Video from Haiti

While trawling the Compassion Day website yesterday I stumbled upon a heap of YouTube clips that I hadn’t previously seen.

The clips are taken from our recent trip to Haiti and the one in this post shows the situation outside the Port-au-Prince Compassion office just before a rock came through the window we were standing near.

You may have heard the story of the riots and how close we came to getting caught up in everything there. This video, while still fairly rough, shows a little of the scene before the rock attack.

You can see the beginnings of the crowd heading down the street, some armed with crude weapons.

The next thing you see is the shattered glass in the room where it all happened and then a bit of a debrief between members of the team. Several of us, including me, had a chance to talk over the situation.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on what you see.



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About the author

Rodney Olsen

Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.

He previously worked in radio for about 25 years but these days he spends his time at Compassion Australia, working towards releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name.

The views he expresses here are his own.

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4 Comments

  • Very well said, Rodney. A dangerous job, but certainly you reach the goal to help one individual person as well as point people to the situation there, and make one or another join in helping.
    I think this is really a brave thing to do, other than “just” spending money. You not only take the risk of being there but take all the necessary, time- and money-consuming steps to help others who weren´t as lucky as we are.
    Which just reminds me of how really very lucky we are and which makes me feel ashamed of the many times I say, hey, what just happened to me is unfair!

    “Funnily” I misinterpreted “Compassion”. I thought of it in the sense of coming from having a passion for something, to be engaged in something. Now I learn it´s another word for pitifulness.

    Whatever the word itself means, it stands for doing something by heart for somebody else and that certainly is rather rare these days.

    I won´t hop in a plane and do the big thing today, but it sure encourages me to do a bit more for others (sad thing some play with it. Just some weeks ago there were some “Clowns” collecting money for children who suffer from cancer. I had a bad feeling and gave no money. Just to read later they were fake and ran away with their haul).

    Keep up the good work and keep up telling it, too, best wishes!

  • Hi Rodney, thanks for sharing this. These guys in the street look very threatening… It looks like people stop thinking as soon as they join a crowd. Good to see that you are supporting Compassion’s work over there. Just wanted to say hi and encourage you to keep up the good work. Blessings from the Netherlands

  • Always good to hear from you, Iris.

    Your story of the clowns is a good reminder that if we’re trying to help people we still need to be wise. That was something that was very important with Compassion. I can now tell my listeners with confidence that they really do good work.

  • Thanks Paul.

    The riots were very dangerous. Such a shame that people get so desperate for basic food that they have to riot to get their government’s attention.

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