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Follow us on TwitterHaiti Earthquake Recon: Haiti - Au Revoir
Posted by Walt Vernon on April 15, 2010 at 3:54pm
First, I guess I should say that I have to tell myself I will go back, or I couldn’t stand coming home. On the plane yesterday, I was sitting next to someone from Adventist Health International. These guys help hospitals all over the world that are in dire circumstances. He told me that they have found that they have to give their volunteers a date certain when they will come home; otherwise, the unremitting mental pressure can really get to some of them. But, if they have a date in the future they know they will leave, they can take it. Well, coming back to this world, I kind of have the same problem in reverse. I don’t think I could leave unless I was serious about how to go back.
One time, when John Pappas and I were driving around Port-au-Prince, we saw someone simply urinating on a wall somewhere, and he talked about his son who had spent six months overseas doing missionary work. (This is connected because the people where his son had been did the same thing). He said it was really hard for his son to reacclimate himself after being gone. I said that I could understand that, and that I thought it would be hard for me to go back to the “real” world after having seen what I saw there. John said he didn’t think it would happen if we had only been gone a week, and maybe that is true, so I must be a lesser person, because it is really hard to come back.
When we were in Haiti, one of the things that is most precious was water clean enough to drink. We were very careful with water, and never knew where we would get the next bottle. In fact, all these plastic bottles were a big problem, and they have piles and piles of these things they can’t get rid of (I am actually working with Laura Brannen and some of her contacts to see if we can help with some ideas regarding these bottles). Anyway, between worrying about not throwing away yet another plastic bottle and worrying about finding water, we treated water pretty carefully. It was a pretty rude shock to me to come back and see how casually people everywhere in the airports were about throwing away plastic bottles that were half full, still of water. I know this sounds really silly, but it is hard to describe the impact that this water thing had, and how jarring it was to see.
And so, maybe I was not gone long enough to have much trouble with re-entry, but like the people who can’t go unless they know they are leaving, I don’t think I could have left unless I knew I would come back.
I have already started planning my next mission. I am working with the people at Project HOPE to put together a team of electricians and maybe other facility guys to go, rewire, and just work on a number of these facilities. I am going to solicit donations of materials and people. The Project HOPE people have agreed that we can go under their banner. I have to pause here, and say again, just how impressed I am by that organization. To be truthful, I am still not 100% clear on what all they do, but I am 100% clear on how worthwhile what they do is. I thought a lot while I was down there, that sometimes I wish I could just quit my job and go and do that kind of work. But then I realize that I could not be nearly as effective when I was there, except that I had the knowledge and the experience, the connections, etc. that I get from working in my day-to-day engineering job. So, the bittersweet reality is that both are important, that one can’t be without the other. And so, I will go back to work, I will take care of the people who hire my firm, and I will take care of the people who work here. And I will plan for the day I return. I said a minute ago that I was 100% clear that what THEY, Project HOPE does, is worthwhile. Maybe I can now say, I am 100% clear that what WE, Project HOPE does, is worthwhile.
If you know where I can get free MC cabling, safety-type receptacles, 1x4 strip fixtures, occupancy sensors, T8 lamps, or electricians who want to go to Haiti - let me know.
For more information on Project HOPE, and how you can help, visit their website: www.projecthope.org
And for more information on Hôpital Albert Schweitzer located in Deschapelles, Haiti—a topic of many of my blog posts—visit: www.hashaiti.org
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