Sometimes I wonder . . .

Sometimes I wonder why Haiti just can't get a break. Rampant poverty. Environmental degradation. A floundering government. A series of four tropical storms and hurricanes that devastated much of the country, killing hundreds. Then the school collapse last week that killed over 90 people, most of them school kids.

And now today, ANOTHER school collapse. Just a few hours ago, another school in Port au Prince collapsed. This just happened, so details are sketchy at this point, but it doesn't look like anyway died. But still . . .

Besides updating you on our family, our work, Gabriela's adoption, etc, Esther and I have used this blog to tell positive stories about Haiti. But that is not always an easy thing to do. It's easy to see this challenges as isolated incidents, but in reality, there are all very connected. Haiti is a strangely and beautifully chaotic place, and there are LOTS of POSITIVE things happening here, but I just don't understand why Haiti can't get a break sometimes.

Let's hope for one . . . like a good harvest season, like a big football win over a rival country, like something positive from our friend Obama, like a serious government, like subtle shifts in the way people treat and interact with one another . . .

I, for one, am doing my best to remain positive.

M

School Collapse

There was a palpable buzz as I left a meeting at the EU offices this morning, and unfortunately, the news was not good. Part of a school collapsed this morning in Petionville. Details are still sketchy at this point. Early reports were saying the entire school had collapsed filled with 700 hundred students. Thankfully, that was not the case. However, the top floor of one whole wing of the school appears to have come down and crushed the floors below it. Latest reports are saying that there are at least a dozen confirmed deaths and more than 50 kids still trapped. The government does not have the kind of search and rescue resources to deal with these kinds of emergencies and there are urgent calls all over the radio for equipment to help free these kids.

It's a sad and scary story that is just beginning.