Port-au-Prince. Leogane to the west had heavy rains all of Saturday afternoon. The Portugese medical team took the day off from their work downtown, and drove to Leogane. They said it was "really awful, and that they were kind of sorry they had gone. Leogane was a place we’d always wanted to visit. When I mentioned that, one of them quietly and sadly responded, "It’s gone now".

As soon as he said that I immediately thought of the photographer the Lions Club had brought with them to photograph their work in the three camps they are assisting. She came into the soccer field camp, walked into the hospital tent and asked her companion, a Lions member to help assist one of the amputees to sit up. Bend down she said, and act like your helping her. Jen, the nurse who has been working here for the past couple of weeks stopped them, and said "You can’t come in here, and interfere with the well being and privacy of our patients" ! She frowned at losing her photo op, but left.

OUR CHEF GETS SOME TIME OFF

Theramise’s official title is "cook" , but she has had some training, and is really more creative and talented to merely be called a cook. She is a chef, and she’s been really tired. We’ve had as many as 30 patients in the field hospital, and she prepared two meals each day for them. We also have 24 staff members now, and usually at least 25 long, and short term guests. Sr. Mary did get additional staff for Theramise, but it was still really difficult to keep going at that pace.

Our son Patrick is a chef, so he came down to give Theramise a rest for a week. He took over cooking for the patients, and our guests. He works on Kiawah Island off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina in a restaurant located at an elegant golf resort. It was wonderful for both Pat and I to have him here, and fun to see him make the switch from ordering produce over the phone to buying from the market women along the street. He prepared a Haitian style meal for those in the hospital tent, and also cooked a separate meal to please American palettes.

Each person who comes here brings varied gifts, which has always been the case, but since the earthquake there has been very little chance to focus on anything other than the reason all of us are here : to assist the people of Haiti, now more than ever. Patrick took out the house guitar the other night, and just started to strum. A few minutes later, Dr. Balfour, the Haitian doctor came in and sat down, as did Michael a guest from across the street who had stopped by to visit. Before long the three of them were passing the guitar around, each taking a turn to sing, and play, and each in a different style. It was the first time that there was a calm, and easy feeling to the end of the day. We had about 25 people here that night. Some were finished work, and able to just sit and listen ; some continued their computer work pausing occassionally to enjoy the music, some whispered quietly with collegues to plan their next day’s work. It was fun, and it was relaxing, and for a little time everything seemed okay. We listened, we sang, and we laughed some, and then one by one walked off to our tents.