Day 4 (and 5) in Haiti

Saturday we took a tap tap to the school at 6am. Our goal was to help the crisis relief staff by documenting every person living on the campus at the time. Our task was cut short when we had to walk someone to a nearby house. The teams started leaving, further delaying our job. We then took a tap tap to the CSI guest house (which is also heavily damaged). We met with Greg Benson and his wife Kathy to catch a ride to Croix des Bouquets, where their clinic and orphanage buildings are. The orphanage is heavily damaged, so Tim and Toby (the directors) and all 20 girls are living in two small rooms by the clinic (which was not damaged). There is a work team in Haiti helping to pour new support columns and replace walls at the orphanage, hoping to save it. Johnny and I helped the orphanage directors by cleaning and packing things to move into the new orphanage building that will be built in the next few months. We also learned different theories of why some buildings collapsed and others didn't. Of course there are many factors, one being the way the houses were built. I'm not just talking about the reinforced concrete, quality of construction, etc. Obviously that is a huge factor, but another interesting aspect of the earthquake is that houses that were longer east and west (long sides facing north/south) were typically damaged the worst, while homes that were longer north to south (long sides facing east/west) were spared. The best analogy that was used to explain this is that in an earthquake, the tremors move like waves. Now picture a boat on the ocean; if it is facing a wave it can go right through it, but if a big wave hits its side it will capsize. The same is true with some of the buildings here.


Towards the end of the day we got to play with the girls. I (johnny) got to run around and chase them and have them chase me and Kim got in on the fun also. We taught them some games and played them for awhile before dinner. We ate and then after some great conversation with Toby we went outside set up our tents and spent the night under the stars.