LAITY

Hands On With Allen

Have you ever felt you got more than you bargained for? 

This July I began a trip that would change my life.   Donald Holter of Bucyrus and I arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to help rebuild after the earthquake that occurred in January. 

The earthquake decimated the city of Port-au-Prince, and crippled the already troubled nation.  More than 200,000 people lost their lives and even more were left injured and homeless.  Without food, water, or shelter, many people are left trying to survive from meal to meal relying almost solely on the generosity of mission groups to help restore basic necessities that their government can’t or won’t provide.

Within the first 15 minutes of arriving at Port-au-Prince International Airport, the high expectations of helping were broken.  I thought I was prepared for this challenge, but I remember telling myself that they should take me back to the airport to go back home because this was something I could not handle.

I have worked with displaced people before with Habitat for Humanity and in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.  I have been to border towns in Mexico where people live in cardboard boxes and open sewage ditches.  None of this prepared me for Haiti and how poor the people had become. 

On the hour drive to the compound located at the far eastern part of Port-au-Prince in a town called Croix-Deux-Bouquet (Qua-Day-Bu-K), I saw the troubled people and the still remaining rubble first hand.

The Christian Service International group (CSI) compound was surrounded by a nine foot high concrete wall laced with barbed wire and two big steel gates. Inside the gates was a large two story building which was home to a free clinic and apartments and facilities. 

Donald and I met our host family, the Garrett’s from Lexington, Ohio.  They showed us the facility and made us feel at home.  I have to admit it was a great place, and it was like home but not what I had expected.  

The jobsite was a quarter mile walk from our compound, again surrounded by a large wall topped with barbed wire.  The plans were to establish a two story earthquake-proof concrete building for a girls’ orphanage and educational facility.   Specifically, our job was to build wood forms for the concrete to be poured on the second floor – 250 yards of concrete were to be poured.  Ten days later under the blistering sun, concrete trucks began arriving at 7:00AM. 

Over the next eighteen hours, we encountered obstacles that would be totally unheard of in the United States, from engineering mistakes to a broken pump truck that forced the workers to place the last ten yards of concrete by bucket brigade.

I’m planning to return to Haiti within the next year.  I’ll be doing some presentations until then hoping to stir up interest to support my next trip.  If anyone is interested in having me come to your organization or gathering, please contact me at 419-683-3897.

In Christ,
Allen D. Laferty