blue moon



blue moon over Duxbury Bay, low tide reflection
8.31.12

Looking at the moon over the water tonight is a multilayered experience.  

Although it appeared orange, it's a blue moon, the second full moon of the month.  So beautiful.

Today, appropriately, was also the day of Neil Armstrong's funeral, so I thought of him.  His family request: "Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."  (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/blue-moon-full-moon-month-friday-coincides-neil/story?id=17117776)

Once in a blue moon, we say... What has happened today, only today? Today itself has happened, and all that is in it - all during a blue moon.   Blue moons don't happen often, but what happens today is unique to today.  How many little gifts were we given today?  That walk with Penny, our convent dog, will only happen once.  I hope there will be other walks with her before I leave for Haiti, of course, just as I hope there will be other conversations, other blue skies, other laughter.  There will be other really good things to taste (morning coffee, take-out Chinese, Greek yogurt!) and other finds (a book on cassette tape in 2012 and for only $1 - something to take to Haiti for battery-powered evenings in the dark!).  There will be sisters and friends and family to think of.  Each of these things is something unique, something to be treasured or at least recognized at the end of the day. 

What happened to you? What treasures were you given? What did you experience once in this blue moon?

Much for which to give thanks and praise.

Glorify the Lord, you angels and all powers of the Lord, *
O heavens and all waters above the heavens.
Sun and moon and stars of the sky, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
      -- Canticle 12,  Benedicite, omnia opera Domini  
     -- Song of the Three Young Men, 35-65 ( BCP 88)

And then, with the gift of laughter, there is the background music for all these musings:

some specifics from Haiti

So glad to hear that the storm hasn't been as lethal as it might have been.  Still pretty bad, but how much worse it might have been...

Port-au-Prince after Isaac - Saturday 8.25.12

I found an article with some specifics on towns, reports of damage, etc., and I'm hopeful that this website will be providing more details soon.  Here's the link:
http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-6467-haiti-isaac-the-situation-in-haiti-this-saturday-at-8-am.html

at 8am:
Extensive damage are reported in the South. Electricity was cut to Jacmel. Many houses in Jacmel have lost their tin roofs. Jacmel and Cayes-Jacmel banana plantations destroyed.

Boulevard La Saline is impracticable, the road is invaded by waste. In Thomazeau a girl of 10 years died following the collapse of a wall of his house. Several tree branches and plates are scattered over the entire length of the route des rails. The Plain of Arcahaie is flooded. A church burst into flames in Pernier 50, EDH cut power, and firefighters have been there.

The PNH evacuated several people in Mariani, in Marassa 9, Station of Gonaives, Mgr Guilloux and to the Lycée A Isemery. The PNH informs that those who refused yesterday to leave the IDPs camps of Marassa 9 are now homeless after the wind had carried their tents. PNH is on site.

The civil protection and the authorities have evacuated about 5,000 people during the night.

and at 11am:
The DPC informs that about 5,000 people were evacuated during the night in five departments (West, Nippes, Grand Anse, South and South-East). More than 3000 in West of Haiti.

Communication is lost with the municipalities of Belle-Anse, Grand-Gosier, Anse-à-Pitre and Thiotte.

Strong winds and rain are recorded in Bombardopolis, Baie-de-Henne and Môle Saint Nicolas. Roofs were also blown away.

There is also a good article from the NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/world/americas/storm-leaves-several-dead-in-haiti.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

An excerpt:
News radio and social media users reported streets flooding in the capital, Port-au-Prince, some mudslides in rural areas, downed trees and power lines, and shredded tents that left people miserably soaked in the camps that house some 400,000 survivors of the January 2010 earthquake.

The brunt of the storm slashed through Haiti’s southern peninsula, its 60-mile-an-hour winds blowing the roofs off houses in Jacmel, a tourist resort on the south coast, residents said.

...Some in Sou Piste ran to a nearby health clinic built by Partners in Health, a nongovernmental organization, to take shelter, but Ms. Millien said she was afraid of what would happen if she went outside.

“The wind sounded like a plane landing, and I could hear people everywhere praying loudly and crying,” she said. “I looked outside in the night and saw mothers with their babies screaming and trying to run to the shelter.”

Lena Dorce, 23, who lives with her 22-year-old brother in Sou Piste, was among the frightened.

“At about midnight, the wind lifted up the whole house,” she said. “The neighbors were complaining because they said our house blew into theirs and would knock it down.”

Denise Esperance, 41, used a thin sleeping bag to cover herself and a neighbor’s child as they walked to the clinic. “I’ve been out of my house since 1 a.m.,” she said. “I couldn’t stand the wind and rain in my house so I ran to the clinic with my four children.”

Isaac hits tent city

brace for impact

I don't think anyone is too sure about current conditions as the storm hits.  I have an email from earlier in the day from the Port-au-Prince warden from the US Embassy. They would like updates on conditions for each area and have given a set of useful questions with which to report in.  Seems as good a way to get information as any...  Amazing what one can do with these new phones.

I don't have anyone sending me reports, but I did find a few useful updates, the first one from this evening.  So here, however limited, is the information I've been able to find.

First, the latest from the National Hurricane Center (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/)

As is often the case, the Miami Herald has the best interviews.    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Haitians evacuate some tents, brace for impact of Isaac - Haiti - MiamiHerald.com

An excerpt:
As Tropical Storm Isaac approached, some Haitians evacuated makeshift tents for shelters. Others decided to stay put.
By Jacqueline Charles

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- With strong winds leaving Haitians homeless even before Tropical Storm Issac’s arrival Friday, disaster officials stepped up their calls for Haitians living in vulnerable areas to evacuate to safer ground.

“Isaac is a threat to the entire country,” said Ronald Semelfort, director of Haiti’s National Weather Center. “All of the country could experience rainfall.”

But even with this warning, some continued to resist efforts to evacuate ahead of the storm. Many said they feared that leaving the camps would mean having thieves steal what meager possessions they had, or even worse give the government and aid groups an opportunity to completely shut the camp down without giving them alternative living arrangements.

“We have no trust in anyone,” said Carlo Destine, 34, a resident in camp Marassa, which is located just steps away from a dangerous river in the city of Croix-des-Bouquets.

On Friday as the winds began picking up and the rain began drizzling over a quake-battered Port-au-Prince, aid workers aborted an evacuation effort to relocate women and children to a nearby shelter.

“We’ve lived through this before, we’re not afraid,” said Lucien Pierre, 28, a mother of two, including a one-year-old, washing clothes outside her tent. “We’ll pray and watch.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/24/2966992/haitians-evacuate-some-tents-brace.html#storylink=cpy

The NY Times says that the heavy rains have begun, which we expected. Good article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/world/americas/tropical-storm-isaac-unleashes-heavy-rain-over-haiti.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Here's another: http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268777/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=WcFc0ZBj
An excerpt:

Government and international aid groups in Haiti's capital were prepared to evacuate several thousand people from settlement camps that sprang up in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. But the main threat appeared aimed at Les Cayes, a city of about 45,000 people on the southwestern coast that is prone to flooding during heavy rain.

Forecasters said Isaac could drop up to eight to 12 inches (20 to 30 centimeters) of rain on the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti is heavily deforested and just a few hours of steady rain can trigger deadly mudslides.

"That kind of rain is going to cause some life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the U.S. Hurricane Center in Miami.

Isaac was centered about 65 miles (100 kilometers) south-southwest of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, late Friday, and its maximum sustained winds had increased to 70 mph (110 kph). It was moving west at 14 mph (22 kph). Tropical force winds extended nearly 200 miles (321 kilometers) from the storm's center.

So I'm praying especially for Les Cayes tonight.

Deacon's Diary: Isaac is coming!

Link to a blog post from a friend in Haiti:

Deacon's Diary: Isaac is coming!: Preparing for Isaac Hurricane Isaac is on its way to Haiti.   Looking at the National Weather Service reports, it looks like he will ...

Another link to a blog post in Haiti about preparations underway:
http://www.benandkatieinhaiti.com/2012/08/preparing-for-isaac.html

emptying the tent camps

4.30.12 building under construction, house paint buildboard, homes on a hill above Port-au-Prince

I've been asked a lot since I've been back in the US if there has been any progress in Haiti.  "Slowly but surely" is my general response.  It won't be quick.  It will take years, maybe decades. Hey, we still haven't finished cleaning up after Katrina six years earlier.  But there has certainly been progress.  I've seen new construction, roads graded, and more ruins taken down in preparation for new buildings. I've met the architect for the new Cathedrale Sainte Trinite in Port-au-Prince.  I've seen neighborhoods of new little houses go up, something that deserves its own post later.  But one of the most visible signs of progress is the clearing of some of the camps for displaced people. 

This is a semi-recent article from Le Nouvelliste, a Port-au-Prince newspaper:  Le camp de Delmas 2 se vide de ses occupants
Delmas 2 is down by the port, not too far from downtown. 

Les quelques tentes restantes au centre d'hébergement à Delmas 2 - Le Nouvelliste
The few tents still in the camp center

Here is an older article about the Champ de Mars:
Le Nouvelliste - La vie reprend peu à peu au Champ de Mars -
An excerpt:

Le Champ de Mars tente de devenir à nouveau le lieu de promenade et de rendez-vous le plus ouvert et le plus frais de la ville comme avant le séisme. Les grands débats entre étudiants, professionnels reprennent à longueur de journée aux endroits qui sont déjà vidés de leurs occupants. Toutefois,il reste beaucoup à faire pour reloger tous les déplacés et redonner à cet espace, considéré comme le coeur symbolique de Port-au-Prince, son visage d'antan.

...En février dernier, des responsables de l'OIM et des proches de la présidence avaient indiqué que d'ici fin juin prochain, le Champ de Mars devrait être totalement vidé de ses occupants. Il est sûr que ce délai ne sera pas respecté, car il reste encore les places Dessalines, Pétion, des Artistes qui ne sont pas encore touchées. « Le processus avance. Le plus souvent, des déplacés ont du mal à trouver un logement. Cela retarde un peu le processus », a fait remarquer un responsable.

Ceux qui rêvent des concerts organisés presque chaque dimanche, des défilés carnavalesques, des rencontres amoureuses au Champ de Mars tous les soirs, sans s'inquiéter de l'insécurité, doivent encore patienter. Apparemment, les vieilles habitudes n'auront pas trop tardé à revenir sur ce site symbolique où vivaient 5 000 familles pour quelque 20 000 personnes depuis plus de deux ans.

6/9/12   a park almost cleared out, ready to use as a park again

 Still, the work is not done.  There is an in-depth article from earlier this month in the New York Times talking about the complications of the housing issue: 

Years After Haiti Quake, Safe Housing Is Dream for Multitudes
By DEBORAH SONTAG, August 16, 2012

An excerpt:
Two and a half years after the earthquake, despite billions of dollars in reconstruction aid, the most obvious, pressing need -- safe, stable housing for all displaced people -- remains unmet.

In what international officials term a protracted humanitarian crisis, hundreds of thousands remain in increasingly wretched tent camps. Tens of thousands inhabit dangerously damaged buildings. And countless others, evicted from camps and yards, have simply disappeared with their raggedy tarps and rusty sheet metal into the hills.

There are many visible signs of activity across the country now -- public plazas cleared of lean-tos, state-of-the-art repairs in selected areas and housing developments under construction. Tens of thousands of Haitian families have found enduring solutions to their housing crises -- by rebuilding themselves, by getting reconstruction assistance or by securing one of the relatively few new houses.

But to spend a week exploring the disaster zone is to discover striking disparities in living conditions, often glaringly juxtaposed: Givenson's dead-end camp adjacent to a quarter that is a beehive of construction; William Saint Eloi's good fortune next to his family's trials; a devastated community revitalized on one side of a ravine but not the other.

In the absence of an overarching housing policy, Haiti's shelter problem has been tackled unsystematically, in a way that has favored rural over urban victims and homeowners over renters because their needs were more easily met. Many families with the least resources have been neglected unless they happened to belong to a tent camp, neighborhood or vulnerable population targeted by a particular program.

''It's the project syndrome -- one neighborhood gets incredible resources, the next is in total limbo, or one camp gets rental subsidies, the next gets nothing,'' said Maggie Stephenson, a senior technical adviser to U.N.-Habitat in Haiti. ''We have to spread the remaining resources more equitably. Equity is essential, and so are durable solutions.''

You can read the full article here:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E4DB153BF935A2575BC0A9649D8B63&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

5/10/12 rebuilding a wall alongside a major thoroughfare in Port-au-Prince

 One thing I most worry about as I sit here safely in New Hampshire and think about the storm now over Haiti is those with inadequate shelter. I don't only mean those in tent camps.  I remember some less than sturdy shelters in rural areas; I also think of those homes perched unsteadily in and above ravines around Port-au-Prince, the ones the government tries rather unsuccessfully to remove.  Pray that they don't get swept away.

public safety announcement of sorts regarding a plan to empty those unstable neighborhoods "so floods stop killing people"

Haiti braces for Isaac

Looks like Isaac has taken a dip south! Such good news - the center won't be over Port-au-Prince. The rains will be enough to cause serious concern, but at least now it won't be a direct hit from a hurricane.  Now if Isaac can just slow down a bit and head a little further south... Prayers for all in Les Cayes, Jeremie, and the rest of the southern peninsula. 

happy to see the storm dip south a bit - more, please?

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/24/2966208/isaac-remains-disorganized-heading.html

PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haiti braces for Isaac’s deluge - Hurricanes - MiamiHerald.com