Update from Haiti


Wednesday, April 9, 2008


Dear Friends,

With all the recent violence here in Haiti, I thought I better give you an update from our end.  We are well, thank the Lord!  We are extending our stay here at the Baptist Haiti Mission in Fermathe due to the violence in the country.  We came here Monday, March 31 -- the same day Bro. Ed Truitt flew out to the US. Martha Taylor arrived safe and sound the following day, Tuesday April 1st.  We are currently in the third day of violent demonstrations here in Haiti.  The main reasons for the rioting are hunger and high food prices.  Many other grievances are factoring in to the demonstrations, but hunger and the high cost of living are the chief motivators.  We were scheduled to return home to LaGonave today, but the violence has hindered us.  Thank the Lord, we are safe here at the Baptist mission high above Port-au-Prince, the scene of tremendous rioting and carnage.  Gas stations have been destroyed and totally ransacked.  Grocery stores have also been ransacked.  Stone throwing demonstrators have wreaked untold millions of dollars worth of damage to vehicles, businesses, and homes.  We were caught in the violence yesterday as we were doing some final shopping in preparation for our return to the island today.  We had purposely left early so as to avoid the demonstrations later in the day.  On our way back, we were forced to do a u-turn at a road block of rock throwing, tire burning, violent Haitians.  We sought shelter in a near-by Plaza.  Andy, Ivah, Martha, and I were the only ones of our gang that went to town, thank the Lord!! Seth, Nathan, Joel, Caleb and Joanna stayed at Fermethe.  We are so thankful they were not with us for the violence we witnessed.  We ate our lunch at the tailgate of our truck and decided to stay in the plaza area until we received word that it was safe to go.  Little did we realize what was going on around us at that point.  The only place we could go to get shelter from the heat and sun was a restaurant called a bar.  It looked like a bar also but we were thankful for a place of safety.  There were many other people seeking shelter in the restaurant.  After about three hours we got a call from a friend that things were clearing up - so he thought.  We ventured out on the same road and had not gone far until we saw it was impassable.  We took another route over to another main road.  We either wanted to get up the mountain to the children or go to the CSI guest house where we often stay.  As we pulled on to the main highway we were shocked by what we saw. Large garbage dumpsters were over-turned and blocking the streets.  Ashes from burning tires and large rocks were strewn all over the street.  There were very few vehicles moving.  We didn't see any rioters just all the damage they had done earlier in the day.  Two gas stations were completely gutted with the windows smashed out.  We passed the road to the guest house thinking that all was clear.  We got to Petionville and soon realized that all was not well.  A road Andy had wanted to take was blocked with all kinds of things.  The UN was heading down one road so we chose another.  The Lord sent a man to get in our truck that is a security guard here at the mission.  As we rounded a corner we were surrounded by pipe-toting rioters who demanded money or a broken windshield.  The guard we had just picked up began to plead our case.  Andy handed them some money and they waved us on.  The roads everywhere were filled with debris and smoking tires.  I cannot properly describe it to you.  We then thought we were through the worst but for a large part of our trip up the mountain we encountered many similar situations.  At one point we encouraged three bandits to jump on the hood to help us through a road block.  All along the road, rocks, abandoned vehicles, burned vehicles, burning tires, smashed windshields obstructed our path.  It was like driving through a war-zone.  There were men at one point lining a roof top ready to heave large rocks on oncoming vehicles.  We were stuck quite a while at one large road block with demonstrators all around us.  There were also other vehicles trying to get through.  One bandit encouraged us to take a side road to get away from the road blocks.  Andy felt strongly that we shouldn't do this.  Thank the Lord we didn't because it would have only led us back to some of the road blocks we had already been through.  There was no turning around at any point to get to the guest house either because too much rioting was behind us.  We were waving at vehicles to not come down the mountain and they in turn were waving at us not to go up.  We knew we were in trouble!  There were other men who rode our bumper which helped us several times.  They worked to clear the road for us.  Andy had to pay out several dollars to the bandits different times to get them to let us pass.  After about an hour and a half of this kind of exhausting driving we finally made it past the last road block.  We were ever so grateful to the Lord as we pulled into the mission property here at Fermethe around 5PM.  A driver for the mission pulled in shortly after we did.  He had been trying to get to the mission since 10AM.  My legs were stiff from being so tense and I crashed on the couch while Martha hit the rocking chair!!  We are so thankful that our vehicle was not damaged nor did we get a flat tire from all the things we drove over.  The bandits broke many, many windshields and slashed many tires yesterday.  President Preval spoke at noon today.  The bandits said that they were going to riot until he spoke and if they didn't like what he said they would continue to destroy the country.  There were demonstrations all over the country today.  From a few things we are hearing it seems that many didn't like what the President said.  We are going to sit tight here until things settle down.  We would like to get home but don't want to risk our lives and vehicle.  I was so glad that most of the children were not with us yesterday.  Ivah kept saying last evening, "It just seems like a dream."  She was also nervous that the rioting would come to this mission because of all she saw.  I kept apologizing to Martha.  We feel very bad that her first week in Haiti has been so violent.  Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.  God definitely delivered us yesterday.

Please pray for the country of Haiti.
Shirleen