Church was about 40 minutes away from the guest house. We rode in a "tap-tap" to the church. The one that the Methodist compound uses is all white, covered in back with wire mesh on the upper half of the walls. Benches run down each side on the inside, and they are nicely padded. We were more or less locked inside, and if you can picture a big white paddy wagon, then you've got a good idea of what it looks like. The streets are full of other tap-taps, so-called because the scores of people riding in them tap on the sides when they want it to stop so they can get out. We were out of the sun, yet exposed to the wind while moving, so the temperature was nice back there. But, it was very bumpy and the wire mesh made it impossible to get a good picture. So we took a lot of wiry pictures.
Church was in a suburb of Carrefour called Thor. The destruction of homes and buildings along the way was very sobering.
It has been nine months since the earthquake, yet the visible destruction is everywhere.
It is sort of numbing to see large homes crumbled flat, piles of rubble along every street, and thousands (millions?) of people living in scattered tents and canvas tarp “homes”. The previous city parks are all packed with tent cities. Sidewalks are packed with tiny food and business stalls between a dirt wall or building and the street edge. Everyone seems to be honking at the same time.
Diesel fumes and other air pollution is truly awful.
A couple of us wore masks while traveling.
Life looks very hard.
People were working very hard selling and hauling things, shopping and walking somewhere.
Pigs wandered in some places, cattle or goats in others.
We spent about 2.5 hours at church, not really understanding any of it in Creole.
But it was clear that we were welcome and people were very nice to us.
Across from the front door of the church is a huge collapsed building or home.
I’ll post a photo of it.
Then we visited our work site to see where we’ll be working.
After that, we stopped at a large bakery/fast food kind of place and ate burgers and soda.
Then we passed by the collapsing presidential palace before stopping to visit the 40 or so orphans at the Methodist orphanage.
This afternoon (Sunday) we are getting organized and settling in.
Most of us are a bit numb, having seen plenty of earthquake destruction and human misery – more than enough in fact.
It will be interesting to see how our feelings evolve as we continue to build relationships here.
There are rumors of a hurricane coming on Thursday or Friday.
It may very well derail our departure plans for Saturday.
Oh well, I’ll let God worry about that for now.