July 25, 2011

Hi Everyone,

I just returned from several frustrating weeks in Haiti trying to get our clinic units released from customs in Cap-Haitien. After repeated promises that our shipments would be correctly classified as humanitarian aid and exempt from any taxes or duties, the head of customs in Port-Cap told us we are required to pay $22,828.00 to have the units released. This is a king’s ransom and totally unreasonable.

Now I’ve returned to the United States to work through legal channels (our State Department, our Embassy in Port-au-Prince, and various other outlets including the media) to put pressure on the Haitian officials in question to release our
  6a00e552ed7b7588330153902ab6c0970b-500wiproperty. We also continue to work through a wonderful Haitian Congressman, Luckner Noel (pictured left between Aslan Board Member Gil Messina and myself), who is tirelessly working on our behalf. This is Depute Noel’s first term in congress, and he believes that President Michel Martelly and other newly elected officials who want true reform will help us get the units released.

The Scriptures speak of wickedness in high places, and the Apostle Paul explicitly states that we are not struggling against flesh and blood. The despotic rulers who line their pockets with gold while watching their own people die are only puppets of a much greater evil than themselves.  It is a power that cannot be seen with human eyes, but it is just as real and as that which is seen and much, much more dangerous. This is a battle that will be won or lost in prayer. And, it will not be our last battle of this kind, even when we eventually have our nonprofit status in Haiti.

Please ask everyone you know to pray diligently for President Martelly, for our friend Congressman Noel, and for all those who desire reform and change for Haiti. Their lives are in danger every moment of every day from the party leaders who have held positions of power for so long.  

Our most fervent prayer must be that individuals like President Martelly, Deputy Noel and other honest politicians can root out and destroy the corruption and thievery that is so entrenched in the few but very powerful elite who rule 6a00e552ed7b758833015433fe7732970c-500wi Haiti. And, it is also important that we keep in mind that we in America have our own corruption ~ think Bernie Madoff and $65 billion dollars! Our laws, however, eventually catch up with most, although not all, of our
crooks. And some of the people who lost their money in Madoff’s ponzi scheme might actually receive some back in the end. In Haiti, this will never happen. It is always the 9.5 million innocent Haitian people who suffer, while a tiny minority of officials in power make off with their millions. Pictured above right is one of countless “tent cities” still set up throughout Port-au-Prince. This one is near the international airport. As we drove past it in the blinding and oppressive heat, I wondered how anyone could survive day-after-day living in one of these makeshift structures. So little real progress has been made in rebuilding since the earthquake that claimed one-quarter million lives. I remember years ago when we took a group of Aslan kids to a camp in Virginia where it was over 100 degrees every day.  We could barely survive 3 days in tents exactly like these! The heat index inside these tents in Port-au-Prince is easily 110 degrees or more from June to September.

Those of you who have been with us to Haiti over the past 16 years and have encountered our friends there ~ Joseph, Carline, Panel, Roseland, Rose-Emmanuel, Boze, Mackenzie, Judesen, Evanson, Willy, Elzira, Shilove, Daniel, Yvedali, Gentilia, Daniest, Annise, Bob, Ganel, Junior and so many hundreds more ~ know with your hearts why we continue to lay down our lives for these lovely, delightful and wonderful people every day. 

The mountain cares not whether I live or die, but I refuse to stop climbing.

 Craig  
P.S. Below is a photo of Joseph (Aslan’s senior staff administrator in Haiti) with the child of one of our Aslan families in L’Acajou. The coloration of the photo is by personal design. Although Joseph is smiling (as he almost always is), his heart is also breaking for the little ones like the child he holds who are born into such a world of sorrow in his country.

6a00e552ed7b758833014e8a1e7952970d-500wi

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email