Dear family and friends,

Forgive me for sending a communal letter however I risk not sending it to some of you if I don’t do it this way. Please forgive me also for not writing sooner. Today is the first day I have opened my mail since the earthquake and I am overwhelmed with your kindness, your prayers and your deep concern.

We are alive and well thank goodness. Many, many people of course as you know are not. I volunteered one day (so far) with the Red Cross and was appalled to see the deep wounds, infected some of them, gaping wounds that should have been stitched up but others I’m sure were worse so they didnt get to have theirs done. I am so grateful to be alive and able to help a little.

We had a close call in the sense that four of us were at our house at the time, Yves and I upstairs, Marny and a youth downstairs. The youth and Marny ran outside before a wall fell and Yves and I ran downstairs to arriving just after the wall fell thank goodness or we would have been hit.

We are well and all the extended members of our family too. Our house is not and we are looking for a new home. Keep us in your prayers that we will be able to find something suitable in the area and something safe. We no longer are interested in living in a two story home.

We have food and water and we sleep at night in the park in the village where everyone else from the village sleeps. Its just fine becuase we have sponges to sleep on and enoubh sheets to keep us warm. Others are not so fortunate. So far it has not rained and we will pray for that as well.

The friends that some of you know are all well. Some have lost their homes and their belongings. We are fortunate that we were able to take most of our things out of the house and if the rest has to stay its okay. The Bahai school is great except for the director’s house which was completely destroyed at the moment of the quake. Fortunately there was only one little boy alone in the home and they were able to get him out after with no injuries. We keep hearing of how people had close calls and we are so blessed to be part of them. The new buildings and the old ones are just fine Iraj and I am so grateful for that. We have you and Bernard to thank for that and of course the Mona Foundation.

I will try to keep in touch as time goes on but public transportation is not as easy as before and we have no electricity at our house and no internet connection either so telephone is easier.

Our love to all of you and from the bottom of our hearts thank you for your support
Sue, Yves, and family