News from Michael at St. Joseph's 2

Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010

Dear family,

Those of us who traveled to Trinity House at Jacmel today were up at 5:00 AM, flashlights in hand, to bring light to the darkness of that early morning hour. By 6:00 AM the van was loaded with supplies and people and we headed up Delmas road to the tire man. Rony had two flat tires to fix, bought a spare tire for the trip and had extra air put in all the tires.

The trip to Jacmel was the slowest I have ever seen Rony, our driver, navigate. There were areas of the road that had buckled and had huge crevice like cracks in the asphalt. On the mountain road there were areas of landslides that came onto the road along with gigantic boulders. This caused sections of the mountain road to become very narrow passages. We did see the Canadian military working to remove the rubble from the roads to widen them where the landslides were.

Upon arrival at Trinity House we were greeted with the combined youth of Trinity House and St. Joseph's singing us an uplifting welcome song and then heartily passing along hugs. All the youth were busy doing laundry or cooking. The younger children were playing games. I was given a tour of the house and rejoiced to see that absolutely no damage had been done to the living quarters, nor the bakery or chapel. There was some damaged sustained at the second floor school area, but again it was minor. One side wall of a small storage area fell in and there were a few cracks in the walls. The contractor and his crew were present and said the damage was minimal and could easily be repaired.

The Trinity House soccer field has become a tent city for many of the families of the area that lost their homes in the earthquake. At night all of the children and youth at Trinity House are sleeping out in the field as a precaution due to reoccurring aftershocks.

Melchi and all the youth were upbeat and busy. It was energizing to see them doing so well. I sent up a prayer of thanksgiving once again that all of the children at all three of our homes had not only survived the earthquake but were doing their best in a tough situation. The resilience and laughter of the children of all three of our homes has been an encouraging and hope-filled sign of God being with us.

Thank you for your continued interest in us and the blessing of your prayers and financial assistance.

Keeping the thoughts positive!
Michael and family