Wow! What a weekend. It was busy with friends, work, and lesson planning for school. But the craziest part of it all was when my dad called on Friday and asked me to find his passport. Finding that turned into collecting and packing a bag for him. He was in Arizona, visiting my brother and his family. Originally, he was supposed to leave Saturday, then it changed to Tuesday, finally it was decided that Sunday would be the day. We spent lots of time on the phone as I gathered things like flashlights, toilet paper, and leather work gloves. Sunday he flew from California (where he was at my sister's, visiting her family after AZ) to Utah, to Florida. After a bus ride from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami, yesterday morning he flew from Miami to the Dominican Republic. He croseed the Haitian border at 4 a.m. (mountain time) this morning on a jam packed and very cramped bus (what he described as the most uncomfortable thing he's ever done) and finally started disaster relief work in Port-au-Prince today.
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He went out there with a Disaster Relief Group from Humanitarian Services of our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He's got lost of disaster relief work under his belt - 9/11, Columbine, Katrina, Indonesia for the tsunamis, just to name a few. Here are some basics about the trip - with the doctors, nurses, and 2 social workers (one being my dad), and one guy from Deseret News (I'm especially grateful for that because it gives us a little more info than we'd otherwise get) they are out there assessing needs as they help in any way that they can.
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What stories he's going to have when he gets home! So far, in a phone call from my mom, he reports that things are going okay (it was a quick call from a sattelite phone with a bad connection). Missionaries have helped a bit with translations as he's already doing counseling, and he's staying in a city that wasn't affected by the earthquakes (safer). The saddest thing I've heard was that he's seen a lot of children begging for water.
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I'm grateful for the rapid response of the Church, and the things they are able to pull together. And I'm praying hard that all goes especially well on this one.
7 comments:
Caitlin, that's awesome. I want to do disaster work so badly. UD has programs on disasters apparently so I'm going to see if I could go down that path. I was studying nursing because I really felt that there was no straight path to become an aid worker. I hope your dad is able to help many as they go through grief and pain.
Wow, That's awesome. I hope he stays safe as I know you do too. Good luck to him and all those working there to provide aid.
Keep us posted. The church does amazing things.
I really hope all is well with him. I thought of him this morning when I heard about the aftershock. I hope he is safe.
The whole thing is just heartbreaking. I'm glad your father is there to help.
That's fantastic that he actually gets to do some hands-on help and answer the question everyone thinks, "What can I do to help?". I will keep him in our prayers.
Wow, that is so great that he can help out that way. He is definitely using his skills for a greater good. Hope all goes well for him
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