Thursday 14th- Well I’m sure you all know by now that there was a terrible earthquake in Haiti. You probably know a lot more than I do. Most of my students are from the area of Cap-Haitien but many of them have family in the Port-au-Prince area also. They have not been able to get any word so far, so we continue to pray for some information and for peace from God in the meantime.
I felt it here twice but did not know what was happening. I was sitting in the school waiting for new registrations for English and everything rocked. I thought, “That’s a lot of movement for a concrete building.” I looked and saw the doors swaying. Then I got up and walked to the veranda to see if there was any excitement on the street. I felt another sway and saw the wires swinging so I knew it wasn’t in my head. The ground is so super-saturated with rain that I couldn’t even imagine what might be happening.
Later, I was in my room and Judnel came and said, “Did you call your family?” which seemed like a very strange question for the middle of the week. He knows I talk on Saturday. When he told me about Haiti, he said 'cyclone'. Since I have no radio or TV I didn’t know any details until the next day. Everything along this coast (northern) of DR was closed and children who went were sent back home from school. I guess their concern was for possible tidal waves.
School has been open for a week now, but our students have not returned. (Think of it like a week of snow days in Canada) The rain continues with no ray of sunshine. It’s been steady since about the 4th of January except for last weekend, which was cloudy but no rain. Sometimes it just opens up and pours and I wonder how there can be any water left in the sky. Many of the houses in Callejon are flooded, if they are in a low area. Some of the streets are like lakes and virtually impassable.
I felt it here twice but did not know what was happening. I was sitting in the school waiting for new registrations for English and everything rocked. I thought, “That’s a lot of movement for a concrete building.” I looked and saw the doors swaying. Then I got up and walked to the veranda to see if there was any excitement on the street. I felt another sway and saw the wires swinging so I knew it wasn’t in my head. The ground is so super-saturated with rain that I couldn’t even imagine what might be happening.
Later, I was in my room and Judnel came and said, “Did you call your family?” which seemed like a very strange question for the middle of the week. He knows I talk on Saturday. When he told me about Haiti, he said 'cyclone'. Since I have no radio or TV I didn’t know any details until the next day. Everything along this coast (northern) of DR was closed and children who went were sent back home from school. I guess their concern was for possible tidal waves.
School has been open for a week now, but our students have not returned. (Think of it like a week of snow days in Canada) The rain continues with no ray of sunshine. It’s been steady since about the 4th of January except for last weekend, which was cloudy but no rain. Sometimes it just opens up and pours and I wonder how there can be any water left in the sky. Many of the houses in Callejon are flooded, if they are in a low area. Some of the streets are like lakes and virtually impassable.
I'm very happy to hear you are ok. We have been wondering up here how you guy on the other side of the island were doing. It is horrendous the pictures of destruction and thousands killed. I'm not surprised we had trouble with the wifi today. I could hear you but you couldn't hear me, I tested my microphone after that call to make sure it was working and it was. I was glad to hear your voice anyway, if only for a minute. I was thinking the rain was keeping your home, from our conversation last Friday but then when the quake happened I wasn't sure if the rain was the 'only' reason. Glad to hear you are alright in your area. It must have been a bit shocking to have felt some of the quake in your area, but probably not as shocking as finding out what happened on the other side. They have had to make huge graves and bury people in masses because there are so many dead and of course decomposing takes effect very soon. It is a sad sad place over there. Any large buildings are collapsed so you can imagine how the smaller ones fared. Well I'll stop here, hope to hear from you later.
ReplyDeleteJackie, I'm so thankful that you're safe. We've been praying at SCA for the Haitian, and it's so devastating, I can still hardly believe it. One popular Maritime RCMP officer, Mark Gallagher was killed while serving with the UN in the capital.
ReplyDeleteWe'll continue to pray for blessings for the country.
Barbara Phinney