So I get the phone call the morning after that Mike was on his way(January 13)... So the waiting began... I have honestly tried my hardest to think about what happen the rest of that day (Wednesday) but I cant, I don't know if I blocked it out or so much happen during that time I just cant remember but Tuesday for the most part is still a blur to me... I remember things and conversations I had over the 2 days we spent outside but which days they happened are what run together...
Jamarie and Wesley the two males workers had to go inside the creche the next morning to get food and essentials for the kids, the kids had gone since 1:00pm the day before without anything to eat or drink. The babies in diapers hadn't been changed since at least 4:00. Babies here in America would have a hard time going 15 hours without food as well but most of these babies are extremely malnourished and dehydrated so that 15 hours was becoming extremely LIFE threatening!!! The sight of seeing two men (who could have easily walked away and said this is my job these are not my children)go into a building that was completely unsafe and potentially going to fall at any minute to save the lives of children was OVERWHELMING and completely humbling... It was an experience of seeing FAITH IN ACTION, I saw two men become CHRIST, their willingness to sacrifice their LIFE to care for others was AMAZING!!! They didn't do what they did for glory they did it because their love for those children is so deep that they would lay down their lives for them just as a parent would and just like JESUS did for each and every one of us...I have fallen in love with Haiti for multiple reasons one of them being their understanding and execution of the word COMMUNITY. I have never been around people who genuinely love and care about their neighbor the way the bible tells us to as much as the people of Haiti and what make that love grow even deeper was going through the most traumatic situation most of them will probably ever experience and seeing that love not be compromised but increased tenfold... Sometime after noon on Tuesday some men brought a woman to the church where we were staying, she couldn't walk because her house had collapsed on her. She had a huge laceration on her head where debris had hit her head as well as multiple cuts, scraps and a broken leg. I watched an extremely graphic sight as the workers of the creche did their best to clean and remove glass form her head and attempt to stabilize her leg until further medical attention could be given.Little did I know 6 months after my return this situation would be the hardest thing I deal with... God used this very moment of people with no knowledge of what to do come together and help someone they had never meet. I had such a hard time with why. Why did they do that, why did they help her, why did they cut her hair out and dig in her head with a razor to get the glass that was digging into her scalp, why did they give this woman food for a day and a half when the food they had was almost gone, Why??? I know the church answer because it's the right thing to do, I know that but there were over 200,000 people who died from the earthquake. They men and women were taking care of 48 children who had just be displaced from the only stability and safety net they had and instead of retreating and protecting what they had they were giving it out and caring for those who couldn't.
I remember that morning going into the village behind where we were to take a shower, Jamarie had a friend in the village that he insisted I go to his house to shower and use the bathroom at. So we got up and went over to their house then we came back and waited... I talked to Missy and she told me Mike was trying to get to us but there was so much damage that she didn't know how long it would take... To everyone here that made all the sense in the world, but I didn't really understand what she meant. I hadn't been but maybe 150 ft away from the platform we were staying on and everything around us was cracked but nothing was down that I could see. It wasn't until after Mike got there that I realized how bad it really was...
Anxious was an under statement... Knowing my dad was on his way to get me consumed my every thought. I was trying to hold myself together but the anxiety wasn't only in me but in the other workers as well. I told them my dad was coming and that they were bringing help so it was a constant wondering of when they would get there. Every time someone walked past the gate I looked to see if it was Mike. I remember being so wound up that I felt nauseous, I had to get my mind off of it ha ha... I decided that I would go and sit down and try to write down some what was going on. So much had gone on and I knew the questioning would coming so I did my best to go back and write as much as I could.
I started writing trying to add as much detail as possible and remember as much of what happen as possible I got about a day an a half's worth of the earthquake and I just happen to look up and there they were... Brent came in first and came up the stairs and started looking for me as I frantically was putting my stuff in my bag so I could go over to Mike... To every one's surprise (NOT!!!!) Mike walled in holding his flip camera to document the "Katie being found." It was an overwhelming moment, being faced with death brings upon a profound longing for your family and for reasons God is revealing to me little by little I am starting to understand why God allowed me to be exactly where I was on January 12 2010...
I think from the time Mike got there with Brent, B, Dr Bernard and Claudette the reality of what happen became real. Mike started telling me all this stuff and I honestly remember shutting him and Brent both out... They were both chatter boxes and running around and I couldn't even catch up with what they were saying. They were telling me about all this destruction and masses upon masses of catastrophes but it was like they were talking about another world... I could come to grips with the fact that less than half a mile a way thousands of lives were gone... All I kept saying to myself was, WHY AM I STILL HERE??? Dr. Bernard got a vehicle, which was a miracle in it's self because there were no vehicles to be found and we loaded all of the children in a bus which took them and the workers to his guesthouse in Thomasin... Mike, Brent, B, Dr Bernard, Claudette, Naika, Tia and Myself all got in a van and made our way to the orphanage to check on the kids there.I saw many things that I hope I or anyone else never have to experience again but I think the hardest thing to process is the sight of 8 white dump trucks carrying the bodies of over 400 children who where killed in the collapsing of a school... Seeing it was hard but then finding out that the school was located one street over made that nauseousness in the pit of my stomach even worse. We spent the next 2 hours driving the 25 min. drive to the orphanage. I have never seen destruction like this, every street we went down was either blocked with buildings that had fallen or people dead and alive who had no where to go. There were piles and piles of bodies everywhere. As we drove through the street I just sat there in amazement. Yes I had felt the earthquake but I just couldn't understand how or why something like this happened?
