Haiti

ok, listen, i know haiti is all over the news and such.  but it has really been on my heart a lot.  i started reading this book, 'mountains beyond mountains', like three days before the earthquake.  it is all about haiti.  so it had been on my heart a bit before the earthquake, too.  and now even more so.  i don't know much about haiti, but i am learning.  i heard that there was a bulldozer and a dump truck.  the bulldozer would pick up a pile of dead bodies and put them in the dump truck.  when the truck was filled, it was driven to this huge hole which was basically an anonymous grave site.  the bodies are now completely unidentifiable.  there is no way for their families to know if they are dead or just lost.  i heard a story about a teenage boy who was shot in the head in the middle of the street.  his body laid there for hours without anyone doing anything about it.  people just continued to walk by like nothing happened.  not because they don't care, just because they are used to dead bodies at this point.  there are no police and no medics to do anything about this boy.  no way for his family to know that this happened to him.  his body may still be there.  i have heard lots of super encouraging stories also. people helping people like crazy.  a hurt autistic kid who wandered into a clinic was healed.  then one of the workers took him back into the city and ended up finding his family who were worried like crazy and thought he had died.

there is so much going on there.  so much need.  but it is hard to know what to do.  i think right now giving money is the best thing to do.  until there is some more structure to the relief efforts.  if you're not a fan of just giving money, there are a bunch of sites that are selling things and the proceeds go straight to haiti.  here are two of my suggestions:
http://www.aaronivey.portmerch.com/stores/product.php?productid=17149&cat=0&page=1&featured
http://haitiancreations.com/

do something.  even if it is small.  to help haiti.  i would love to get there and do anything that i can.  maybe in six months when my americorps term is over there will be more structure to the relief efforts and i can get down there.  stay there for a while and help to rebuild.  not just buildings, but lives as well.  not that i can fix things.  because who am i?  but i can do what i can to support people and efforts in any way.  we'll see.  but for now, please give.  please help haiti in any way you can.