Red Tape

There are now 80,000 refugees in Jeremie!

And we have no way to get there! Jon can't fly there because there's no gas so he has no ability to refuel in Port-au-Prince. And we don't have time to take a truck or boat. Jon was hassled for a long time yesterday when he was trying to fly out. Hassled by the Haitian government, who is trying to get their sticky fingers back in the pie. They used to collect a lot of money at this airport in "taxes." They are also quite resistant to deregulation of the adoption processes, as that was also an enormous source of revenue for them.

They still have not opened Jeremie as a port so we are forced to go through Port-au-Prince. Everybody keeps whining about the bottlenecks, but nobody's making the simple decisions to open the floodgates. The days of small relief planes may be drawing to a close if they continue to complicate flights.

We used to be able to drive back and forth from Gonaive to Port-au-Prince with food. Those days are over. Now, we go to Gonaive to pay for a piece of paper to take back to Port-au-Prince (8-10 hours round trip) to get an extortionists signature (more money) before returning to Gonaive to try for the food again. This process can be repeated a couple times before food is actually released from USAID. But it is the Haitian government's involvement now with USAID that is making this even more excruciatingly wasteful in every sense of the word. Yesterday, one of the Americans finally just bribed people to try to get food. Welcome to Haiti.

Evidently, Amy almost got caught in the midst of a food riot. She said she is completely overwhelmed by the need. This was a pretty rough introduction to the the third world. She's going to need some major decompression when she gets home. She said she treated a lot of babies yesterday. The Carrefour camp is well-organized and well-supplied, though, even to the point of being able to give supplies to other clinics and hospitals. But it's because all those supplies have been flown in on our little planes. The immense ship-yards offer nothing.

Bryan did talk to another man with USAID yesterday about supplying Jeremie, specifically. He was much more open than the chick was. The guy seemed to be surprised and concerned by the vast numbers of people Bryan said have arrived empty-handed and unattended there. Dieudonne said he thinks the numbers are accurate because he's there and he says all the buses and ferries end up at the dock, where they are counting heads. Bryan is hopeful that this man will direct aid toward Jeremie. USAID said they only have access to 11 helicopters in the country. Bry told him that he could fill a boat and have it shipped down the coast quicker, with more supplies on board, and cheaper. The guy seemed to show interest and they will talk again today. Bryan sounded pretty desperate on the phone. Pray that they will move the food more quickly! It will get increasingly more frustrating to distribute the longer people go hungry.

Duane is on the plane and coming home tonight. He went to evaluate the rebuilding situation and has seen plenty in just a few days, so his job is done. Plus, the camp is getting another influx of volunteers today or tomorrow, so we all must make room for fresh troops.

Evidently, Kate is begging to go on to Jeremie by truck to stay there with our Haitian friends and to volunteer her help at the public hospital. Bryan is saying no, so it looks like she'll be coming home with Bry and Amy (perhaps Sunday). In which case, Travis and I will be the preachers again on Sunday for a church service and youth group, without Bryan home to speak. It's OK. We have no shortage of words.

Bryan says the little outdoor church services the Haitians are having are precious times, with singing, prayer, thanksgiving and healing. Beautiful.