buelito

Didn’t ride today… planned on it, even drove 40 minutes to a ride start with some friends…only to discover I had left my helmet at home

So, I drove back home. My wife was waiting for me (I had called her to tell her my plight), and we decided to go into DC together to drop off a few bags of clothes to the Haitian Embassy. We dropped off the stuff, and soeone said they really needed volunteers—to sort all the donations. The site was about 10 miles away, near RFK Stadium. So we decided to go for it. We got there and waited in line for about 20 minutes. Then they asked for ‘the guys’…so I left the line and went to what I expected to be the heavy moving type of work. We went to a loading dock and unloaded a truck that had folded cardboard boxes in it. Then we started putting boxes together. I went through 4 big rolls of duct tape and 2 of packing tape (the transparent stuff). We built boxes, then sealed the full ones as they came back. My wife spent 2 hours sorting clothes—mens, womens, boys, girls, infants, bedding, towels, shoes (again by gender and size), flashlights, batteries, food…the list goes on.

There were bout 250 of us in the warehouse—men, women and children. The outpouring was pretty remarkable. It was one of the more fulfilling afternoons I have spent.

When we got home, instead of riding, I walked the dog with my wife. What a great day!

I urge you to help however you can. Doctors Without Borders is doing a tremendous job over there—

Train safe-

Retro Grouch 

I've often thought that disasters bring out the best in us.

Here in St Louis we had a record flood in 1993. I can remember driving across the I-70 bridge into St Charles at like 2:00 in the morning and seeing a shopping center parking lot still full of sand baggers' cars.

miss kenton

What a wonderful thing for you and your wife to do!

Monoborracho

In the 90's I worked with Texas Baptist Men putting water wells back together, mostly in the rural areas of Haiti. My background is in petroleum engineering so, except for the metric stuff , the little hand pumped wells aren't that much different from an 8000' foot pumping well in West Texas. They were pulling the wells by hand, 2 feet at a time with pipe wrenches, in order to repair them.

To see the delight of children pumping water in their village, as opposed to having to carry five gallon buckets, for miles, is hard to describe.

I eventually designed and built a pulling unit, or what might be called a well service rig, out of three sizes of standard size oilfield pipe that would telescope together to about 15' high, with a system of pulleys and sheaves for pulling rods. The whole thing went together with pins and chains, and could be raised by one man. It would purposely designed to fit in an 8'x4'x2' box that would fit in the back of a Toyota pickup.


I hope its still in use down there.

BluesDawg

oilman_15106

The releif efforts are great and my favorite charity is always there in time of need but I have alot of questions about how much of the money we will be throwing at this thing will actually reach the folks? I was surprised to learn that the Hatian "White House" is three times the size of the US White House.

https://www.brothersbrother.org/

Red Baron

I live in the philippines, same problem,. Good stuff gets picked over by those who need it least and often sold for their profit. Poor get junk.


I don't donate unless I am personally SURE it will go were I intend.

robtown

I'm equally concerned but there are some honest organizations. My wife and I have been supporting children through the "Baptist Haiti Mission" for about 20 years. They have built schools, clinics and chapels for at least 50 years. They provide children with schooling, clothes, medicine, food - and yes bible teaching. My wife has met some of the missionaries and been to Haiti twice. The last time was to see one of our sponsored children graduate Haitian higher education (High school / college mix). We sent extra tuition for this young woman. She has just started taking classes to be the equivalent of a registered nurse. This is the news we just received - the quoted section was translated from her words:

Elionita came with her father to my office. She hugged me tightly, putting her cheek against mine. Her father gave me a gift of vegetables from their garden. Here is her story:

"I was at my University UNASMOH, located at rue Christophe. It is a four story building with many students in it. We were in class when the when the professor told us to go outside the classroom and do our homework there. We were to come back two hours later to finish our class for the day. I finished my work and waited a little longer to return to my class. As I started to put my foot in the door, the ground shook very hard. I ran into the street and saw my university crumble from top to the bottom with all the students and professors inside their classrooms. There were only those of my class that were not inside. I am still alive, but many others died. I lost all my books, backpack, uniform, shoes, instruments. Everything. I only had my homework in my hand. Now I am home with my family and thank God that I am alive."

John E

It is important for donors to do their homework and to work with reputable charity organizations, although some of these can be inefficient or get duped at times. Central and South America continue to suffer the ill effects of decades of corrupt government, a trait shared by many (most?) former colonies of Spain and Portugal. Former British colonies seem to do much better.

buelito

another amazing story coming out of Haiti... I am glad she is OK--but it must be very tough on her to have thaat emotional strain of knowing your schoolmates and teachers are all dead... I agree with much tht has been said abot the charities you choose-- doctors without borders has always been one of my favorites, and they were workig in Haiti long before the quake. The devestation is so huge--they need all the help they can get.

train safe-

BengeBoy 

I lived in Mexico City when the 1985 earthquake struck, killing somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 people (the government never released real numbers). The stories from Haiti -- the chaos, the bodies, the "miracle" rescues from buildings where dozens of bodies still lie entombed, the lack of basic services -- have brought back a lot of bad memories.

Being somewhere after an earthquake hits completely sucks. For the poor, of course, it's horrendous.

I don't have any hesitation about donating to a reputable charity that is involved directly in earthquake relief.