The most difficult day to date

Today is Saturday and we had the opportunity to visit two orphanages in Port Au Prince that are connected with Conaspeh. Both of the facilities look nice because they were buildings that were rented because the original buildings were destroyed in the earthquake.

My heart went out to the kids and we toured the facility at the first visit. It was down a dirt road back in a neighborhood then took a left turn on a path covered by garbage the on to the orphanage. It was being run by a pastor and his family and they had about 25 kids in the house. They were all sleeping outside because of fear for another quake or aftershock and there was not a flat piece of ground on the property. The children were all ages from babies up to about 10 years of age. The pastor's family 8 children of his own were helping care for the younger children. The he took us into the pantry and showed us their food supply which consisted of half a 25 pound bag of rice imported from the U. S. When our leader gave him some funds he said he was leaving right after we left to go buy food.

Malnutrition is a big problem. There is a great need for vegetables, clean water and money to pay rent or food for the children. This problem is not unusual. The need is so great I can not image what it would be like to live in such poverty. I can see why the Baptist group want to take kids out of the country I just want to give these kids a chance.

The second orphanage we went to had 160 children they had food and a rented building we went down the road to see the building that had been damaged. It will take a great deal of money to rebuild this building about somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 thousand US Dollars. But again the children are sleeping outside because of fear.

All the way back we talked about possible solutions and wondered where is the money that was collected for Haiti. What we have heard is only about 38% has been sent for all agencies in the US that has been collect and they are waiting to see where the need is. I can tell you the need is everywhere you turn. It was here before the earthquake and it has only been intensified since the quake. I encourage you to you to contact the places you have made donations and hold them accountable and see where their money has gone.

This was a tough day to see what I have seen