Earthquake Calendar: Day Six

US Air Force! I couldn't resist!
What girl doesn't love men in uniform? And these boys were from back home!

Behind the scenes, behind security

Tom in action with the boys from the 82nd

Thanks, guys!

Military checkpoint. That's a Haitian police officer.

Squatters camps were springing up.

The Relief Team scheming.

Miriam and Cathy helped in so many ways!

Sunday 1/17
Yesterday? or the day before my Pastor explained to me about Church services to be held this morning but can it really be Sunday? What an odd feeling- disbelief that Sunday has come so quickly married to the shock that only four full days have passed since the quake: time has been moving so slowly. It feels like a whole month has gone by since my return to Haiti but it’s not yet been even a full week.

Make l’abri for kids’ breakfast at Tony’s. Serve Bertoni and Rebekah, refugees staying in Tony’s apartment, coffee and our leftover pancakes from dinner last night. Rebekah is 8 months pregnant with their first child. I love making coffee for friends and through this earthquake perfect strangers quickly become such; “old” friends become brothers and sisters. Jack, Gretchen, and Chris conference at picnic table (where our Team breakfasts) then Tony’s apartment, drawing up plans for the future of the post-earthquake Three Angels. After a QCS staff meeting, Miriam and Cathy make the hard decision to leave for the states. The school directors had surveyed the wider area around Port-au-Prince and used the meeting to express to the staff the realities facing Haiti. They predict there will be food shortages, rioting, and untimely deaths from lack of medical care- they say it will get much worse before it gets any better. I help Cathy pack- she has one hour. The evacuees are allowed a single backpack. Cathy’s whirl-wind departure is hard to digest. By her absence my prayer-warrior and strongest support is gone.

But there is little time to sit and cry. Tony Decoder- second in command at QCS- seeks me out: “Abbey, we need to know when your orphanage will be leaving. The school is going to become a central command station for many relief agencies and we need you out.” This is the Question I’ve been avoiding –and trying to resolve- all week. Trips to the Chapel, a failed attempt to relocate to the Meers’ house, the initial failure to find Pastor Jules, and the growing awareness that my “Plan B” to place our kids in ones and twos into QCS students’ families indefinitely are efforts which have kept me busy all week yet have yielded no solution. But now, with my Team on the ground, we’re moving forward.”Abbey, I just need to know a day.” I can’t put this off any longer. My response: “Tonight’s our last night. We will leave [presumably to return to O] tomorrow morning.”Plans are made with Steve Hersey to use the QCS “cage” vehicle to transport all children and materials to O Monday. We will sleep in the school room on our compound, post guards at night, and try to get a water truck. Immediately after my response to Mr. Decoder I begin to feel panicked for the first time. I am not excited about leaving the safety net of QCS. Gretchen interviews by phone on Gary Hoffman’s KFI radio program. Afterward she shares with me that she has the exact feelings. She also says that when the kids get to the states they, the Board, want me to come too. This is not what I wanted to hear, but I will acquiesce. The Board is the authority God has elected over me; I will submit.

Meanwhile, the guys have gone to the O and are prepping for the kids’ return tomorrow. Tom, the visionary and adventurer, wants to go to the airport to secure supplies for our people (our kids, Haitian staff & their families) and to establish favorable relations with the US military- maybe they can use 91 Delmas #19 as a command post for Petionville- the security would be an asset to us. Francois drives us- of course I have to tag along! I have to see this guy in action (Tom claims he can get anything from anybody at anytime) and to learn this new skill set- very valuable in disaster zones. We meet a Sgt. of the 82nd Airborne division at the big airport and determine he wants a Haitian cell phone (that works- that’s the trick!). He gives us 45 minutes to find one and 1,000 minutes. We are told upon securing the goods to go to a military checkpoint and give a code name. This is so Jason Borne. We race around the PAP suburbs to find phone. Back in Delmas, find Simm card and minutes, need phone. Return to airport out of time and without phone. Tom buys phone from Jean Smith, a young Haitian who is one of a hundred lined up outside the military check point offering themselves for translation work in exchange for food. Smith has three children, no wife, and no house. He is desperate to feed his kids. Our Sgt. accompanies Tom & I onto airfield- Francoise has to stay behind. We exchange the coveted Haitian phone for boxes of water and MREs. Conceal the boxes in back of vehicle with a towel- very inconspicuous! Pick up Francoise and Smith outside of checkpoint, I drive us homewards. Discover that phone cards are in ash tray, return to airfield. Offer cards, return to QCS. Prep chicken soup for the kids’dinner in Tony’s apartment. It’s already dark. Gretchen keeps me company. I am grateful to learn more about Three Angels and to hear Gretchen’s heart on the matter. It’s nice to have a girl around! For my dinner I eat trail mix and samples of the Teams’ MREs. Probably not the best idea! Around 9 pm, seized by debilitating gut pain. Lay down on the couch in the girls’ apartment to sleep (Jaime and Jamie have moved into Cathy’s room). I am in agony.

Around 10? 11? pm Nichole stumbles out of her room with a text for Gretchen. Gretchen scrambles to contact Shannon in Los Angeles who had fielded the call through Facebooking Megan, who then texted Nichole. Shannon had received a call from our angelic case-worker in D.C. who had taken an interest in us and who had been working on our case all week. Her message: get kids to embassy ASAP Monday morning, meet Pius, and if you have a plane we can get you out of Haiti. With this message Dr. Jack and Chris are mobilized to retrieve legal documents and supplies from O. I task Chris with bringing back my US cell phone and computer drive since I am unable to move. (I can think of no other irreplaceable personal items at the O. I have my computer, camera, and my passport. Everything else is scrapped. I don’t even have a Bible! I will leave Haiti like the others before me- with a single bag.) Concerned for my condition, Nichole prays over me. Will I even be able to get up, much less travel? I ask God. Slowly I shower, pack, and write notes to friends- not exactly the goodbye I’d imagined but it is the opportunity I am given so I take it.

Mr. Decoder, amazingly, this is our last night at QCS. We will be leaving in the morning! My desperate but determined statement hours earlier became a prophetic declaration. Our God is the heavens; He does whatever He pleases! I lie down fitfully til 3 am.