I can't stop thinking...

I can't stop thinking about Haiti.  My mind goes there as I'm making supper and I think, man, we're lucky to have food right now.  I'm washing the dishes, and I wonder if Haiti has clean drinking water.  I spill coffee down the front of my shirt in the cafe and I tell myself I've got nothing to complain about.  I think of Haiti. Of the devastation, and all the people trying to make sense of their lives and their new situations - all the while in varying states of shock and grief. 

I also think of one person in Haiti right now:  Jesse.  Our cousin.  He works there for the UN - and thankfully was not in the headquarters when the earthquake happened.  He knew something was seriously wrong when he was driving home from work and the road collapsed in front of him.

We heard from his parents that he was okay.  A few days later we got an e-mail from him.  He spent over 40 hours awake in the beginning - 31 of them helping in a triage unit.  Now he's helping with the bodies. 

I e-mailed him:  "you're doing heroes work.... Stay well, it can't be easy". 

But I don't know.  I can't imagine the trauma.  I can't imagine how life will ever be the same after living through something like this.  I just pray that he'll be okay.  And I pray that somewhere in this awful horribleness of destruction, that all of the survivors will be okay.  That they'll have strength and support to rebuild and keep living.

(Jesse kindly gave me permission to post about his experience.   He also set me straight about my facts...amazing how the facts get skewed as the story moves from one person to the next.)