Hanna

Rainy days are pleasant enough--until your house gets flooded.

Unfortunately, we've had hurricanes a-plenty this season. Port-au-Prince has been relatively undamaged by Hanna, but the storm is destroying homes and the countryside not too far north of here. Our MCC coworkers in the Artibonite Valley are okay, but that hasn't lessened our concern for the people of Gonaives, St. Marc, and elsewhere that the storm has been severe.

On Tuesday we ran a sort of fool's errand--one of our coworkers needed to pick up a package at the Baptist Mission, which is located halfway up a local mountain. Six of us piled into the truck and headed upward. It quickly became apparent that while the city was relatively becalmed, a full-on hurricane was happening just above our heads. Power lines were down, trees were sliding down the mountainside roots first, and the wind was definitely howling.

Several men took advantage of a downed power pole to create a little road block, asking for money in exchange for moving the pole (they did this as kindly as is possible while wielding machetes). We noticed that not every vehicle was receiving this treatment, so we decided to put our heads down, pretend we're not blan, and follow closely behind a big truck that had a free pass. That was a little unnerving, but more so was the downed power line that wasn't quite down--we squeezed the truck under wires dangling not far above our roof.

We made it safely down and back, and the experience was both exhiliarating and sobering. We're concerned about the people experiencing storms without safe retreats, and realize that things will probably get worse if Hurricanes Ike and Josephine both head through.

Our move to Desarmes has been postponed by at least two days because of the storms, so we're planning to head out on Monday instead.