earth's people

Our neighbor Bob Trausch came back fairly traumatized by his journey to Haiti. He showed us over 400 slides of tents, chalky cement, treeless and hopeless scenes and I dreamed of white roads lined with white rubble.. not about the people. It is almost impossible to put oneself in the shoes of a Haitian. Failed state. Failing state of mind about them yet they live, breath, smile, send their kids to tent schools looking very put together.

The countryside reminded me of Guatemala. Terraced up steep hills, planted and tended and almost treeless. It isn't all cities and desperation. Some people lead difficult but not impossible sustainable lives.

As a result of the natural disaster some creative solutions have shown up.. like this water reverse osmosis system.. far too small to be a solution and difficult to say how a complex system like this will hold up.

Despite the idyllic look of this classroom, the tents are broiling hot. Nothing is being done yet to rebuild Haiti despite the incredible outpouring of financial aid. The UN appears to be doing nothing.

I was thinking the people of Haiti should decide who they want to rebuild the country and the money, wherever the heck it is, should be accounted for and turned over to that entity.. a ballot should be prepared with all those entities able to do the job and the people should vote. Let the people decide who they want to hire...and get on with it. They will sicken and die in those tents, exposed to hurricanes, sewage, disease, violence and without nutrition to sustain them because there are no jobs to buy food with. The EMERGENCY continues and can't be ignored because of intervening emergencies.

A woman I hadn't met before sent me photos of the 7.2 earthquake in the Mexicali area of northern Mexico. It caused great destruction also--deep fissures and buckling of roadways, broken windows everywhere, destroyed shelves of products, structural damage, some collapsed buildings, like in Haiti. The differences were that most the buildings were built well to start, the society is well organized with emergency service providers local and on site and the people weren't starting from a place of abject poverty. Haiti is just staggering in how deep it's deprivation has gone like in the capital and cities hit by the quake.

So, it is a very hard thing to consider what small efforts can do and yet people like Bob, Guthrie, Emily, Katie, Mica, Trevor... to name a few friends who have gone there to try to help so far and continue to hold the needs of the resilient Haitian people in their hearts and will keep trying. The next event is a Music and Dance Extravaganza billed to "Get Haiti Rolling" at the CARD Center 545 Vallombrosa in Chico on May 16 4-10pm with a huge line up of local talent. If you want to give please send a check to Doroteia Pathways..contact info at www.doroteia.org A small group of determined people is doing what they can. Let's not let the survivors down.
There is a big shipment of bicycles and tools waiting to be sent...ideas about gardens and a bike repair shop and ... more tents (but sturdy ones.) Thank you for your well meaning attempts at giving in the past and please consider giving again for this... what else can we do? They are our sisters and brothers.