Haiti

Today was the first day I actually read any in-depth stories about the earthquake in Haiti. I know it is such a big news, but I couldn't really bring myself to read about it before now. I think after the Sichuan earthquake, I got SO absorbed by it- watching news and reading on the internet all throughout the day and felt it so deeply, since it was in a place I had called home, that I just burned out on news and images. It was good to grieve for people and it moved me to action- being a small part of helping bring wheelchairs to children crippled by the quake-but was very draining. So when I heard about this, I just sort of avoided the news. Just did not want to go there again. But, it is real and there and I finally involved myself in a tiny way by reading news tonight.

It is of course so sad and heartbreaking it is hard to absorb it. I thought it both good and embarrassing when I heard that China rescuers beat the Americans there. Good in that as China rises in power they are also taking some of the responsibility that comes with wealth and power to help those in need (a value that is somewhat foreign to this culture. Here you help your family and those in your inner circle, but helping the far away stranger is, well, strange). But embarrassing as an American that we were slower to help a country that is in our hemisphere than a country half a world away. Regardless, it seems help is always too slow and never enough for a country as destitute and in need as Haiti was and very much is now. I will pray and give something to help. And will feel sad for all the loss. But I may not stay glued to the computer about it this time around. It is sort of hard to function. Not sure if that is right or wrong, but those are my thoughts at the moment.