While the Cat's Away....

As most of you know, Josh left Monday for Ft. Lauderdale, then Haiti. I've been able to receive two updates by email from him which has been such a huge blessing and comfort. From his descriptions, things are very chaotic there, devastating and sad. He described it as death being everywhere and the stinch being sometimes overwhelming. One of the other team members, Micah, who is from the Latin American office (our office in Costa Rica) is a structural engineer and was able to do structural assessments yesterday. He was able to do an assessment of a huge hospital that was completely empty because people were afraid to re-enter due to cracks in the walls. The structure was completely safe as the cracks were in non-structural walls and now there is a huge hospital that can be used to save lives. Micah gave the director of the hospital an offical placard and spray painted in creole on the front of the building that it was safe to use. One thing that has overwhelmed me since they left and hearing of their experiences is how important EMI's work is. Hospitals and clinics have been just sitting...unused because people were afraid to use them and the U.N. wouldn't allow their medical relief workers to use the buildings until they were cleared for safe occupancy. The water purification systems they're putting in are so needed also. Josh described tent communities that have been formed all over Port au Prince. He said they would be driving down the road and would see sheets hanging out by the street with words painted on them simply saying "We need help. We need water. We need food." It just breaks my heart for the people of Haiti and the devastation they're enduring right now. Josh's team has 100 water purification systems to put in, and he is hoping to be able to set up some in these tent communities.

On the home front, it has been a week of big and exciting change. Some of our team members helped paint the inside of our house and some of the furniture was delivered. It's actually starting to look like a home. My hope is that Josh will come back to a place he feels like he can relax, debrief and process all that he has experienced....not one where there are still a million things he needs to get done. Obviously, there will be things to do, but I want it to be a place of refuge for him, not a distraction from processing through things.

I've had several fun and interesting experiences at the house. I've discovered that in the lots next to our house, there are mixed use fields. In the past 4 days, they've held cows, turkeys (which are pretty rare in Costa Rica), horses, sugar cane and there have been several iguana sightings also. I never know what I'll wake up to in the fied outside our window. Also, there seems to be a large gecko residing in our house that seems to scare the begeezes out of me every night. Somehow, it always makes it into our bedroom when I'm coming in at night. By reading online, I've found out that they eat their weight in insects each week so I don't want to get rid of it, I just wanted it not to scurry along the wall. It surprises me every time:)