Gillaine 1/26/10 email

VISIT TO PORT AU PRINCE.

It is quite amazing to think, but up here in the Plateau Central we are protected from so much, including the news, and so not only because we have been flat out in the Church we have not heard anything or seen any photos of the disaster in Port au Prince. Fr. Lafontant told me I had to go down and see for myself what it was like; so much to our distress at having to leave patients etc. we went down yesterday.  I have no idea what a country in the middle of a savage war would look like, but this must surely be compared to a bombing of the greatest magnitude.

The horror of seeing those major buildings, the parliament, etc. which I’m sure you have all seen on the TV is shattering to the eye, but to actually stand in front of the beautiful cathedral, and then our precious St Trinity and only find a huge pile of rubble, hit so hard the pain is indescribable. Buildings that had fallen in a sandwich pile, as if a many-tiered cake had had the supporting pillars pulled out and the whole thing collapsed were everywhere; horrifying angles of buildings collapsed to one side -- but even worse to see grown men clambering in through tiny holes at enormous risk, to retrieve bottles of Jack Daniels with complete disregard for their lives.

Certain areas are completely destroyed and then others where only a few houses have been affected, but internal damage with cracks and instability are still and will be forever, too risky to enter. The second shake, which we felt only slightly up here in Cange threw everyone into a complete panic again and people are refusing to go indoors, are too afraid, with reason.

BUT amazingly enough there are already signs of life starting again, and we witnessed the resilience of the Haitian people.

I don’t know of any other country or people who could survive and live under such horrific conditions, and I think is it because they have been used to living with disaster most of their lives. Terrible to think about.

The small street markets are up and running again, people bustling about, shoes being shined in the middle of the dusty rubble, kids all over the place, clothing and shoe markets in full swing, sugar cane cut, ready to eat, juice bottles and little sachets of water, with prices having risen immediately after the quake --- someone is going to make a lot of money – water trucks with long lines of people holding 5gallon buckets of water to be filled, and even washing big done in tiny puddles of water and hung out to dry on the re-bars and blocks of collapsed buildings. Children laughing!!

I don’t believe there is a single public space that has not been occupied by thousands of tents made of sheets and pieces of fabric, cardboard again, and people everywhere.

The hardest thing of all was to go in to the General Hospital area, which is truly a nightmare. Seemingly thousands of people all outside under tents made of plastic sheets and covers, waiting to be operated on, in the open air, bed upon bed of amputees, the whole of the women’s and maternity areas having been moved outside after the second quake, with C sections being done and babies delivered in the open, flies all around, doctors and nurses trying their hardest to help the most needy and not even scratching the surface. Our patients in the church and hospital in Cange are surely the lucky ones. I’m not sure where and how PIH are operating there, but believe they are inside with an area set apart, which is surely awesome.

There is still no electricity in the city, banks not open, all businesses closed and commerce at a standstill. We did see the big hospital ships in the harbor, but the area is still so unstable didn’t get a close look. Unfortunately the looting has started with no evidence of security patrols, but how people can exploit their fellow men and compatriots under these circumstances is hard to understand. Even here in Cange, the very morning after the quake, all the prices for goods had risen two or three times and are still going up as they get scarcer.

People are pouring in with aid, and services -- on our way out we were stuck in an enormous road block for at least an hour and happened to pass a group of ‘blancs’(by the way, ‘blancs’ is the word for foreigners, no matter what race) just arriving. With windows down we exchanged greeting and asked them what they had come to do – the reply with a very deep brogue was “ to do a study on the internal traffic problems – and it won’t take us long!!” Good Irish humor!!s

Marie Flore called tonight with reports of more activity and signs of rehabilitation. A supermarket has actually opened and people are starting to repair their buildings. I think my greatest concern is that they will rebuild on the rubble and the whole thing could occur again.

We came home absolutely exhausted, emotionally and physically, and the realization of what had actually occurred to all the people in the church and how they had obtained their injuries lies heavy on the heart.

The boys are doing a great job, Breck keeping everyone’s spirits up with jovial chat along with his serious work, apparently was just dancing with one of the patients visitors, much to the amusement of the whole church, and total lack of understanding on behalf of the Haitian doctors and nurses!

We are remaining positive that things will come back --- yesterday represented disaster and today hope. We are working on a very important plan for the future and that will be in the next epistle!!

Please know that we feel all the love and prayers that are flowing in to us, we couldn’t do without them, I hope these little insights help you understand a bit of what is going on, outside the big press reports. BTW the Wall Street Journal has been here for the last 6 days and had a long article in the journal a couple of days ago, another should be appearing tomorrow. Boston Globe arrived tonight in competition.

We send our love and heartfelt thanks for your support.      G.