January 20, 2010 - 2:12 PM
I saw a lot, heard a lot, and felt a lot while in Haiti. Many people have asked
me for specifics, but they are way too many to put in an email. Some want to
hear all the gore - they want to hear about the bodies, the smells, and the
like. Others want to hear about resiliency - how the Haitians are coping. I
heard today on the radio, "International rescue agencies have been responsible
for rescuing the lives of 172 Haitians." While that is all well and good, the
news media is failing to report that Haitians without shoes and million dollar
high tech equipment have probably managed to pull out 50 times that number. It
is too bad we don't have near as many doctors and nurses coming to Haiti as we
do news media.
There were two gardeners, both growing precious vegetables, and a drought came.
It was bad. The plants needed water now, or bad things would soon happen. The
nearest water hole was over a mile away, and neither gardener had a vehicle. The
first gardener grabbed two pails of water, filled them up, put them in the
wheelbarrow and away he went to make the mile long trek to water his garden. The
second gardener told him that two buckets would not save his acre-size garden.
No, the second gardener was a lot smarter. He called all of his friends. One of
his friends had a large water tank on a truck and trailer. The thought was to
fill up that tank, and water his entire garden at once. People came from miles
around to help. They camped out on the side of the river anxious to help, ready
to do anything, but the second gardener was just way too disorganized. The truck
arrived with the tank on it a day late. 5 of the neighbors, all self proclaimed
engineers,
argued about how best to get the water into the tank for another two days. 2
scientists showed up, trying to explain that the water from the river was just
too bad and wouldn't supply the garden with the right nutrients. No, the water
needed to be treated first before it could be put into the water tank. 3 more
days passed, while the first gardener - the one with only 2 small buckets, was
now on his 20th trip to and from the garden.
This is exactly what is going on in Haiti right now, I am sorry to say. The only
organizations we saw helping in Haiti over the first couple of days were small
organizations - ones like CSI - that could make an immediate difference. There
were literally thousands of people from all over the world with all kinds of
supplies camped out at the PAP airport. At first it was very refreshing to see
them! "Thanks goodness! The cavalry has arrived!" would be a logical thought.
But as the day went on, we slowly realized that the vast majority of these
people, who were all very anxious to help, were just hanging around their
campsite. Why? They were waiting on direction. Taxpayer dollars hard at work.
But in all fairness, how do you get a collective group of internationals to work
together? The Germans can't tell the French what to do, and India would never
let Pakistan tell them what to do. The Poles won't listen to the Czechs, and so
on. They were all simply
waiting for direction, and that came first hand from the Portuguese contingent
that we spoke with. I did see the US Military, the Russians, the Germans, and
the Swiss out on the street doing rescue operations, but maybe that is because
they weren't sitting back waiting to be told what to do.
A doctor from Philly came in last week and worked at a PAP hospital all day
long. When he came back to our clinic, he told us how bad and how unorganized
everything was. He said (and we have witnesses to verify this) that by 11:00 PM
he was running the hospital. He was telling Haitian and other international
staff what to do to run the hospital. He also complimented CSI in such a way
that I could never have been more proud of our team. We were fast enough and
agile enough to do work immediately to help the Haitians. That is what it is all
about. There is no bureaucracy. No red tape. We just do what we need to in order
to get the job done, and do it fast. And because of our structure, many Haitians
are receiving the relief that other organizations are still only planning on
giving.
For all you NASCAR fans out there, and my father-in-law will love to hear this,
I am now a die-hard Jeff Gordon fan. I've never been much into NASCAR, but I
have always cheered on Ryan Newman since he was a Purdue grad. Now it is the #24
car. Hendricks Motor Sports donated three planes, their staff, the pilots, and
all the fuel to fly missionaries, orphans, Americans, and Haitians, to and from
PAP at no cost. They have been doing this now for 5 days, and will probably keep
doing this for a few more. Yesterday, 35 of us flew home at Jeff's expense.
Other organizations could have done this. Other organizations were much more
capable. But Hendricks stepped up to the plate and got it done. (I am guessing
other organizations are still trying to get their plan together???)
Not trying to sound sarcastic, but a little water would go a long way right now.
"The smallest deed is bigger than the grandest intention."
Most of the Haitians coming to the hospitals with injuries now are simply too
late. Gang greene is there, and it isn't going away. And all this time there are
thousands of people wanting to help, but don't know how.
There are some other organizations out there besides CSI that have done a
tremendous job. I have been very impressed! I was especially impressed with one
missionary group. Everywhere I went, they had someone from that group there. It
wasn't until the last day that I realized that group has their own media wing.
The people I ran in to were taking pics with orphans, showing doctors doing
amputations, etc. The majority was publicity. My heart sank.
Still, all in all, what I am most happy with is the behavior of the Haitian
people. They are the true heroes in this. They were the first on the scene. They
are the ones singing worship songs all hours of the day. They are the ones
praising God for all of His blessings. They are the ones still working hard to
dig out their loved ones with picks, and hammers, and hands. And they are the
ones that could care less about the media. They just want their life back.
Please continue to pray for Haiti, for the CSI missionaries, and for the many
other small organizations out there that are actually doing some good work. Go
#24!
Jon
