Devastation in Dreams

After watching the news right before bed, last night I dreamt about the earthquake devastation in Haiti. Honestly, I haven't watched the newscasts about Haiti much in the last 6 days since the catastrophe. It's just so overwhelmingly sad and horrific, and I end up just feeling helpless and depressed when I watch the news reports. Even if I did have the means and opportunity to go to Haiti on a relief mission, after seeing the looting and shooting and widespread violence going on in the midst of the disaster, I think I would be too scared to go there to help.

We do have a friend from our church, Debbie, who is actually in Haiti right now (you can visit her blog here). Strangely enough, she was there on a completely unrelated mission trip in a small village quite a distance from the capital. They felt the earthquake in her village and actually found it quite exciting until they started getting news of the devastation in Port-au-Prince. Now, instead of teaching the locals about ecology and nutrition as was the initial plan for her multi-week trip, she's helping her host family (an American woman and her Haitian husband who are missionaries with United Christians International) take in refugees. She said that everyone in the village has relatives in the capital, because it's where everyone goes for school and for a better life than can be found in the villages. Young people and their families save money for years just to move to Port-au-Prince, and now there's nothing left for them there. There were four young men from the village who were in school there who shared an apartment in the city--an apartment where they were all killed in the quake. There has been lots of mourning in the village since they found out the news, but there has also been rejoicing as they've heard news of locals surviving. One such story is in her post from today, which you should definitely read if you have time because it's quite amazing. Even yesterday, there were still a few happy endings like this one of people still being found alive in the rubble.

I can't even imagine how horrible it must be for the families who have lost loved ones in the disaster--loved ones that won't even get a proper burial in many cases. It's just so overwhelming, and it feels like there's so little we can do to help. Although I have been at least praying for the victims of the earthquake as well as the relief workers the last few days, this morning I did something else that I'd been meaning to do for days. I went to the website of my favorite international relief organization, Samaritan's Purse, and made a donation towards their Haiti relief efforts. Hopefully most Americans who are able will find some way to contribute to the relief effort as well.

Change Has Come

I'm afraid that by talking about politics on my blog I might be alienating some of my friends and family members, but I just can't let this historic day go by without mentioning how excited I am about the change that has come to America. Although I was at work today, I listened to the live CNN feed leading up to the inauguration until about the time President Obama was introduced to the millions of people on the Mall, at which time I rushed into our break room to watch the actual swearing in of our new Vice President and President. I thought the ceremony, at least the part that I watched, was beautiful. I thought the President's speech was amazing. I thought the crowd was absolutely astounding. I thought the excitement and hope for the future was palpable, even just among the 30 or so people from my office who watched with me. When Barack Obama officially became president, everyone in the room broke into applause!

I realize there was a lot of hype and fanfare that went along with today's events, but if you stop and think about it, it is such a huge deal! It's so hard to imagine that less than 60 years ago, when my mother--not my grandmother or great-grandmother--when my mother was 8 years old, Rosa Parks was only allowed to sit at the back of the bus. African-Americans weren't allowed in certain restaurants and weren't allowed to drink from certain water fountains. African-Americans were discriminated against on a daily basis and it was somehow okay! For those of us who didn't live through the civil rights movement, it's hard to believe that those kinds of things even happened, but they actually happened very recently in our history! When you think about it that way, you can see why it was such a big deal that President Obama was inaugurated today! Whether you're excited about him as president or not, you have to be excited that our country has finally taken this HUGE step towards racial equality! I'm just so happy for America!

With that said, I'm personally very excited about Obama as our new President too! I'm excited to have an intellectual, humble, intelligent, hopeful, articulate person in the White House. I'm excited that we finally have a president that is respected by more than 22% of our nation and a majority of other people in the world! Hooray for our new President!