Haiti Bound

We've been really quite busy since we've been back in the States and have been behind on sending updates. So, this is our attempt at a quick update, sorry if you have not heard about this first hand. Our plans have changed drastically over the past few days in that we have decided to go to Haiti as part of Samaritan's Purse's DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team), and have decided not to go to South Africa to work on HIV intervention projects. Instead, we have signed a 1 year contract with Samaritan's Purse and will be spending the better part of this time in Haiti. The first month of our contract will be spent doing more disaster response oriented tasks such as providing food, water and temporary shelter, to many people affected by the earthquake which occurred on January 12th, 2010. After this initial month, we will transition into a more development and re-construction-oriented team once the emergency phase begins to wind down - which certainly could take some time. The United Nations has said that this disaster rivals the Tsunami that ravaged many countries in South East Asia in 2004. 3 million people have been affected by this disaster and more than 200,000 people have died.

We are leaving for Haiti Thursday Feb. 4th and this will be our first taste of a major disaster response situation. We have many friends there already and will be spending time working and serving with old colleagues from the London-based NGO we worked at before moving back to America at the end of December. Our internet connection while we are there is unpredictable, but we will keep updates coming as we have connection. Love you all.