I am currently sitting outside of Healing Hands for Haiti stealing someones unsecured wireless ... yay for that!
Yesterday was an adventure. There was some mud, some getting stuck, (see Troy - 40 minutes in mud ...two tries at towing ... and we were on our way again) some climbing steep hills ... but all of that is nothing compared to what Licia and her neighbors are doing.
The village went under water, everyone has wrecked stuff. I am putting up some photos we took.
Where I am standing in the last photo is where the road drops off and you need to walk up the hill and back down to get to the next piece of road (you can see where the road restarts behind me.) The road is gone in three places from Cabaret to Cazale.
In the first spot they have found a new way around, but in this spot (in the photo)that is about 1.25 mile from Cazale it will be very difficult to repair it. Based on the situation here, we're certain it will be a long time before it can be fixed. We felt overwhelmed as we considered the separation the Zacharys (Betor/Moise) will face - to get supplies and get home is now a very difficult thing for them.
Please consider adding the entire Zachary Family to your daily prayer list. Licia reports that Lori and her husband Charles will return to Haiti next week. They have lost all of their belongings and will need to help their neighbors face loss too. THANK YOU to those of you who contacted Jamie and/or donated. At this very moment it is honestly so overwhelming for Licia that they are trying to determine WHICH needs to tackle first. The water was a big one and they have filters now so they can filter the dirty water and make it safe to drink. The water was so powerful it destroyed roads, moved vehicles and bridges and entire homes.
Someone asked me to post a video. I don't have the internet connection to allow upload of video. I apologize.
Pierre (the man we met about three weeks ago in Petit Bwa who lost a leg in July)is inside Healing Hands with Troy having his first consult appointment. We are so excited for him! It will be a long process but when we showed him another man with a prosthetic leg he grinned and said "pi bon" - which means "that is better"!
We dropped Jeronne and Tipap in LaDigue this morning to visit their families. We will drive back out to LaDigue tonight to get Pierre on his way home and then pick him up again next week to be measured and have the plaster made for his new leg. It could take quite a long time for everything to happen, but it feels great to have at least started the process. We will share his entire story (how he lost his leg, the prognosis, etc.) later this week.
Thanks for checking in and for responding to the need in Cazale!
Tara