A Week Ago Today

Tonight I read one of my friend's blog who lived through the earthquake here in Haiti. Reading it gave me courage to share my story with you.

I arrived back in Haiti five days before the earthquake struck. I had commited to stay in Haiti through the end of July. My first few days back were great. I got to see friends I hadn't seen in a long time. I even made a new friend named Joanna Thiele. She is an OB nurse who came down to Haiti about a week after I left in November. She was helping out at the women's program during my time away. We decided it would be fun for her to stay at the clinic with me Monday through Friday. Monday night was great getting to know her better. We both have a passion for caring for and serving women. Last Tuesday we had our childhood development class for our haitian ladies. It was great getting to see all the ladies and babies. Later in the afternoon Joanna and I were alone at the clinic chilling and preparing pizza for dinner. Pizza is one of my favorite things to make. I made the dough and was letting it rise till about 5pm. A little before 5 I headed down to the kitchen to chat with Cherline, our house helper. As I was walking down the stairs I could feel them starting to shake. I immediately looked at Cherline and smiled and asked her if she could feel it. It started out little at first and then it got more violent. My smile immediately turned into panic. I ran to the kitchen door and pinned Cherline to the door frame. The water jugs started falling off the counters and the fridge opened and started emptying on us. I was trying the best I could not to fall to the ground. I kept looking up at the ceiling watching for cracks, wondering if the ceiling was going to fall down on top of us. Soon Billy, Cherline's brother, came running through the kitchen, slipping and falling on the puddle of water and food on the floor. He yelled at us to get out of the house. We opened the kitchen door and all 3 of us ran outside, jumping over fallen cement blocks on the way to the gate. Once outside the earthquake started to fade off. I started yelling for Joanna who was still upstairs. I didn't hear a response. Once the quake stopped I ran back inside yelling for her. She answered just as worried about me as I was about her. She was also yelling for me inside and she couldn't hear me. She came down stairs and asked what happened. I said there was an earthquake. She knew it was but was in shock. As we were talking my hands were trembling from the high levels of adrenaline in my body. We all went out into the street. The whole city was screaming. I have never heard anything like that before, and hopefully will never again. There was a lot of people on the move on the main street. I kept calling people and couldn't get through to anyone but Sara Wallace in Jacmel. She said she was okay. The haitians living on my street all were freaking out. A few of them thought Jesus was coming. After a little while John McHoul arrived on his bike. He reported everyone else was okay. After a couple of hours we headed down to his house for the night to sleep. It was scary walking down the street at night in the dark with hundreds of terrified people passing by. About 12am Troy stopped by the house to tell John that he went down town to check on an orphange. He stopped by some other missionaries named Bill and Suzette who had started started seeing wounded people outside their house. He said they needed supplies and help. Joanna and I jumped on that. We went to the clinic to get supplies then headed across town to help out. Driving there was my first glimpse of the city. I could see a few buildings down in the headlights, but what made the biggest impression on me was the thousands of people who were camped out in the median of the street, terrified to get near any buildings. When we arrived at Bill and Suzettes I was put right to work cleaning wounds and suturing. It was exciting to get to help out and do something instead of feeling helpless. The reality of what I saw that night was hard. The type of wounds these people had were really unpleasent. Wounds created mostly by flying cement blocks during the quake. The reality of thousands of people still trapped in buildings was hard to even think about. Because the earthquake happened right before dusk nobody really knew how bad it was. Darkness fell before we could see the extent of the damage. In the morning when the sun started coming up I was fearful of what it would show. I didn't want to face the reality of what happened. With dawn arriving their was no escaping the devastation. A helicopter flew over the residence and I knew the world was going to see how bad it was. We kept working hard at the clinic. As the sun rose people started flowing in with extensive injuries, some people covered in cement dust from being trapped under rubble. The 3 main injuries I saw the first couple days was lacerations, broken bones, and compartment syndrome. It was overwhelming to see how badly people were injured. I kept questioning why I ended up so lucky. Any of these people could of been me. It is unbelieveable how one minute can change everything. In one minute Haiti was physically broken. Thousands of people died, and thousands more yet to die. By midafternoon I had sutured five head lacerations and an elbow. I took a break and headed to the guest house. I layed down and started bawling. The reality of what happened was overwhelming. A couple ladies held me and prayed for me. It was so nice to have that comfort. Not too long later Troy came back to pick us up. I was exhausted to the core but didn't want to leave. So many people needed help. Joanna and I left and went back to John's to sleep a couple hours then headed back to the clinic later in the evening. We stayed again through the next afternoon helping take care of the wounded. By the second day we had 4 or 5 haitian doctors from the neighborhood helping. It seemed like the longer I was there the wost the injuries I saw. We headed back to Heartline territory thursday afternoon. By this time we realized their was a gas shortage and we wouldn't be able to get back over to the clinic. I was privledged to get to help out and sobered by all that I saw. Driving back to our house we saw quite a few bodies on the sides of the street. Many buildings were destroyed. Like I said, it is unbelievable how so much can change in just one minute. On friday morning I was up early talking with John. He mentioned the idea on doing a medical outreach at the women's center and having doctors come down from the states to help. I was so excited about the idea. My heart is to take care of the sick and suffering. Later that morning all the heartline people in Haiti met and talked about the idea and decided to go ahead and do it. The idea was to have medical people show up by Sunday and start seeing the wounded on Monday. That gave us a couple days to try to prepare. On Sunday we had our intial team come in. It was such a relief to have more help. Monday we opened our doors and started seeing the wounded. It is incredible knowing that these people have been suffering for a week now without getting good or any care. I am relieved that we are able to physically help people who would otherwise not get help. There are SO many people wounded in Haiti. The hospitals that are still standing are incredibly overwhelmed. There is just not enough medical care for the need right now, and people are dying cause they are not receiving help. Our doors are open to the wounded. We have no idea at this point how long this will last. Is could be a couple weeks or longer. There are many people in haiti who have received amputations this last week, and many more who will need them. This is leaving potentially thousands of haitians disabled. It is overwhelming to think about what these people are up against now. Haiti was bad enough before. One thing I know though is that haitians are tough people. It is unbelievable the pain and suffering so many are going through right now due to their injuries and lose of family and friends. Please continue to pray with me for Haiti.