A Look From Above

Hello to you all,

First off, I wanted to post a picture of the house we have been working on the last two days.

Today was a great day. It was a relaxing day, and at least for the mission team that I am staying with, very much deserved. They have been working non-stop for almost two weeks and needed a day of rest. This morning, we all went to church in Santo, Port Au Prince. It was a Haitian service completely in Creole, but it was still good. Even though it is in a different language, we could still try to follow along and study the passage being referred to.

I had another chance to go into downtown Port today. The entire team loaded up onto a truck and I went along with them into the city. They were going to make a few stops in Port and then go to a lookout overlooking the city. We drove towards the east road along the waterfront and entered the inner city from the east near where the palace is. Along that road, there was a US Marines base that we saw and waved at, as well as one of the poorest parts of the city. There is an entire area of Port Au Prince in there that is extremely poor. People are living in tight quarters, on top of large trash heaps and next to ponds of raw sewage and debris. Their homes are nothing more than scraps thrown together. It was an extremely poor part of the city, probably the poorest. We could not stop at all along there, as it is also one of the most dangerous. The prison where 3000 inmates escaped from during the quake was also visible in that part of town.

We drove through the city and up to a lookout point. This isn't just any lookout point overlooking the city. It is at the top of a very steep mountain that rises from the city up 6,000 feet. We were at the top and overlooked the entire valley and city below.

On the way back, we made a quick stop at the "Hotel Montana" site. This hotel was the nicest hotel in Haiti. President Bush and President Clinton both had stayed there along with many other "high level" people when visiting Port Au Prince. During the earthquake, the several story hotel collapsed killing of 60 US citizens.

The other thing that happened today was we got in a traffic jam. About 2/3 of the way back from Port, we got stuck at a light for about 30 minutes... yes just one light. Cars had disobeyed the signals when things slowed down and now they were all stuck facing different directions and couldn't move. A convoy of ten or fifteen UN vehicles and over a hundred UN fully armed soldiers was trying to get through this intersection as we were. We had the joy of watching four or five of these UN guys try to sort out the entire mess so traffic would move and they could get through. What was worse, is as they are trying to direct traffic to clean up the mess, the Haitian drivers just start ignoring what the soldiers were saying, making it worse. About a half hour later, we managed to get through the light which was about a hundred feet up from where we stopped.

I am back at the compound now and we are just relaxing. It has been a long week so far... staying up late and getting up early, so it was good to just relax today. I am doing well... no health issues so far which is a praise. We got gas today and will be leaving for Cap Haitien at 5 AM tomorrow. Praise the Lord for the gas and please pray for safety on the seven hour dangerous journey.

Thanks all for your prayers and support. There is sooo much more I would want to tell you all, but I have already written far to much this week. I will try and keep most of my postings shorter so you don't spend an hour reading them. Thanks and I miss you all.

-Garrett Luck