Update List
If you are interested in receiving our updates, please email info@faithandloveinaction.org! God Bless.
Hello,
This is an update Marlaine sent today about Friday's trip to Marbial.
God Bless.
Friday: Today is the beginning of the 3 days of national prayer that the government announced a month after the earthquake. In every corner of the country, people consecrated themselves to pray according to their faith.
UN personnel (from the Sri Lankan base) came with us early this morning to test the road to Marbial before they transport the food for us to distribute to the people. We made it as far as we could in the river bed with their truck and our truck. We were supposed to return as soon we had shown them the road and they had figured out which trucks would be able to make the trip. But instead of turning back, the commander asked to accompany us on foot to go to see the damage of the communities in the mountains and our school. The soldiers were so touched as they saw the needs of the people and they were amazed to see the number of people in such an isolated place. On our hike, we found more than 200 people all over the road. There were many more gathered at what was left of the school. They were waiting to get food, but unfortunately the food will get there tomorrow and not today. A lot of people died in Marbial because of landslides, the rocks coming from the mountains killed some people and injured many. The people have not been visited since the earthquake and have had no access to help. They are hungry and had lost hope.
The military has also agreed to provide security as we travel with the truckloads of food from Jacmel to the mountains of Marbial.
We thank all our friends that keep Marbial in their prayers and we are so grateful for your financial support that enable us to purchase so much food in the Dominican Republic to provide relief to many people, families, churches and orphanages in Haiti. Below are some pictures that we took today in Marbial. I will send another update about how distribution goes tomorrow. Please keep us all in your prayers!
Marlaine
Hello! Our internet connection is very bad right now in Haiti but we have finally gotten a chance to send some pictures and updates. What's not included in this email, Vanessa will upload on to the faithandloveinaction.org blog page!
We left Pedernales, DR on Sunday at midnight and arrived in Jacmel by 7 AM. It took about 4 hours to unload the ship and it was safe at the port with the presence of the Sri Lankan military who helped get the trucks in and out of the port. We started delivering some foods to families in the community since Monday and we still provide a meal to some people in the community at our place.
Our biggest distribution will be in Marbial tomorrow (Friday). No help at all has been reaching these people and they badly need it. Their homes are gone and many have lost family members. We prepare to distribute food to 600-700 hundred families up there for a first distribution and will see how much more food and supplies can reach them again. It is not going to be easy because of the road conditions and then how far vehicles can go in the riverbed. A group from the Sri Lankan military will accompany us to assess the conditions and try to help bringing more food soon.
Our school up in Marbial and the church buildings are damaged and we don't know yet how we are going to continue providing education to the 340 children.
We have relocated the children that we support at the orphanage in Carrefour to La Plaine area because their former buildings are severely damaged. Yesterday morning, Daniel traveled to Port au Prince to visit them and to deliver food and supplies to them.
Les Cayes is in southwest of the country and it takes 5 hour drive from Jacmel, and we are praying to find a way for transportation so we can reach the people with our help as well. Transportation is our greatest obstacle when it comes to reaching the people who are far. Bob Jones and Marlaine are speaking with the Canadian military to see if they could be of some help with transportation.
The Haitian government has declared Friday-Sunday 3 days of national prayer; everyone is very motivated to seek God by prayer and fasting.We will continue to send more updates!
Hello!
Just a few pictures from the update sent out this morning! More will be posted soon!
Good news: Marlaine will be leaving for the Dominican Republic tomorrow afternoon! From there, arrangements have been made to get her and supplies to Jacmel via a ship. The funds that have been raised will be used to purchase more food, tents, and supplies for the people of Jacmel. More people from the community are coming to the compound asking for help and it is a paramount that we have enough supplies to answer their needs as well as the needs of the kids. Please pray for safety for Marlaine as she gets supplies to Jacmel! And praises for the friends who have contributed and enabled us to get supplies to Jacmel.
Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians could "return to their origin"Senegal's president says he will offer free land and "repatriation" to people affected by the earthquake in Haiti.
President Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians were sons and daughters of Africa since Haiti was founded by slaves, including some thought to be from Senegal.
"The president is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return to their origin," said Mr Wade's spokesman, Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye.
Tuesday's earthquake killed tens of thousands and left many more homeless.
Buildings have been reduced to rubble, the distribution of aid is slow, and people have been flooding out of the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince.
"Senegal is ready to offer them parcels of land - even an entire region. It all depends on how many Haitians come," Mr Bemba Ndiaye said.
"If it's just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region."
The spokesman emphasised that if a region was given, it would be in a fertile part of the country rather than in its parched deserts, the Associated Press news agency reported.
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Like millions of people around the world I've been shocked by the terrible events in Haiti.
Only now is the true scale of the disaster emerging. Reports now suggest as many as 50,000 people may have died, with hundreds of thousands made homeless. The work ahead to recover from this tragedy is immense. So here's our goal: $890 million for Haiti. That's how much Haiti owes to the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank, and a handful of others. Sign the petition below to ask Haiti's creditors to act quickly and cancel Haiti's debts: http://one.org/us/actnow/drophaitiandebt/index.html?rc=haitidebtpaste As Haiti begins to rebuild we can help by lifting this debt. Together as ONE we can make a difference! Thanks!
Jean-Gilles was owner of the Peace of Mind Hotel in Jacmel, Haiti, a three-story, 30-room hideaway in a quiet tropical valley on Haiti's southern coast, 25 miles from the bustle of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Jean-Gilles and his wife, Marie, lived in an apartment on the property, close enough to watch carefully over the guest rooms, conference rooms, boutique and restaurant, close enough that they pledged to know the first name of every guest.
After the 7.0-earthquake hit, they slept in their aging Isuzu, parked in the hotel driveway.
Jean-Gilles figured a split second was the difference between life and death when the temblor struck. He was working in a ground-floor conference room and first heard, then felt the quake. He asked his electrician, Roberne St.Louis, who was working nearby, what was happening.
"Get out. Now. Get out. Now," St. Louis said.
Jean-Gilles cleared the collapsing structure by a mere second, he estimated.
His wife, who was working in the couple's apartment on the second floor, wasn't able to get clear. People nearby heard her screams after the shaking stopped and removed the cinder blocks entrapping her by hand. She was shaken and scratched, but walked away from the wreckage.
"I am alive. God is good," she repeated over and over on Saturday.
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The Peace of Mind Hotel was a dream come true for Jean-Gilles, 57, and Marie, 59. Born in Port-au-Prince, they moved to the United States shortly after meeting 34 years ago. Together, they owned a beauty supply store in Jersey City, New Jersey, and invested in real estate. In 2003, they cashed out their U.S. investments, returned to Haiti and began building the Peace of Mind Hotel, looking to make a future for themselves and the people of their homeland.
"In a country that is so poor, we knew we could do well. We could help people by creating jobs," Jean-Gilles said.
They did just that. The Peace of Mind, which they valued at about $2 million, was theirs free and clear. They employed 40 people during the construction and had 25 on staff when the quake struck.
One employee, who is also a relative, was killed in the collapse. Her body was retrieved on Saturday. One other body remained in the rubble of the Peace of Mind, that of an American working in Haiti who'd stopped in for a few drinks and to use the Internet. Heavy machinery pulled away chunks of debris and the smell said searchers were close to finding that body, too.
While business wasn't overwhelming during the hotel's first year, hope was high for February, when the annual carnival celebration brings thousands of people to Jacmel.
Business in Haiti relies a lot on hope. There is no insurance for small-business men like himself, Jean-Gilles said. And he'd yet to find international insurance since he opened the hotel last February. He'd worked six years on it and invested a lifetime of savings.
Saturday, Jean-Gilles said he wanted to rebuild, but was at a loss on how he could make that happen.
"We don't have a source of revenue. This hotel was the source of our revenue. All we've worked for our whole life. And it's gone," he said.
Still, he tossed around options. An outbuilding that served as a kitchen survived. Maybe he could build around that. And there's a swimming pool that was just about complete. That was something to work with.
And there was the hope and faith that had let him live his dream, if only for a few short months.
"God is good. Remember, God is good," Jean-Gilles told a neighbor in the valley as he contemplated rebuilding. "This time it will be flat. I am not building up anymore."
