magnitude 7.2 earthquake on 14 August. 

Left Haiti on a Tuesday morning in August last year for a family visit and medical checkup. The following Saturday morning, at my parents’ house in Montana, I received a call from my wife Hertha in Les Cayes, Haiti, “Tranbleman dtè, Nicho!  Earthquake, Nicho!” Her voice was trembling, but she was able to answer my questions about injuries, damage, and deaths. She, Stephane, and Elvin were OK, Mèsi Jezi! The house we live in sustained minor damage, but Hertha did not yet know the extent of the destruction in south Haiti.

The earthquake of August 14, 2021, on the Tiburon fault line just north of Les Cayes was more powerful than the 2010 earthquake which caused so much destruction and death in Port-au-Prince. The need to know distracted me. Cancer checkup? I don’t have time for cancer; I have to get back to Haiti. The best source of news was Life in Haiti with Marie on Youtube. I saw her video tour of Cayes and a segment on the collapse of Hertha’s sister’s house in Sou Wòch. I saw the misery of people trying to sleep outside under tarps as a near hurricane-force tropical storm blasted south Haiti. My scan for cancer was clear (thank you Yahweh Rapha!), and I returned to Haiti less than 10 days after the earthquake.

Although the Port-au-Prince earthquake garnered help, tons of supplies, and billions of dollars pledged from nearly the whole world, the trembler in south Haiti received much less of everything. I returned with money from my church, Good Shepherd Community Church in Boring, Oregon, and money from generous friends to a place of huge need. Haiti’s infrastructure, which is fragile on good days, was in shambles after the earthquake. Electricity, water, telephone, banking services, wire transfers for money–all sporadic at best,if at all. I had some cash, but… how to most effectively use it? Some needs were just obvious–food, water, and shelter–and I could have easily and quickly spent all the money available to me to help in that way. One hundred tarps would have cost six thousand dollars. Tarps were needed, but I had to think about the role of Haitian Mason Project. We are not a relief organization or set up to be one like Samaritan’s Purse and others. I felt less stress after acknowledging this fact and was confident that the money we did spend on immediate needs was money well spent.