The sky is quiet now. The rumbling of US military helicopters and UN planes is gone, replaced by the hum of an occasional six-seated, single engine plane passing over the island. The flood of incoming relief workers and supply shipments has become instead a steady stream. And Haiti, from what we can see, is starting to settle into normalcy.
Or at least a new normalcy. Many people are still sleeping in tents. And almost everyone is grieving the loss of both friends and family members. Students are still waiting for schools to start, and many businesses are working out of temporary structures rather than cement buildings.
But Haiti is finding a rhythm again. This new rhythm includes things like regular trips to the hospital for bandage changes, making meals for the extra people in the house, and checking pastors or locations for food distribution.
On La Gonave, we are still receiving the occasional shipment of MREs through Missionary Aviation Fellowship. The Wesleyan Mission is also still heavily involved in food distribution, having finished distributing their first of four large containers scheduled to come over the next few months. Overall, however, the frantic, post-earthquake pace has slowed to something much more sustainable.
Despite this newfound steadiness, each moment seems a little heavier than it did before January 12th. People are now conscious that every second carries the potential to permanently alter their reality.
“Petet ou ka mouri…Lavi se yon gwo kado.” (Maybe you could die. Life is one big gift.) These conversations interrupt our meals and our walks across the compound. Though the initial panic and chaos have gone away with the rumbling planes, the residual effects of the earthquake are far from gone. Haiti still needs prayers as people settle into this rhythm of a new reality.
