Things are not good here. We seem to live a charmed existence, but we're probably not strong enough to handle more than we're getting right now. Yesterday, Pere Salomon (one of the priests in our parish) asked to borrow our car to drive it to Gonaives to bring food, clothes, soap, toothpaste, and other necessities to the priests there, because everyone goes to the parish to ask for help, but people forget that the priests are as affected by the events as much as everyone else. They asked everyone to bring food items, money, clothes, whatever we could bring, to the Brothers' house on Saturday. At 3;00 people would take the money they had gathered and go to the market to buy food and other useful items. Then they would cook the food to bring it the next day. Sunday morning after Mass, they set out. There were three cars (pick-ups): ours, driven by Pere Salomon (Pere Yvens had taken the parish car to Jacmel with his mother whom he had just rescued from Gonaives where he was to preach a retreat); Met Gary, the principal of one of the best local high schools; and four other people in the larger truck belonging to CAPOSOV, the cooperative bank in Verrettes. I'm not sure how many people were in the first two cars. The road to Gonaives is terrible, and the last stretch of about 10-15 miles is called the 'desert road' because there is nothing there, it's like a wasteland, and you just see the barren mountains in the distance. All of this was under a couple of feet of water, so not only could you not drive qu ickly, you had to really know the road so as not to fall off of it. They reached Gonaives safely. On the outskirts of the city, there were a bunch of white UN vehicles. They thought maybe the UN soldiers would escort them, but they didn't. When they got into the center of town, the first two cars went to the cathedral rectory; the CAPOSOV car turned to go to the bishop's place. It was there that a group of armed thugs stopped them and took everything, everything that they had broiught for the flood victims - hundreds of dollars worth of stuff. It was sickening to see all that they had so lovingly prepared grabbed from the truck - undoubtedly to be sold at high prices, but it was also terrifying to have all this happen with guns pointed at their heads. And there was not a single Haitian policeman in sight, nor were the UN personnel there when they needed them.

At the diocesan headquarters, they saw the remains of the floodwaters' work. The water there had been about 9 feet high. The Sisters' house was completely under water. I think the Caritas offices were too. The first floor of the bishop's house - with the dining room and meeting rooms and offices, was destroyed. Everyone had to move up to the second floor, but there was no food or clean water to drink . But lots and lots of people had come looking for help, and people were all over the place like termites taking refuge.

The Cathedral rectory was the same. The first two cars arrived there safely, and they had to drive into the parking area quickly and close the big iron doors so the looters would not see them. Hundreds of people were camping out in the cathedral, and the priests and staff at the rectory were struggling to provide food for them. People were hungry, and tired, and those who had had almost nothing to eat or drink for the previous week were very fragile. It was heart-breaking. They all made it back to Verrettes safely, thanks be to God, but people were frightened a nd angry about what had happened and all that they had seen. Almost nothing has been done yet to relocate the people and clean up the poorest neighborhoods, or any neighborhoods, I guess. And yet people are sending all this money and specialists to oversee all that needs doing.