Message from Mike and Annie @ the orphanage

This didn't let me paste earlier..................... Jen

Earthquake, Haiti, and all the rest.‏
From:
Michael and Annie Wiseman-Floyd (wisemanfloyds@yahoo.com)
Sent:
January 13, 2010 4:15:14 PM
To:
Jennifer Wride (jen_wride@hotmail.com)
Dear Family and Friends, Thank you for writing, praying, calling, and all the rest... we definitely are in the news. Here in Haiti people know a bit of what is going on, but Americans probably have more information than Haitians about what is going on... The capital seems to be a complete disaster zone, on a 9/11 scale of things... But we are here on the other end of Haiti. We are doing better than the UN, the President of Haiti, and many in the wrecked hospital in P. au Prince. Here, we felt a huge shiver go through the town, and heard shouts all around us... but nothing I know of was knocked down (skyscrapers in this town are three stories high) and we are all unscathed. But P. au Prince was the epicenter of the quake, and there is no doubt that the amount of substandard construction was multiplied by the factor of the tremendous power at the center of the quake. It is difficult to believe that two of the most international buildings in the capital, the UN and the presidential palace were not built to a sufficient standard... yet that may well have been the case. Most of the nations on earth have lost people in the UN building disaster. And the UN does such a great job here... This has been two weeks of rain and now an earthquake. But I really feel for those in this country who are unprepared for every event, including just rain and cold. Teachers at our school have children sleeping on the ground. Single mothers whose husbands have walked out. AIDS moms raising AIDS children. The nation is all camping. dirt floors, flooded homes, damp beds, streams running through yards, and all the mud, mud, mud. nothing is ever clean... Pray that people will seek and find wisdom to live for every day and every possibility. The poverty we see does not have roots in lack of money, but in lack of wisdom; the sense that life is a tremendous gift, not a compilation of lucky charms and evil curses to be navigated by spells, revenge, sacrifices, and so on. But Haiti faces disasters compiled upon disasters, and this quake will set back a nation of setbacks. The greatest thing that could be gained is that the very wealthiest people in the nation could have a sense for the way those on the bottom feel every day: the Haitian proverb says: "The rocks in the stream are going to feel how the rocks in the sun have felt". But now all the world is feeling, through the UN, tourists missing or dead, and international news of the plight of people buried in homes, hospitals, hotels, how Haiti feels every day. Thank you for your love, concern, notes. prayers, etc. We love you! Michael for all.