Haiti 2012

MORE TO COME Larry Bailly
18414 Broadway Ave.
Snohomish, WA 98296
360-668-5031

Over the last 12 years I have had the privilege of traveling as a short term missionary to a number of countries. I have been to Haiti 11 times, Mexico 7 times.
I have also been to Cuba and most recently to Vietnam. .Each of these trips has had a project as part of the plans, and in most cases, the project was started, completed or additional work was done as time allowed.
On each of these trips, and especially since I have become more relaxed in different cultures. I have had the extraordinary pleasure to spend time with people from every layer of society. I have had conversations with laborers, professional people, and educators and of course other missionaries. I have been able to interact with people of different ethnicities, religions, races and from every point of view. Some of these people have been harsh and rude, others humble and proud, but by and large nearly all have been friendly helpful and willing to engage in conversation even when language was a barrier.
I have come to some very basic conclusions concerning my fellow believers and non believers as well. We are all humans, with very similar and basic needs and desires.
Fathers are fathers wherever I have gone, most are mainly concerned with protecting and providing for their family. Their dream is to provide a better future for their children, no matter how unrealistic that must seem. Mothers are the anchor for the family in every culture I have interacted with, and they are truly the motivation for the men who are in their lives. They have the deepest of concern for their children and only give up hope for them when there is nothing remaining that can help.
Children are the hope we should all see for mankind. We absolutely must see that they are educated, fed and given an opportunity to grow and see what God has planned for their life. That means we need to look way beyond ourselves and do what we can to be sure that the blessings we enjoy for free are available to the rest of the World. It takes so little to educate and feed children in other countries.
No matter what you might read about the generosity of the United States when it comes to Foreign Aid, only about one half of one percent of the budget is actually spent towards improving the lives of others in the World. Far more money than that is given and distributed through charities, mission organizations and other Governments. It isn’t all money that is given, a lot of sweat, tears and lives are given, often at great risk and personal sacrifice. I have a lot of respect for those who are willing to give their all for a cause, including our military, the largest mission organization on Earth.

VIETNAM
Of all of the missions I have been on in the last 13 years, this trip with Free Wheelchair Mission www.freewheelchairmission.org was by far the most rewarding. In just 4 days we assembled and distributed 240 wheelchairs. Not just any wheelchair, but distinctive ones with a resin chair for seating, and mountain bike wheels for use on uneven terrain.
We were able to get very personal in our delivery and the change in a recipients life was immediate and unforgettable. Lives were changed not just for the recipients, but also for families, friends and caregivers. A few of the distributions were:
1. A former Vietnamese soldier who had lost an arm and a leg to a mine. He had been imprisoned, his throat slit and he had been crawling for over 50 years. He smiled profusely and cried when lifted from the ground and placed in his chair.
2. A 17 year old boy with cerebral palsy who, in spite of his size, had been carried almost his whole life by his mother. The change was seen in her face immediately. A huge burden was lifted.
3. Linh, a street vendor that our team came across in the local market. He had taught himself English while crawling with flip flops on his hands to sell souvenirs. At 24 he was living on his own, but having a difficult time making more of his life from the level of the sidewalk. On our last day, he received his wheelchair, in front of his mother and many of the local people in the neighborhood he lives and works in.

In each of these cases, there was more to the story. The fact that we were from the United States and followers of Jesus Christ was announced and acknowledged. At each distribution, the local Red Cross, the local Government and the Central Communist Government were all present and included.
That we could all work together for good was evident and appreciated by all. Many of the local people would help us after just a few minutes of seeing what a little kindness could do for people they would never have seen before. The distributions certainly brought a feeling of community to the crowds.

NEXT
In January I will be taking a team to Haiti. We will be covering the hospital project at Passe Catabois with medical support and more construction. One project we hope to complete is the erection of a windmill. The hospital now has 24/7 power, and the first c-sections have been done to make the availability of a fully functional operating room official.
We will also have a small team at the House of Hope in LaPointe. My daughter, Rachel will be spending time there with the kids. She will have an additional skill this year as she is taking ASL in college and will have time to spend with the group of deaf folks who always seem to know we are there. Treated as outcasts by most society in Haiti, they enjoy time with “blans” who will just hang out with them. We also get a few younger Haitians who want to practice English with us. My ESL certification comes in handy at times.

THANK YOU
To many of you who have given in the past to help support my trips and the projects we have done. At times the small amount of work that gets accomplished seems insignificant. Whether you use the water in the bucket or the starfish analogy the fact is: if we don’t try to help, nothing gets done.
If you would like to help, please make donations to the Haiti fund at Snohomish Community Church, 13622 Dubuque Rd., Snohomish, WA 98290. Leave the memo section blank on checks, but attach a separate note that the donation is for Haiti.
As always, if you would like to join one of our teams in the future, space is still available. Contact me at baillybusbarn@juno.com , call me at the above number or find me on facebook.
Linh and his mother, Vietnam 2011

Haiti 2011 and more

Haiti 2011 and More
Sorry for the delay in getting this report out, and news of upcoming trips and projects. Our trip to Haiti in January was very successful on a number of different levels, and with some new travelers, we changed a few lives, American and Haitian. I always enjoy having new people join us, because we almost always get new perspectives on things that should have been obvious.
We had a full team for two weeks this year, plus one. Since I handle the trip planning, it was my fault that we wound up with a team of 20, when the plane from the capital to the North Coast of Haiti only holds 19! I stayed in Port au Prince by myself as the team went north, and then pretty much had to beg my way onto the last flight of the day. I have quite a few friends at the airport and in Haiti in general, so I may have displaced someone else, but I got to Port de Paix the same day. Our luggage didn’t do so well however. It took over a week for the ton of luggage and supplies to fly north and then a few more days for it all to be delivered to the missions.
The team was split for the first week with a small team going to LaPointe to work at the House of Hope (children’s TB clinic and orphanage) and a larger group going to Passe Catabois to work at the Hospital project and missionary support for the Dutch couple (she the Doc and he the missionary), who are having difficulties in their personal lives. Our team of nurses was a breath of fresh air for the overworked staff at the hospital as usual. A nurse from Holland arrived on the day before our team, so our experienced crew was able to help get her up to speed in short order without overwhelming her.
Our primary task at the hospital was to get the solar system fully functional and get some vehicles repaired. Since I went to LaPointe for the first week, the vehicle repairs were waiting for me, but the solar project was pretty much completed as soon as the supplies finally made it from the capital. That wasn’t however until the second week!
There were plenty of other projects as usual, as well as a swelling of the patient load due to word getting around that there were more “blans” in town.
At Lapointe I got time to go and do some of the things that I had never had time to do in the past. I got to go out into the village and meet some of the folks that we see at church, in their own neighborhoods. We also got to see the real work of the child evangelism teachers that the missionaries teach to spread the Gospel. I did finally fix an Ambulance that the hospital has had for years, it runs, but still needs some of the medical equipment repaired, I hope to get to that next time. I did have a couple of new guys with me who were a great help with the vehicle projects at both locations.
You can go to my facebook page to see pictures. I will be posting this to my blogsite as well, so you can go there to see previous reports on Haiti and more www.beetleinhaiti,blogspot.com.

NEXT
In about a month (June 23) I will be heading to a new location for missions. I am going to go back to Vietnam after 41 years, on a different sort of mission.
During the holidays last year, we had a fund drive to donate to two charities. One was Antioch Adoptions, a local charity that funds adoptions in Washington State. The reason given for NOT adopting is that the cost just makes it impossible to adopt American orphans. There are thousands of children in the State waiting for adoption.
The other, international mission that we highlighted was Free Wheelchair Missions. This organization has been delivering rugged wheelchairs to third world countries for the last 10 years. Not ordinary wheelchairs, but ones with a resin deck chair, supported by a full steel frame, with mountain bike tires for use in difficult areas. The chairs are light, strong and can be purchased and delivered for less than $60.00 each!
Snohomish Community Church stepped up and donated enough funds to purchase and deliver 370 chairs. We had initially decided that the chairs we purchased would go to Haiti, but 4 full containers had already been sent there after the earthquake, sponsored by other groups. We were given a number of other possible destinations, and since I was in the planning stages for taking a missions team to Vietnam, it just fit that we would sponsor a container there.
The other organization that I was going to go with to Vietnam had some conflicts that were going to delay me sending (leading) a team there, so when spots on the distribution team for our chairs were opened to us, I jumped at the chance. I will be joining 14 others (one from our church) on the trip to distribute wheelchairs, spending time in Ho Chi Minh City (previously Saigon) and traveling out to rural distribution points. I will be in Vietnam from June 25 to July 1, then will debrief in Hong Kong on the way back with a little time to sightsee there.

HELP NEEDED
This is going to be an expensive trip. The costs for the whole trip will approach $4000. A friend at church stepped up and bought my plane tickets ($2600.) but the other costs, transportation, lodging and food will be on me. I don’t usually ask for donations for Haiti, but since I already spent my missions fund for Haiti this year, I am asking for some help on this trip.
Send any amount that you can, anything will help. Please send donations in the form of checks made out to Snohomish Community Church, with NOTHING written in the memo area, but add a separate note indicating that the donation is for Larry Bailly, Vietnam Wheelchairs. The checks can be sent to me at the address above, or to the church directly at 13622 Dubuque Rd. Snohomish, WA 98290.

To view videos of this very worthwhile mission, go to http://vimeo.com/14963716
Or just Google Fee Wheelchair Mission http://www.freewheelchairmission.org

If a monetary donation is not possible at this time, prayers are needed as well, for our team and me. This is going to be a difficult mission trip on many levels. Pray that our encouragement and outreach would be well received and a hand up, not a hand out.

Larry

HAITI: Earthquake plus 1
It is hard to believe that it has been just over a year since the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti on January 12, 2010. I traveled there in April of last year and just returned on January 27th from another trip. This year I took a group of 20 made up of about equal parts of construction and medical help to our missions on the North coast of Haiti at Port de Paix.
What is even harder to believe is how little has changed since April. The total lack of progress on what would seem to be the most basic of needs throughout the country is the most discouraging. I won’t lay blame as there is enough to go around for just about every organizational and governmental body both inside and outside of Haiti. What hasn’t changed that gives me hope for the future is the spirit and resiliency of the Haitian people, but even that is beginning to wear thin.
We don’t spend much time in Port au Prince, where most of the damage remains and much of the aid money and effort has been sent, without much evidence that anything has really been accomplished. Our missions are over a hundred miles away but are still being affected by the aftermath of the quake. The numbers of internally displaced residents (people who had moved to the Capital for jobs, but returned home after losing everything) has swelled the populations in both the urban and rural areas of the country.
This population increase makes the unemployment figures of 70% or more an astonishing figure. There simply are NO jobs of any kind, while promised and donated funds are being held hostage because of flawed elections in Haiti. Again, there is plenty of blame for shoddy elections when meddling by outside interests are involved, each trying to impose their own will to elect a chosen Government for self interests.
Our time was spent in support of our two missions. LaPointe is 5 miles, a one hour drive, to the east of Port de Paix. Passe Catabois is
about 20 miles west and a difficult 2 to 3 hour trip through a number of river crossings in the best of conditions.
I have been helping at the House of Hope www.houseofhopehaiti.blogspot.com , a children’s medical facility at LaPointe, since 2003. We do maintenance on their mission vehicles and facilities maintenance for the mission compound, a regional Hospital, Centre Medical Beraca, as well as a CEF school and other facilities supported by Crossworld Missions, www.crossworld.org. This year there was a new, larger generator to provide power, but the water system had developed even more serious problems than in the past, and with cholera on everyone’s minds, we needed to take additional precautions, even with the filtered water available. From a high of 175 cholera patients a week (at the Beraca Hospital alone) to less than a dozen now, at least the epidemic proportions are under some control with the help of ongoing teams from around the world showing up to help.
After a week at LaPointe, I took the 6 others who had gone with me out to the other facility at a place called Passe Catabois. Our teams have worked at this location for the last 4 years. In 2007 the facilities were a partially completed guesthouse for workers and a Hospital and clinic under construction. Medical care was dispensed in a small two room clinic building with basic medical care in one room and minor surgery performed in the other. The hospital building was little more than a covered shell with gravel floors and no windows or doors. The missionary and his doctor wife had carved out this place with sweat and prayers and little support from anyone in the U.S. Most of their support had come from a foundation in Holland that has since been radically reduced in size. This is where we came in along with a few other church groups from the U.S. and Europe.
Today this facility is a fully functional medical facility that will continue to provide support and medical care for this primitive area of Haiti. A second Doctor from Germany has been spending time at the Hospital and there is now a functional operating room that rivals almost any other in this poor country. The operating room is even air conditioned!
The difference has been the work of teams from around Snohomish and other parts of Western Washington and the U.S. Nearly all of the ground floor is tiled, plumbed and handling patients, including a few with cholera, most of them from out of the immediate area, as water quality is not a common problem here. The water system here is one of the best in Haiti, built by a former Boeing engineer by piping water from mountain springs many miles away.
The most impressive part of the transformation of this facility has been the installation (now complete with our recent work) of a solar system that can easily handle the load of medical equipment and provide around the clock lighting that was previously unavailable except with the expense of burning fuel in generators. Many emergency procedures were done in the dark with battery powered headlamps the only source of light.
The one word that best describes Haiti today is difficult. Every piece of life in Haiti is hard, rough and tough. But don’t count the people of Haiti as a beaten or disheartened population. Every Haitian that I have come to know is a survivor because of their national pride and knowledge that they still have so much more than the ancestors who were brought to this place and abandoned by the World when they would not bow to the colonial powers who enslaved them.
Time works at a pace in Haiti that maddens many, working its way from one disaster to the next. It will take more time, and a lot more of the energy that our team gave to overcome the missteps of past generations, rulers and disasters. If a small team from 4000 miles away can make a difference like this, why is it taking so long for more to be done?
I wish to commend the members of our team for giving of their time and money to make it possible for a few more drops to be put into the bucket that will one day fill to make the lives of the Haitian people less difficult.

Larry Bailly is short term missions coordinator for Snohomish Community Church and a member of RESULTS www.results.org a grassroots organization working to bring education, medical help and the end of poverty to the World. He has been to Haiti 11 times since 2002.
Comments are welcome at baillybusbarn@juno.com , future trips are planned, but signup lists fill fast.
The photos are above, in reverse order.

The Hospital at Passe Catabois


The solar panels provide enough energy to provide around the clock power.


Our transport to Passe Catabois, a farm tractor and 4 wheel trailer with only 3 wheels.


Everything that winds up in Haiti is recycled. Containers become patient wards.


Kids are kids wherever you are! I told them to go crazy!

What next for Haiti?

Special to the tribune

WHAT NEXT FOR HAITI?

After a delay of a couple of months I was finally able to take a team of local volunteers to the North Coast of Haiti. My scheduled trip in January was delayed by the devastating Earthquake and the relief effort that made travel to the country difficult. Travel inside the country was almost impossible, considering the amount of luggage and supplies we take. Since we work about 150 miles from Port au Prince (PAP), the logistics of getting our team in and housing them was a reason to wait.
The most depressing picture on our approach to PAP was the proliferation of tent cities (obvious from the blue and white patches) from the tide flats at the oceans edge to the base of the hills that separate Haiti from the rest of the Island of Hispanola (The Dominican Republic). We realized that the next big disasters are just weeks away when the rains, and then the hurricanes start to wash away what little is left. The only property damage we personally saw was the serious damage done to the International Airport building, named after the leader of the Haitian Revolution, Tousant Loverture. Though we were able to deplane for the first time using the jetways that have been in place but inoperable in the past, the airport building itself was damaged beyond use.
Many of you have seen the news reports, special commentaries and exposes from every possible source in the World about what the conditions were, are and possibly will be in Port au Prince and the Southern part of the country where the earthquake made its most graphic impact. This report isn’t about that. Though we flew into PAP, we were only on the ground there for a few uncomfortable hours waiting for our small (19 passenger) plane to take us to the north coast at Port de Paix. What we found there was not much changed from what we have seen in the past, except that there seemed to be even more people in the streets. In an area where jobs are non existent (unemployment is 80% or more) more people just puts an even heavier burden on the local economy. I didn’t see any evidence of foreign aid or even an increase in Governmental presence.
I was able to talk with folks who had been to and in Haiti numerous times since the quake, to every corner and for every purpose. I talked mostly with fellow missions people, but I also talked daily with Haitians. Trying to glean some idea of what was going to be required to put Haiti back amongst the living, and maybe better off than before this unfortunate event. There was not a lot of hope, even in the voices of Haitians who normally have a resilience of spirit that defies their plight in a modern World that still overlooks them as fellow human beings.
There were a lot of comments about the heroic deeds of some relief organizations, the U.S. and Foreign military groups in particular and the many Christian agencies that saw the need beyond their usual narrow focus of how this was going to look in the media. The fact that billions of dollars were pouring into the country for rebuilding was not yet evident. There were many expressions of doubt that the money would ever make it to the people we usually look out for, the poor.
So, what will it take to rebuild a Haiti that resembles the country that once was known as the “Jewel of the Antilles”?
Much of what will be needed will need to come from outside of Haiti, but most of it could come from within. The following are a few of my personal observations.
With the influx of dollars for rebuilding, what is not needed is for relief organizations and foreign corporations to come in and build. What is needed is to provide the materials, training, and funding that will allow the Haitians to rebuild their shattered country and economy themselves. Let the foreign corporations and relief agencies provide the leadership and monetary control, but let the Haitians have the jobs.
Agricultural projects need to be encouraged that will change the landscape and rebuild the soil that was once the most fertile in the Caribbean. What worked in the past were small plots of land given to Haitians to maintain and provide food for their families and a source of income. Sweat equity can build a nation, and in Haiti sweat comes easy.
A change in the way education is provided with a public school system where EVERY child can get a basic education and seek jobs that have traditionally been denied to the poor. The Education for All bill currently being worked on in the U.S. Congress is a step in that direction. In Haiti, education has traditionally been provided by organizations (Christian and others) in French only, rather than in the more commonly spoken language of the vast majority of the population, Haitian Creole. This has prevented large numbers of people from the rural areas of the country from becoming educated and employable. The rural poor can’t afford the tuition for school creating generations doomed to a life of illiteracy.
The government needs to be supported for its efforts, but not without specific criterion for reducing corruption and graft. There needs to be a way to allow free and open elections, with support after the fact of whoever wins. The U.S. has not been particularly fair when dealing with the will of the people of Haiti, but that is another subject that will need to be addressed in many nations where we have imposed our will, without accepting the basic rights of self determination.
As noted above, foreign corporations, construction firms and politicians are good at getting publicity, but not so good at effecting real change.
Nothing in Haiti happens at the same pace that most Americans want. It will take
years to recover from the current crisis, while others cause forward steps to fall back. The people of Haiti will survive this, but we need to be there to help. I intend to keep going back, to see the progress and do what little I can to keep the Haitian people in the minds of those who have so much to be thankful for and just don’t realize how little it takes to be satisfied with just what you have.
What I still didn’t see on a grand scale was people with their hands out. There were some in PAP who were begging, where homelessness is obvious. I was asked numerous times if I had a tent in my luggage. But for the most part, out in the country, they will tell you of their struggles, but will gladly work for little more than a few dollars a day, because that is what they need. They just need a chance.

I welcome your comments, and interest in serving beyond our own neighborhood.

Larry Bailly is mission’s coordinator for Snohomish Community Church. He is also a member of the Snohomish County RESULTS group. He has been taking teams to the Northwest of Haiti for the last 7 years. He can be reached at baillybusbarn@juno.com

Before the Earthquake

Special to the Tribune

HAITI before the Earthquake

I first started going to Haiti on a regular basis in 2002. I was part of a dental team led by Dr. Mike Karr from Granite Falls. I got to see the Capital, Port au Prince, and some of the surrounding areas, from the slums and shanty towns to the walled compounds in the hills belonging to the elite who make up only about 5% of the population.
From the very first moments I was struck by some glaring similarities between this country and another former French colony, Vietnam. The architecture, the colors and even the language have similarities. There is a sense that a huge part of the population lives on the bottom rung of the social ladder, like much of Southeast Asia.
Since that first trip I have been back 9 times. On all of these subsequent trips I have taken my teams through the International airport, to a smaller regional terminal to fly up to the Northwest of Haiti at Port de Paix. PdP is a small sea port, with a harbor, but no docking facility. That is another story. The airstrip is a former road turned into airstrip, still dirt and often used for local travel. Landing and taking off is always an adventure in itself.
This country is so close to the United States and yet so far behind in the basic things we take for granted. A city of two to three million people, PaP has no public water supply, no sewer, no reliable phone service and for a select few only a few hours of electricity per day. No public school system, very little professional medical care and the only means of transportation is by taxi service, known as Tap-Taps.
Travel is hampered by a total lack of traffic controls, large intersections in this city are un-controlled chaos. The entire country is the size of Maryland in land area, the population is clustered mostly in a few scattered cities, with large areas of undeveloped land. The land between cities for the most part has been stripped of all vegetation and top soil. Not the fault of the current residents of Haiti, but the result of hundreds of years of exploitation by their own and foreign governments.
In 2002 there was difficulty in making communication across the city, and impossible to many other parts of the country. By last year (2009), land lines had pretty much been replaced entirely by cell phones. The cell system still is not ideal, but at least contact can be made between the cities most of the time. When I was there last January there seemed to be at least a start of some improvement in the lives of some Haitians. There was not the element of danger that we have seen in the past. We were still careful to guard our possessions.
A couple of years ago we were able to convince a local Baptist school to give us a tour.
I was Baptized in this church a few years ago (first white man in 40 years) so I have some standing in the community to ask. What we found was an extremely crowded, understaffed and unequipped teaching facility where students pay attention to every word and are generally happy to have the opportunity to learn. We have witnessed and heard from parents who go without food so they can afford the $200.00 it takes to send their kids to school for a year. We saw high school classrooms with 40+ students, a piece of chalk and a blackboard, no paper or pencils, no books and no other form of reference materials. A library full of donated books in English, but none in French or Haitian Creole. No cafeteria, just some Haitian ladies selling treats in the playground area between classes.
But in all of this, there is the sense that of anyplace on earth that could experience the very worst of tragedies, these people would survive. The children laugh and play like children anywhere. The parents will do anything to provide whatever they can to see that their children learn and grow. They do this with no jobs, no education and very little hope for any help from anyone. They are clean at the start of every day even though most of their homes have dirt floors and no cooking, washing or showering facilities. They take care of what they have, but by custom will loan anything they possess if someone else needs it more. Their faith is all about Hope and for most believers that is all they will ever have.
My part in all of this is simple. Keep the Haitian people in my daily prayers and talk to everyone I come into contact with about what they can do to help. I have been recruiting people for these trips for several years and now have a core group of construction and medical personnel signing up for two weeks every year.
Our current projects (as soon as we can get our team in) are the children’s care facility at LaPointe, The House of Hope. See: www.houseofhopehaiti.blogspot.com and a Hospital that is under construction in the far west section of Haiti at Passe Catabois. We are in the process of installing a very large solar system to finally be able to provide power for medical equipment upgrades. Our team of 33 was supposed to be there for three weeks from the 16th of January, but of course the Earthquake changed those plans and prevented us from going.

Larry Bailly is mission’s coordinator for Snohomish Community Church. He is also a member of the Snohomish County RESULTS group. He has been taking teams to the Northwest of Haiti for the last 7 years. He can be reached at baillybusbarn@juno.com

Acknowledgement

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AKNOWLEDGEMENT
What a difference it makes when some huge historical event is acknowledged by the whole World.
Within 20 years of the birth of the United States of America. Declaring Independence from colonial rule; another revolution was under way in the Western Hemisphere that would change significantly the course of History for the New United States and all of the other colonial powers on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
For almost 200 years the countries of Europe had colonized, pillaged and decimated the population of the West Indies in pursuit of its riches of sugar, lumber and other commodities. After virtually all of the native inhabitants had died of diseases brought from Europe, the slave trade was born to provide the machinery to continue the depletion of resources. That the slave trade was brutal, inhumane and morally wrong is without question. The sale, theft or kidnapping of humans for use in the worst forms of bondage cannot be condoned, but still continues today.
The slaves of Haiti rose up against their masters and ultimately defeated a far superior French Army to declare itself an Independent Republic in 1804. This was the first, and to this date the ONLY, successful slave revolt. Haiti became the first Black Free Republic in the World.
It was a wake up call that was not welcomed even by the United States which saw the seeds of a possible slave revolt that could destroy the prosperity of this new Republic. The response was one of shear disbelief that the new regime would hold. No effort was made by any colonial power to acknowledge or support the new leaders of Haiti.
A concerted effort by Napoleon, who sent his brother in law with an Army to take back his possessions, could not defeat the newly freed people of Haiti. It was this defeat that caused a monumental shift in the course of History for the Western Hemisphere. France abandoned its exploration of the middle of the North American continent and simply sold its possessions in the form of the Louisiana Purchase. The Spanish followed soon after effectively opening the way for the expansion of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.
What might have happened to the United States had the French retaken Haiti has been the subject of many commentaries lately. History might finally be presented completely by including the bravery and pride of the Haitian people brought to this hemisphere under the most objectionable of methods.
It is time that we acknowledge the debt that we as Americans owe to the people of Haiti, who have fought daily for survival against all odds, for their place in the humanity of the Western Hemisphere. It is time that we all work to bring the living conditions of everyone on “our side” of the World to a better standard.
It is too bad that it has taken a catastrophic event like the Earthquake in Haiti to open the eyes of everyone’s heart to the realities of poverty and neglect that is Haiti. That such conditions can exist just a few hundred miles from our shores should be a wake up call. In so many places just a short distance from our borders, people live minute by minute just to survive, and yet when they try to better their lot in life they are cast aside as something less than another human being.
The next time you decry the plight of any people group as being their own fault, think to yourself; what did I do to deserve the blessing of being born in the United States? Then do what you can to reach out and not just give a hand out to those less fortunate, give them a hand up.

Larry Bailly is a life long resident of Snohomish County. He is missions’ coordinator for Snohomish Community Church, www.snocommchurch.org and a member of Snohomish County RESULTS, www.RESULTS.org He has been taking teams of construction and medical personnel to Haiti for the last 7 years.

Haiti report 2010

Larry Bailly
18414 Broadway Ave.
Snohomish, WA 98296-4800
360-668-5031

HAITI REPORT 2010

After a delay of 3 months I was able to take a small team to our missions on the North Coast of Haiti. In January, I was to have a team of 33 on the ground starting with the first team arriving on the 15th. With the Earthquake on the 12th, that team was unable to retain their tickets. My team, the second group that was to arrive a week later, lost our tickets as well. It wouldn’t have mattered if we could have made it to Port au Prince, as in-country air travel was stopped due to a lack of fuel.
After putting together a shipment of nearly 2500 lbs. of relief supplies for our friends in Haiti, we started exploring options to get there to do our planned projects. I was able to reserve two seats on a DC-3 out of Ft. Myers, FL in late February, but due to conditions on the ground in Haiti, the missionaries requested that we NOT come yet. Food and fuel were in short supply, all the available housing was being used for IDP (internally displaced persons) from PAP and the orphanage was expecting an influx of orphaned kids. There would be no time or resources to host visitors without medical skills. Our missions are about 150 miles from the Earthquake zone and saw little damage. What they did experience was an almost immediate loss of logistical support from the central government. Food became scarce within days and diesel fuel reached $15.00 a gallon in a few days (eventually topping out at $25!).
While we waited for a green light from the missions, all of our medical personnel from the two teams managed to get slots with relief organizations to do work in country. Their stories will be much more compelling than this one, some came back emotionally drained, but with a sense of great achievement. They missed going to the Hospital at Passé Catabois, but all have a greater sense of the overwhelming needs in Haiti.
Rather than fill in the details of our trip this year, I am instead going to share with you three commentaries that I wrote for a local newspaper here in Snohomish. Some of you know that I have been writing for a number of years as an automotive writer, but I have also been writing opinion and commentary pieces for several newspapers. Most of my stuff can be found somewhere on the internet, just make sure you get the last name spelled right!
Our Haiti fund was hit pretty hard this year. Though the reason for this letter is NOT to seek contributions, they are always welcome, and put to good use. We were able to make substantial gifts to our friends in Haiti at a very difficult time. To make Tax Deductible donations, send checks made out to Snohomish Community Church with a note indicating they are for HAITI MISSIONS. Send to SCC, 13622 Dubuque Rd. Snohomish, WA 98290. If you would rather donate to me personally, just make the check out to SCC, with a note that it is for me and send it to the Church, or to the address above.