{"id":4056,"date":"2016-11-09T13:37:26","date_gmt":"2016-11-09T19:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/?p=4056"},"modified":"2016-11-09T13:57:55","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T19:57:55","slug":"stoning-the-hand-that-feeds-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/?p=4056","title":{"rendered":"“Stoning” the Hand That Feeds You…."},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/em>Saturday morning, Oct. 29, \u00a0found us crossing 11 miles of undulating Caribbean turquoise going from Ile a Vache\u00a0bound for the mainland coastal village of Baie du Mesle. We were scheduled to meet with a truck loaded with 4-5 tons\u00a0of relief food; rice, beans, oil, corn, sugar, the most basic staples. I left most of\u00a0the team with the boat at the dock taking only Cody and Ermithe\u00a0with me and\u00a0went bouncing over the gravel road in the little Toyota pickup for 45 minutes to\u00a0the rendezvous point with the big truck from Port a Prince on the main road. In\u00a0traditional Haitian style, the truck was running late. We parked on the side of the\u00a0road to wait, and wait, and wait some more.<\/p>\n

Trouble showed up in the form of a\u00a0small band of some young men\u00a0approaching the truck. Their attitude of intimidation was\u00a0unmistakable as they leaned, glowering at us, on the sides of the truckbed. We\u00a0ignored them, but it was disconcerting as they stood\u00a0that way, scowling and threatening, for three hours while we waited. I\u00a0finally told them to get away from the truck. They ignored me. Cody opened the\u00a0door to get out of the truck and they moved quickly away. Nothing\u00a0behind their bluff, but the natives there were certainly restless. The truck finally\u00a0arrived and we left the corner and retraced our trek down the gravel road leading\u00a0the food truck back to Baie du Mesle.<\/p>\n

There is supposed to be a\u00a0guy helping with security in Baie Du Mesle, but as\u00a0the situation upon our arrival progressed, our assessment was that there was no\u00a0security there. The road out onto the dock is fairly narrow and about 600 feet\u00a0long. They have an unfinished fence built at the end of the dock, running up to\u00a0the edges of it. We had given instructions that they were to keep everyone OFF\u00a0THE DOCK so that we could offload. We had made it very simple: don\u2019t let\u00a0anyone pass the fence. By the time I got out onto the dock, followed by the truck,\u00a0the people had already passed the fence and flooded onto the dock.<\/p>\n

We sent\u00a0some of our guys to bodily barricade their way. They tried to hold the line while\u00a0the rest of the guys unloaded as fast as they physically could, bag after bag from\u00a0the truck, down into the boat. It was a major push to hold the mob back as they\u00a0consistently continued to gain ground against us. By the time we loaded the last\u00a0of the food into the back of the Toyota to be given to the people of Baie du Mesle,\u00a0\u00a0the\u00a0mob was pushing past the big truck. I started my way back off the dock only to\u00a0find that they had barricaded the gate at the fence so that we could not get back\u00a0off. I told Cody and Jesse to clear the way so they jumped out of the truck and\u00a0tore down the barricade. The people swarmed onto the truck as I hit the gas and\u00a0went tearing down the road, plowing through puddles, sending water and mud\u00a0flying, slamming through ruts and mud, trying to get away from the mob to deliver\u00a0that last small load to the depot in Baie Du Mesle.<\/p>\n

I finally got a little ahead but by\u00a0the time I reached the depot and backed up to it (only to find no one there\u00a0and the door to it locked), the people caught up with us. The two girls, Ermithe and\u00a0Ambr, were the only ones still with me and they both jumped out of the truck.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t leave because the girls couldn\u2019t get back to the truck as the rabble overran it and tore all of the food out of the back like they were mad, ripping it out of each other\u2019s hands,\u00a0rice flying through the air in mindless waste. As soon as the girls were able to\u00a0make their way through the chaos and scrambled back into the cab I shoved it\u00a0into gear, tore away from the mayhem, made our way back around part of\u00a0the bay to where we could leave the truck parked, and we met back up with the boat.<\/p>\n

We had originally hoped to reach Isle a Vache and unload before dark but due to\u00a0the delays of the delivery truck and the bedlam in Baie Bu Mesle, two hours later\u00a0we glided into the bay at Kaykok with the sun already going down. The guys\u00a0threw out the anchor as we drew near the shore and the rope got fouled in the\u00a0prop. Unbelievable! At ten feet from shore the people were already crowding\u00a0around the boat which we finally got into position to unload. We set up an\u00a0assembly line with only specifically selected people in it to pass the rice from the\u00a0boat, across the strip of beach, up the stairs and into the base. Within moments,\u00a0and with darkness falling, people who weren\u2019t supposed to be there started\u00a0stepping into the line to \u201chelp\u201d pass the food in.<\/p>\n

We tried to stop them but they\u00a0insisted and we couldn\u2019t tell them they couldn\u2019t help. Next thing we knew people are\u00a0walking away from the line with bags of food. We stopped them and took the bags\u00a0back away from them as their aggression mounted. More people pressed into the\u00a0line, more bags started moving away from the base. In our efforts to control the\u00a0movements of the food and the efforts of the encroachers to make off with all\u00a0they could for themselves, suddenly I realized a brawl had erupted into full swing.\u00a0I tried to push the boat off the shore before it could be overrun but the people had\u00a0already tied a rope from the boat to the shore so it couldn\u2019t leave. Ermithe was on\u00a0the boat and wound up in a tussle with a man who had scrambled onboard and\u00a0tried to snatch a bag of food.<\/p>\n

When the crowd\u00a0realized I had ordered the boat to cast off and was working to\u00a0free it from the line holding it to shore, that\u2019s when the rocks started flying,\u00a0targeting the members of our team, onshore and on the boat. Ermithe\u2019s brother\u00a0was hit in the rib cage. As I struggled to free the boat from the line, I felt the\u00a0shock of a rock crack against my forearm. Richard was grazed on the arm and\u00a0he grabbed the guy he could see nearest\u00a0with a rock in his hand, swinging him off\u00a0the\u00a0shore into the\u00a0water. \u00a0We finally got the boat untied and pushed off and I immediately ordered everyone\u00a0into the house.<\/p>\n

The rocks flying through the air at us weren\u2019t small stones. They\u00a0were big rocks and they weren\u2019t being tossed either; they were being slung\u00a0through the air with lethal intent. If someone had been hit in the head they could\u00a0easily have been killed. So our team made a guarded retreat into the house and\u00a0locked ourselves inside. The people continued to throw rocks at the house for\u00a0two solid hours. After that, they gathered in the yard next door and celebrated their \u201cvictory\u201d like a bunch of terrorists\u00a0after a terrorist attack.\u00a0Early the next morning we gathered a bunch of guys together and were able to\u00a0unload the rest of the food off the boat \u00a0The next day we gave every bit of it away\u00a0to the communities.<\/p>\n

On Sunday evening 25 people showed up at our gate. They were a delegation\u00a0sent from the community Odo Kachiman, the village over the hill which had been\u00a0almost entirely destroyed by the hurricane, and where we had gone a few times\u00a0before with food and prepared a meal to feed everyone in their village. They had come to\u00a0check up on me, inquire if I was okay, to express their deep gratitude, to say \u201cthank you\u201d for all I was doing to try to help them.<\/p>\n

With my arm hanging in a sling after being stoned for trying to bring food in to\u00a0hungry people, it warmed my heart greatly to have them come and express not\u00a0only their concern, but also their heartfelt thanks.\u00a0I should also mention that we have experienced no problems with the people at\u00a0Raquette, another small village on the island we have taken food to. We will continue to work on developing\u00a0a delivery system that will be safer and more practical.<\/p>\n

\"Leaving<\/a>

Leaving Ile a Vache Monday morning<\/p><\/div>\n

Monday morning, we temporarily left Ile a Vache. \u00a0The last three visiting team members except for Ricahrd flew home the next day.<\/p>\n

We are on a mission this week to the mountains of Pays-Pourri near\u00a0the Dominican\u00a0border where the Chapelle school we support is located. The trip was planned before the hurricane. \u00a0(Update about that trip coming soon.) \u00a0We hope to be back to Ile a Vache and the southwest coast Thursday or Friday of this week. \u00a0Do you want to go back to Egypt? – Bill<\/p>\n

(Obviously no one was taking pictures during this “event”. \u00a0 Please pray for us as we consider how to proceed to bring help and hope under these circumstances to the villages that desperately need\u00a0it. \u00a0Thank you for praying for and supporting JUST MERCY<\/span>!)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday morning, Oct. 29, \u00a0found us crossing 11 miles of undulating Caribbean turquoise going from Ile a Vache\u00a0bound for the mainland coastal village of Baie du Mesle. We were scheduled to meet with a truck loaded with 4-5 tons\u00a0of relief food; rice, beans, oil, corn, sugar, the most basic staples. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4056"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4073,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4056\/revisions\/4073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}