e-News: January, 2010
Earthquake Update

Reports from Jeannette: This update is from Norly Germain – a graduate of St. Marc’s in Jeannette who has close ties to the community and from a phone call from Pere Gracia - the interim priest:

Jonas Pierre called me from Jeanette. He was in Port au Prince on the day of the earthquake. He is alive and he finally got to Jeanette yesterday. He said Eloi and family and all the teachers (those he sees) are fine. Leogane is 90% destroyed / most houses collapsed including Eloi's [Eloi is St. Marc’s school administrator who lives in Leogane – down the mountain from Jeannette].

Unfortunately there is some bad news -- Marie-Lyne Govain, Jean Marc's sister, might have died - we can't locate her. Renaud Govain, Jean Marc's brother, has a lot of injuries. Margarette Parraisaint is okay. We are sad to report the deaths of Marie Line Govain and Nadege.

The Secondary and Primary buildings have sustained damage; the balcony of presbytere has had major damage. It's too early to tell if the cisterns have leaks; Eloi is making a total assessment. The hospital in Miragoane is damaged but there's a mobile hospital that has been set up. Roads are open to Jeannette.

op-ed from the NY Times about Helping Haiti: by NICHOLAS KRISTOF

Some Frank Talk about Haiti On my blog, a woman named Mona pointed to Haitian corruption and declared: “I won’t send money because I know what will happen to it.” Another reader attributed Haiti’s poverty to “the low I.Q. of the 9 million people there,” and added: “It is all very sad and cannot be fixed.” “Giving money to Haiti and other third-world countries is like throwing money in the toilet,” another commenter said.

A fourth asserted: “Haiti is a money pit. Dumping billions of dollars into it has proven futile. ... America is deeply in debt, and we can’t afford it.”

Not everyone is so frank, but the subtext of much of the discussion of Haiti is despair about both Haiti and foreign aid. Read the entire article -->

ERD's report on Earthquake Relief

Last week, Bishop Miller put out the call to donate to ERD and YOU responded. The Dioceses of Milwaukee has already collected thousands to be used in earthquake relief -- a formal report is forthcoming. In the mean time, you can read all about ERD's efforts in Haiti.

Coffee Update by Molly Nicaise Christophe and I returned from our trip to Haiti a few days prior to the quake. Such a beautiful, adventurous place that's turned to dust and tears with a few seconds of a shaking crust.

Resolution in place, coffee will continue to be a wonderful in-road to teaching people about Haiti and for assisting Haitian economic development.

Although the Rooster purchased 10,000 pounds of green coffee beans in August [and thought we'd NEVER run out before getting more beans], because of the quake and greater importance on water, food, shelter and medicine, it's likely we'll run out of coffee.

No matter, there are 3000 pounds left and the Rooster is helping Haitian-based charities across the U.S. use Haitian coffee to raise money for work in Haiti.

Because our need for funding is now greater [there's a mass exodus from Port au Prince to the countryside -- which is ultimately good, but will be taxing on Jeannette], the Haiti Project agreed that the price for coffee be raised to $10 for individual bags and $8 for parish coffee hour.

I know Episcopalians across Wisconsin are giving generously, but the real work will begin after the reporters go home.

January, 2010

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Elizabeth van der Weide
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johnm1825@yahoo.com


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