Agape Flights: To Haiti

I am currently involved in an effort to fly relief supplies into Haiti, as part of the recovery effort from the massive earthquake of January 12th. I am working for an organization called Agape Flights, based in Venice, Florida. I promised updates as is possible, and, as I am just getting going, and time allows me, I will take the liberty to be longwinded...

"Agape" is the Greek word used biblically for God's unconditional love. Agape's regular mission is to run supplies and mail, on a one-flight-a-week basis, to missionaries in Haiti, the Dominic Republic, and the Bahamas. Since the earthquake (in the last 14 days), Agape has stepped it up to: 60 flights with 120,000 pounds of emergency supplies and 25 medical personnel into Haiti, and the evacuation of 8 Haitian orphans. Their hangar has been flooded with donations and volunteers. Everything from the most useful to the most unbelievably useful has been donated.

Two days after the 'quake, one volunteer was answering phones and kept saying to the insistent person on the other end, "I'm sorry, Sir, we are a FLIGHT organization. We don't take BOATS." And when Agape's director walked by, she just handed him the phone: "please talk to this man, he has a boat." When he had the director on the phone, the man said (in what I like to imagine as a surly Alaskan fisherman voice): "I don't have a boat, I have a SHIP!" Realizing the need for his organization to be flexible, the director heard him out. This individual donated the use of a entire container ship, which Agape filled chuck-full of supplies and the man drove (does one "drive" ships?) it down to Port au Prince, where the port had been destroyed by the earthquake, but his SHIP had a full size crane to unload the much needed relief materials. When his hull was empty, he said, "while I'm here, why don't we use the crane move some rubble?", and thus was an instrument in helping with infrastructure, including help to repair the port. If only Mick Dundee were there to say, "That's not a 'boat.' THIS is a boat."

I started my full-time work for Agape today, and I am very excited for what the next weeks will bring. It will make my mother happy to know that I am still in the United States. Unfortunately, Agape's main aircraft had a mechanical failure in Haiti the day I was in transit from Alaska, so they have lost their main relief vehicle for the immediate future. This requires that they rely solely on donated aircraft to accomplish their missions into Haiti.

In the meantime, volunteers are sorting pallets of food, water, and medical supplies; answering phones; and squinting up at the sun to watch inbound donated planes on final approach.

I started my day learning the sorting line. As fast as we can sort boxes, new piles of donations build up. Everything is sorted into "food," "medical," and "other," and then further sorted into categories of most immediate need. I was sent to the food sorting section and soon distracted my table with a debate of whether canned tomatoes should go in the 'vegetable' or 'fruit' pile. I know, I know... I'm new at relief work. They traded me to the medical supply line, who immediately questioned my credentials. Denying "RN," I claimed to be a volunteer EMT. In the eyes of the retired heavy equipment operator staring into boxes of everything from prescription drugs to catheters, this promoted me to MD. They asked me to pick out everything that needs to be sent right away. Fortunately, I can recognize the most emergent stuff as what we carry on the ambulance, and so muddled through this project. I'm just elbows deep in drug sorting, when someone comes down from upstairs and asks for an aviatrix like myself to help in dispatching flights. I spent the rest of the day learning the dispatch process for getting flights safely to and from their destinations and through the hands of customs officials. I found out how we go about collecting planes and pilots to accomplish the tasks at hand. I also started learning the paperwork ropes for when I need to start actively flying the missions. Due to the mechanical failure, my personal flight mission is on hold, and I have decided to help wherever they need hands.

It has been a fantastic start to a project that I was a bit wary about. My heart skips thinking about all the people I met today that are stopping their lives to do mundane tasks, in hopes that they will help care for someone they will never meet. And, everyone gives their time, hands, hearts and backs with smiles on their faces. I've been there one day, and I've seen people give imperative supplies, time, multimillion dollar aircraft, and thousands of dollars worth of fuel. One local elementary school raised $24,000 in relief funds in 4 days. I share all of this so that you may know, no matter what you may hear on the news: people are good, and their generosity is heart-warming.

Some of you have asked me to let you know how effective and timely Agape is at their relief effort. For that answer, bear with me for one more story. A week ago, a doctor and a nurse showed up at the hangar, wanting a ride to Haiti so they could treat victims. Until there was a plane with available space, they offered to help sort supplies. They worked on prioritizing and shipping medical supplies for two days, and then the doctor got on a flight, followed by the nurse a day later. The plane, as are all Agape's flights, was met in Port au Prince by local missionaries, they drove the doctor into the city in their own small pickup, squeezing through the rubble-filled mess like only a local vehicle could. When the doctor arrived at a hospital, he found the only supplies on hand were from Agape. He recognized his own and the nurse's handwriting on the boxes they had sorted. Why were Agape's boxes the only ones at the hospital? Every flight is met by local missionaries, who live and work in Port au Prince year round. Those people immediately take the supplies from the airports, in their own vehicles and get them straight into the hands of people that need them. At the time of these medical deliveries, the roads were still too demolished for big military trucks to get through. But, for people with small pickups, that knew their way around town, it was passable. The doctor was able to use the missionaries to get word back to the nurse, still at Agape's hangar, of what other supplies were immediately needed when she followed him down.

I am thrilled to be here, and am thus far impressed with the organizations policy of using the network they have in place to best serve the needs of the emergency. I do not yet know when I will make my first trip to Haiti, but it looks likely for this weekend. Meanwhile, I have been the ecstatic recipient of the unbelievable hospitality of friends. I have been given a ride across the state, a car, comfortable housing, and delicious food by wonderful friends, eager to help in anyway they can. A local salon owner even offered me a free massage "to help me relax from my efforts." I kid you not. However, I am pretty relaxed right now, watching people help each other, and getting to be a part of it.

Thank you for all your words of encouragement. I will keep you posted as my time here unfolds. I have made an initial commitment of two weeks with Agape, possibly more. The immediate stage of emergency is changing into finding a regular system that will alleviate the recovery needs within Port au Prince and surrounding communities, however, the disaster is still at hand, and just yesterday another survivor was rescued.