Haiti Through the Eyes of Another Third World Country

I don't understand Your ways,
Oh, but I will give You my song
Give You all of my praise.
                            -Rita Springer

I must say, as I came home from school to see Jerry and the kids watching images of Haiti on the tv on Wednesday, my heart was ripped and I found myself wanting to scream at God again.  Why?  Why the poorest of the poor?  Why such devistation to a people who already know such harships?!? Why is there no protection for the least?  Where is justice for the poor?!?

Viewing this catastrophe from my living room in the capital city of one of the poorest Third World countries in the world has given me new eyes to understand a bit of the enormity of these kinds of catastrophes.  First of all, there is such a lack of basic infastructure.  Construction methods would certainly be less than adequate if a quake hit.  Only the very main roads are paved here.  Everything else is one lane, insanely bumpy, big-rocks-and-dirt "roads".  How on earth would supplies be delivered?  How would help reach those beyond the main arteries?  The kids and I talked - where would help come from if something happened to Addis?  The country?  From those living in huts, susistance farming to eek out 1-2 tiny meals a day for their families, using donkeys and crude hand tools as their only "tools of the trade"?  There is no money, no technology, no modern anything outside of the city.  And what about the poor?  There are so many already living marginally on the streets or in shacks.  What about them?  And what about the impossible task of rebuilding?  I watch the main road in front of where we live being built every day by men with shovels throwing dirt into the back of dump trucks, or men with pick-axes digging up an area to be refinished.  I watch women carrying trays of cement up stick ramps to build huge skyscrapes made mostly of concrete - each load hand-carried, hand mixed, hand poured.  How on earth would a city like Addis rebuild?!?  How many decades would it take?

And I hear the estimated number of orphans left in Haiti, and I can barely stand the thought.

And I watch the news and see the first rescue teams landing, and where are they?  The UN, of course.  Not at an orphanage or a home for the destitute and dying.  Not in the tin shacks that I'm sure were overly abundant in Port-Au-Prince.  And I am SO angry.  I am very thankful for the life of the man they showed being rescued at the UN.  And yet, it makes me scepticle that the least will receive the aid they so desparately need.  And the injustice just infuriates me!

I don't know why I'm writing this to you.  Partly to keep from exploding, I think.  Partly to say if you can do anything, if you can influence anyone - do it.  If you can give anything, do.  Remember mercy.  Be part of justice for the poor.  I don't fully know who's reputable, but find someone. There are tons of great organizations out there - pick one.  Give and keep on giving.  Influence and keep on influencing.  This will be one very long haul.  And pray to the God of mercy and justice for these people, and for the world to act decently and share their great resources.

Heartbroken and desparate to see God's hand,
Christy