364 days later

On this night, 27 August 2011, a year ago, the owner of this house went to bed, as normal, never expecting that by the end of the next day the house would look like this. The owner probably never expected that a year later, the house would still look like this as the owner awaits a settlement from FEMA.

Yesterday about eighty residents of the small town here gathered for a potluck lunch to give thanks for the first responders and the general esprit de corps that held people together in the first days post Irene. Little old Plymouth was one of the isolated thirteen towns (though it was ignored initially despite having all three ways in and out cut off and within the town borders was divided in three, like Gaul), so people had to rely on one another in the confusion of the days after Tropical Storm Irene passed through.

A local 501 c 3 has collected enough money to help the owner of this house and the other people whose homes were destroyed or properties ravaged by the flood waters.

Yesterday we took a tour of a man's property that had been surrounded by a wall of water on both sides. Remarkably the house was OK; the septic field failed when the brook bed disappeared; the little waterfall they had enjoyed disappeared in the flood. As he walked us around, showing us all the changes to his property and narrating what happened, I had a sense of déjà vu, of being with other people who had gone through disasters (notably in El Salvador), who point out what was and is no longer and, in the process of pointing out things, have an opportunity to tell their story.

Tomorrow night at 7.00PM residents of Vermont are invited to ring bells for a minute. It is a symbolic time; waters raged for several days more, but by 7.00PM on Sunday 28 August 2011, we already had realised that our state had changed vastly in the course of twelve hours.

Now, 364 days later, we pray for those in the path of Isaac, praying they will not have to go through what we went through, but knowing that already the people of Haiti have.

May God have mercy on all of us.

Haiti, mon amour

Ayiti, kenbe nan li. Haiti, keep at it.
Ou pa gen te bliye. You will not be forgotten.
Ou va leve vivan ankò.
Ayiti, kouraj.

Haitian impressions

[click on photo to embiggen]

The images that I could not/did not capture in photographs...

— the people lined up to go into the remaining room of a collapsed house in Port au Prince, some people climbing up the rubble to get into the yellow room, others below in what must have been a driveway

— the boy bathing from a basin by his tent

— the two goats sleeping on top of a family mausoleum (families build house-looking structures for the dead in their yards)

— the two young women waiting for their violin lesson behind the ruins of the Episcopal cathedral, Sainte Trinité in Port au Prince

— the Roman Catholic cathedral mostly gone

— the wild donkeys, goats and cows crossing the roads

— the charred remains of tires from various barricades

— beautiful sunlight filtering down through the clouds over the bay

— tent after tent after tent even out in the country

— steep mountainsides

— men going at limestone hill quarries with just a pick axe

— flat plains with wide-open expanses of land

— pot holes!

— a woman walking down the street with a large chicken under one arm, box on head; a man carrying two chickens and a bag of rice that trickled a trail of rice behind him

— the palpable anxiety of Haitians as they awaited the results of the election

That's just for starters.

Summertime silence

Once fall kicks back in, I should be a bit more regular in my posting here. Between working with CREDO and the Strength for the Journey Haiti (Kouraj pou Vwayaj la Ayati) initiative, parish work, and finishing off the Long Trail, my time has not been free to putter here. We only have about 65 miles left to walk of the LT and then we will have finished its 273 miles of punishing rock and root-strewn paths.

Cats are fine, missing me. Miss Funky Paws is back from the brink, has put on weight and is fully herself, loud and feisty.

[photo: from the Forehead on Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak, looking south at Camels Hump, the third highest in Vermont]

How true

This is all I can muster but I like it, snagged from somewhere on Facebook.

I am getting ready to head off to the next CREDO Kouraj pou Vwayaj la Ayati which begins this coming Monday in Santo Domingo. Lots to do and of course as I head off all sorts of things are flying onto my desk at church. (It's the usual: Oh my God, she's going away... let's get anxious.)

Back home again

After Executive Council and Kouraj pou Vwayaj la - Ayati (Strength for the Journey — Haiti) #1. I have a funeral in an hour so can't tarry but photos and such will be up later. Here is a teaser.

Round and round and round we go...

So finally tomorrow I will get to go home, just in time for vestry. Meanwhile, I will have been out to California, back to New York City, zipped off to Indianapolis and finally by way of Philly will get back to Vermont.

This little missive is being posted from the hotel lobby... a place where, should I be re-elected as deputy, I may be occupying in 2012 during General Convention!

My brain has been challenged by the past three days of intense meetings on disparate matters — the final Anglican Covenant and what TEC's response might be to it and today, working with a stellar and impressive team of five preparing for a CREDO-Church Pension Group-sponsored program, Strength for the Journey, being offered for the clergy and lay leaders of the Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti. We will meet in Santo Domingo for the simple reason that there is no place in Haiti that can handle the group and because we want them to go to a place where they won't fear the buildings will come down on them and there is running water, electricity and less chaos.

Meanwhile, assorted photos of the past several days...


Remember Trans World Airlines, aka, Toughest Way Across? Their terminal at JFK, NYC was award-winning but hopelessly antiquated as the security measures kicked in -- the pods were never designed to be blocked off; hence, there were no places to sit or eat because they were in the open main part (that you see). The original building was lovely in its own right — we took my sister there in the 1960s for her to fly off to Spain. But by the late 1980s, 1988 to be exact when I flew to Spain, the place was cramped and dingy. When Jet Blue put up their new terminal, rather than tear the TWA building down, they simply surrounded it. One sees the old building as one walks from the main Jet Blue terminal to the Air Train (finally!!!! Yes, there is public transportation from downtown Manhattan to JFK).

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The old stomping grounds in NYC, the General Theological Seminary, have also changed greatly. The old front building, which was falling apart, was torn down in 2008, and a new condo building built in its place. If you have $2.5M you can buy a two-BR condo that looks over the Close. I think the penthouse apartment is $4M. Seminarians can no longer enter from Ninth Avenue; they must walk halfway down 21st Street to get in a side gate. This is a huge change to the 'hood (and the seminary took a lot of flack from the Chelsea Preservation folks).


The back end of the Close, on Tenth Avenue, is a lot spiffier than in my days. It used to be that the faculty parking garage was off Tenth — a dismal affair. The dorm, Eigenbrodt on the left and faculty apartments on the right, looked over a somewhat decayed neighbourhood. Chelsea has gentrified and Eigenbrodt is now a fancy hotel, called the Tutu Center. (It also serves as a meeting place.)


The old rail tracks on an elevated line have been converted into the Highline and it is a very pleasant walk. From it, one sees the seminary and the Empire State Building. This past Sunday was a gorgeous night and walking up there was a polyglot experience.


From above ground tracks, one descends down into the subway, a noisy but eminently practical means of transportation. This photo is from my old station, 23rd on Eighth.


Times Square is a lot better than it used to be though it is just as crowded. To get to Grand Central Station from Eighth, one has to wander up and down long corridors until one arrives at the Shuttle that runs between 42nd Street and Grand Central.


And then one arrives at Grand Central (GCT), spared by the 1960s wrecking ball that took down Penn Station. When GCT was restored a decade or so ago, they uncovered the constellations on the ceiling of the main room. I love this station for its size (it also is the main headquarters in Planet of the Apes). It is hard to believe that my father went in and out of this place twice a day for nearly thirty years.


The white onyx clock is the largest onyx clock in the world (that is, the faces are the largest), if I remember correctly. It is worth a pretty penny.


Little did we realise that four out of the six people on the D020 Task Force are Mac users. It was a mini Mac-convention on the third floor of 815.

Here endeth your mini-tour of NYC.

Scammer

Twice since the earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, someone has attempted to take advantage of the situation for personal gain. Just this evening I received another email purporting to be from Bishop Duracin, asking for financial aid. This email is not from the Bishop of Haiti.

Tell-tale marks: The email address is incorrect. The writing is not Bishop Duracin’s. The mailing address is incorrect. The secondary email is incorrect.

If anyone has any questions as to the veracity of emails purporting to come from the Diocese of Haiti and/or from Bishop Duracin, please do not hesitate to contact me at MereLaurenS@gmail.com.

And please, do not be taken in by messages allegedly from Bishop Duracin asking for financial aid. Bishop Duracin has made it clear, repeatedly, that donations should be made to Episcopal Relief & Development (www.er-d.org), which is the official relief agency of The Episcopal Church.

While the people of Haiti are suffering, someone out there is trying to make a quick buck. This is unacceptable behavior, and it will take all of us working together to stop it.

Blessings and peace,

The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley

Assistant to the Bishop of Haiti

TEC Appointed Missionary

Epiphany 3C sermon

is up over at the Trinity blog.

Epiphany 2C sermon

It is up at my other site, Trinity Episcopal Church, here.

Message from Archbishop Barahona

Llamado del primado de IARCA (la Iglesia Anglicana de la Región de Central América) en solidaridad con el pueblo Haitiano.

Estimados hermanos y hermanas, amigos y amigas de la Provincia Anglicana de la Región Central de América y otras personas que con espíritu de solidaridad quieran poner atención a este llamado desde la ciudad de San Salvador, El Salvador, cede del Primado de la Provincia de IARCA.

Les ruego, les suplico, por el amor de Dios que hagamos lo que podamos para apoyar al sufrido pueblo de Haití en la tragedia del martes 12 de enero, cuando un terremoto de 7.3 grados ha destruido gran parte de la infraestructura de esta nación y que ha dejado mas de 100 mil muertos y millones de damnificados, es una de las tragedias mas grandes que hemos tenido en los últimos tiempos.

Oremos para que Dios de fortaleza a la gente y a los familiares que han perdido a sus seres queridos y de una manera muy especial, enviamos nuestro mensaje de solidaridad a nuestra querida Iglesia Episcopal de Haiti, a su Clero y a nuestro hermano Obispo el Revdmo Jean Zache Duracin.
 
Nosotros en nuestra Provincia, sentimos el sufrimiento de ellos; les pido que hagamos donaciones y las enviemos a nuestra institución de ayuda y desarrollo: “Episcopal Relief and Development, estamos seguros que ellos están allí y nosotros debemos apoyar esta gran ayuda humanitaria.

Vayan nuestras oraciones para los que han fallecido, para pedir fortaleza de Dios para sus familiares y los sobrevivientes.

Que la misericordia de Dios este siempre con nosotros.

El Revmo Martín Barahona
Obispo de El Salvador
Primado de IARCA

Call of the Primate of IARCA (the Anglican Church of the Region of Central America) in solidarity with the Haitian people

Dear brothers and sisters, friends of the Province of the Anglican Church of the Region of Central America and other people who, with a spirit of solidarity, want to heed this cry from the city of San Salvador, El Salvador, seat of the Primate of the Province of IARCA:

I beg you, I implore you, for the love of God, that we do all we can to help the people of Haiti. They are suffering from the tragedy of 12 January when a 7.3 earthquake destroyed a major part of the infrastructure of this nation and left more than 100.000 dead and millions of homeless. It is one of the greatest tragedies that we have seen in recent times.

Let us pray that God will give strength to the people and families who have lost their loved ones and, in particular, we send our message of solidarity to our beloved Episcopal Church of Haiti and to our brother bishop, the Most Rev. Jean Zache Duracin.

In our province, we feel their suffering.

I ask you to make donations and send them to our help and development agency, Episcopal Relief and Development. We are sure that they are there and we need to support this huge humanitarian effort.

May our prayers go with those who have perished; may we ask for God’s strength for their families and survivors.
 
May God’s mercy be always with us.

(the Most Rev.) Martín Barahona,
Bishop of El Salvador
Primate of IARCA

Cela n'existe plus

Go to ERD and donate!!!


La Cathédrale de la Ste Trinité


L'intérieur de la cathédrale


Les soeurs de Ste Marguerite