After waking up about six I took a shower and felt much better. I didn't have any clean clothes, but it didn't matter I was refreshed. Outside, the YWAM compound looks back across a range of foothills that were being lit up by the sun as it crested over the mountains on the other side. There were chickens roaming the yard and breakfast was waiting. I drank some instant Starbucks coffee that they had and ate a type of roll or biscuit that must be Haitian. We were waiting for Elise to get in so we could meet him at the port. I touched base with him at 7AM and he was just leaving his house in Port au Prince.
About 9AM Elise called and said he was almost to the port, so we loaded up and headed that way. The road in front of the port was busy with activity this time of day, but we managed to find a spot to park. Elise wasn't there yet so we had to wait another 15 minutes. Once he got there he ran into Alex first and we made our introductions. He called Wally and he met us at the entrance to the port and got us through security. Wally is a big guy every bit as big as Willy Wyatt my neighbor who was a pro nose guard in the NFL. He also had a badge on a chain around his neck and everyone was calling him hefe or chief. I thought, wow, this guy is really going to be able to get our stuff out of here. We had to leave them our passports and headed out to the dock. The boat our food was on was the only one at the port. It was just sitting their idle with the loading door open, but no activity going on. I pulled out my camera and snapped a picture of the ship, but one of the guards saw me and shouted something in Creole or French. Elise said, “no pictures!” Wally showed us the manifest of the ship with our names by the seven pallets. He said that he had permission to unload all of the containers from the ship. The problem was that the food was designated for us and not for a local mission. While we were standing out there Wally was talking on his cell phone trying to figure out what we could do. In the meantime, our buddy Roy, was walking across the dock. We waved at him and he walked over. We introduced him to Wally. Wally doesn't speak English, so Elise had to translate for him. Roy started to launch into one of his tirades on injustice in the world, more specifically Haiti, and how the people in front of him were part of the problem. I elbowed him and whispered to him, “Wally has the paperwork to get your stuff off the ship, don't ruin it.” Then Alex told Elise, “I don't know this guy, so whatever he says, doesn't apply to us!” Luckily Roy got the hint and quit before he got himself in a hole with someone who could help. After Roy walked off, Wally said that the agency was coming to talk to us. We weren't real sure who this was, but we said OK. A few minutes later he arrived, his name was Sonny. Sonny told us we had to go to an office down the road and pay for the bill of lading and get them to file paper work with another government office to release our food from customs. Alex and I both could tell this guy was just after money and we got rid of him. Elise and one of his friends walked Alex, Dickens, and I over to the office for the bill of lading. The lady there found the bill of lading, but wanted to charge us around $170 US to get it. They also needed a copy of my license. Alex asked to see the bill of lading, she showed us a copy but wouldn't hand us the original. Alex then asked her who her boss was, she said it was Sonny. So Sonny had sent us to his office to pay money for a document that came over with our stuff on the ship that we had already paid the shipping on. We weren't asking them to file any paperwork for us or do anything really. We just wanted the piece of paper that was ours to start with. Alex demanded the paper and Sonny said he would cut the taxes in half and give it to us for $100 US. Alex said, “I'm not paying you anything, I just want my paper.” Then Sonny asked to speak with the lady. His call dropped the first time, but then we got him back on the phone and he told her to give it to us. Then we headed over to see the customs principal in St Marc. With Elise and his friend we walked straight up to his office and explained our situation. He said that we would have to take our bill of lading to Port au Prince and talk to Jean Baptiste to try to get our food released. We called Jean Baptiste and were told that we would in fact have to come up there in person to the finance ministry. So we headed that way, bill of lading in hand.
Before we left we got the rest of the crew headed back to Petion-Ville and Michel took them to a warehouse where they could buy rice and beans to start cooking at the church. The guys told us later, that this warehouse was stacked to the ceiling with donated US rice. It was guarded by some pretty rough looking characters with big guns. They bought 5 big bags of rice and 2 big bags of beans. Elise was going to go get the stove he was buying with the $900 that Dennis Gamble sent him and needed another $400 US or so because the guy had gone up on the price. I told Elise to get with us the next morning and one of us would help him go get it.
Alex, Dickens, and I finally found the correct finance building. We initially were downtown by the palace, but had to go back up the hill of the city a bit to find the finance building. These people there said that we had to go to the IGF (Inspector General of Finance) which was a different building. We finally found it, and had to park across the street, then climb through a gate that had concrete pylons from the office beside it which had collapsed lying across it as well as power lines that were hanging within reach. We followed Dickens through the hole in the gate and found ourselves in a parking lot with a big sign on a small building that said “IGF”. We went inside and were immediately taken to a mid-level manager named Ronald December. He talked to us, and made a few phone calls. His secretary told us we had to consign the food over to the Protection Civil(another name for the Ministry of Interior) in order to get it passed through customs. She gave us an example written in French which Dickens wrote on the bill of lading and then Alex and I both signed it. Ronald said that there was a lady at the ministry of interior that was waiting on us to get there and we should go talk to her. Then she would meet us at his office the next morning at 9AM to get the paperwork to release the food finalized. We couldn't come back today because it was already 3PM and they closed at 3PM. So we headed out for the address of the Ministry of the Interior. Their office must have fallen because they have taken over a house to use as their office. They have several computers out front in the driveway running under a tarp, and desks and computers crammed in various rooms. We had to circle the block a few times and by the time we got there she was already gone. We talked to one of her associates and he said we would just have to come back in the morning. She wasn't answering her cell phone, so we resigned ourselves to try again the next day.
We headed back up to Petion-Ville and the church. They were cooking beans and rice in the church’s kitchen and were finishing up the medical clinic. We hung around and ate some dinner and talked to the other guys about what had been going on. The clinic was very successful and everyone was in pretty good spirits. We did find out from the guys that the rice that they bought was donated US rice. No one was especially thrilled about that, but we didn’t figure there was much that we could do about it at the time. After everyone ate dinner, we headed down the road to where a gathering of Christian's were about to have a service. Scott had been asked to preach. The worship was amazing. Completely a cappella they praised God for a solid hour. Raymond translated for us, and they wanted us to sit in chairs at the front. Scott brought the word in a powerful way. He told the story of creation and how Adam and Eve tried to cover their sin with their own devices, but God had to provide a sacrifice to cover their sin. It was a very clear Gospel presentation.
After he finished, we slipped off and headed back to the church. I slipped out to the street and called Kandy. After talking to her about the day, Mark was just sitting on the road a few feet over from me. While we were talking a couple of local guys walked up and talked to us. One of them was Michee who lives in the neighborhood. After talking to them and sharing the Gospel with them, both professed to believe that Jesus was the only way to heaven and to be followers of Christ. These guys were so humble and friendly. It's very hard to get an accurate read on their intentions though. Sometimes, I just think they want to practice their English on you. Michee is 35, single, no children. He doesn't have a job and just hangs out every day. I understand that it is very hard to get a job, but these guys don't even try. There are people who work around the city. There are taxi drivers, street sellers, laborers of various types, government jobs, and shipping jobs. They just don't even see the possibility to get a job so they don't try. Neither one of them stayed around for too long. Alex and Brett eventually walked out and joined the conversation as well. While we were hanging out in the street talking in the middle of the biggest natural disaster in our hemisphere with dozens of people either sleeping or just hanging out around us in the street we tried to come up with something else we'd rather be doing. There wasn't anything else. This was it. To be doing something for God's kingdom that had eternal ramifications. Both in our lives and the lives of the people we were ministering too.
As the conversation went on, we heard a string of gun shots. At first we were a little concerned, but we decided that if the people around us weren't worried about it, it must not be too close. There were a few more shots and that was it, no big deal. The next day we found out the police were shooting at some looters at a grocery store...
After that we went to bed. The church was slam full because all of us were in Petion-Ville tonight. Brett, Mark Turner, and Richard Bradley all slept in the cars. The rest of us were crammed in the church. Air mattresses were pretty much touching each other. There were several roosters in the neighborhood that would crow every once in a while, and a couple of dogs that like to wake up and fight for a bit each morning.
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