The morning after: Monday, May 18, 2009

Torrential rain last night, Gary and Caroliine said they have never seen rain like this here. For 2 hours it was like a cloudburst and about midway thru it, the effects started rolling down the street in front of us. I have pictures but I don't know if I can post any thru blogger anymore....tried and it still tells me that everytime I try to upload the connection is interrupted. there was this rushing, roaring sound as something came down the street and rocks almost as big as my head were flowing in the moving water. cars were crushed and buried by mud, gravel and water. at one point in time we heard someone yelling down the sideroad where all the water was going, but it was completely black and we honestly did not know if they were in trouble or playing. The Haitians seem to know little fear about these things, they know them as part of life. The road we are on now will be passable likely only in 4 wheel drive, as there are ruts in the road almost 2 feet deep.

Rose, the cook for school, came running up the street obviously distraught, calling "Pastor Gary! Pastor Gary!" she came in absolutely soaked and freezing. I gave her a towel and a t shirt and Caroline got her a covering dress to wear. She said their house was completely flooded, Marco, her husband was holding the door open so that the water would flow thru the house and not bury it. Faona, their little girl and a student at school, was crying and they had put her on an upper level of the house. Gary said he didn't think they had an upstairs, but they put her on top of something. We dried her off, she said they were going to stay at her mothers house last night, but that everything they had was soaked, their bed and clothes, everything. There was little to do during the night so we prayed it would not be as bad as it seemed in the morning. It is breaking light now and people are starting to move, though for many it will be a very hard day and days to come.

The rainy season has just begun. It runs thru November and no bad storms have hit yet. Caroline said she had heard it from more than one source: after the hurricanes last year, everything was washed away and their is nothing left to hold the water in the hills. This year, all of the water will flood everytime it rains like this.....and this will likely happen many more times this year, all over Haiti. This may be a very bad summer here, and the consequences, both in lives, poverty, and loss of hope, may drive people to desperate actions and desperate politics.

Bondye benis ou, Bondye benis tout moun nan Haiti.