Letters From Haiti: When Mountains Moved

The piercing roar of the C-17 jet engines rattled my skull as it went to full throttle and lifted off into the amber sky back towards Miami.   The awesome machine had just delivered its precious payload of relief supplies to the earthquake-ravaged people of Haiti.  

On the tarmac of the Port-au-Prince airport I stood beside the 737 jet that Eric Haymes had donated for the relief effort through his Air Lift Haiti organization.  He’d just delivered a bunch of medical professionals who were there to relieve another bunch of medical workers, some of whom had been there for weeks.  

The sight at the airport was not to be believed.  The activity…the sense of urgency…the cooperation — amazing.  It was organization without organization.  Someone would yell “Hey over here — unload!”   And a hundred people would move en masse forming an impromptu ‘bucket brigade’ line — and within a half-hour tons of desperately needed supplies were off-loaded from a jet’s underside.  With little spoken except for whoops of exhilaration.   The mood on the tarmac…a mixture of selfless abandon, determined purpose…and yes, love.  For a longtime skeptic of basic human nature…it was cathartic…and beautiful.  (more…)