With love from Port au Prince

January 19, 2010

This afternoon, feeling helpless, we decided to take a van down to Champs Mars
(the area around the palace) to look for people needing medical care to bring to
Matthew 25, the guesthouse where we are staying which has been transformed into
a field hospital. Since we arrived in Port au Prince everyone has told us that
you cannot go into the area around the palace because of violence and
insecurity. I was in awe as we walked into downtown, among the flattened
buildings , in the shadow of the fallen palace, amongst the swarms of displaced
people there was calm and solidarity. We wound our way through the camp asking
for injured people who needed to get to the hospital. Despite everyone telling
us that as soon as we did this we would be mobbed by people, I was amazed as we
approached each tent people gently pointed us towards their neighbors, guiding
us to those who were suffering the most. We picked up 5 badly injured people
and drove towards an area where Ellie and Berto had passed a woman earlier.
When they saw her she was lying on the side of the road with a broken leg
screaming for help, as they were on foot they could not help her at the time so
we went back to try to find her. Incredibly we found her relatively quickly at
the top of a hill of shattered houses. The sun was setting and the community
helped to carry her down the hill on a refrigerator door, tough looking guys
smiled in our direction calling out “bonswa Cherie” and “kouraj”.

When we got back to Matthew 25 it was dark and we carried the patients back into
the soccer field/tent village/hospital where the team of doctors had been
working tirelessly all day. Although they had officially closed down for the
evening, they agreed to see the patients we had brought. Once our patients were
settled in we came back into the house to find the doctors amputating a foot on
the dining room table. The patient lay calmly, awake but far away under the fog
of ketamine. Half way through the surgery we heard a clamor outside and ran out
to see what it was. A large yellow truck was parked in front of the gate and
rapidly unloading hundreds of bags of food over our fence, the hungry crowd had
already begun to gather and in the dark it was hard to decide how to best
distribute the food. Knowing that we could not sleep in the house with all of
this food and so many starving people in the neighborhood, our friend Amber (who
is experienced in food distribution) snapped into action and began to get
everyone in the crowd into a line that stretched down the road. We braced
ourselves for the fighting that we had heard would come but in a miraculous
display of restraint and compassion people lined up to get the food and one by
one the bags were handed out without a single serious incident.

During the food distribution the doctors called to see if anyone could help to
bury the amputated leg in the backyard. As I have no experience with food
distribution I offered to help with the leg. I went into the back with Ellie
and Berto and we dug a hole and placed the leg in it, covering it with soil and
cement rubble. By the time we got back into the house the food had all been
distributed and the patient Anderson was waking up. The doctors asked for a
translator so I went and sat by his stretcher explaining to him that the surgery
had gone well and he was going to live. His family had gone home so he was
alone so Ellie and I took turns sitting with him as he came out from under the
drugs. I sat and talked to Anderson for hours as he drifted in and out of
consciousness. At one point one of the Haitian men working at the hospital came
in and leaned over Anderson and said to him in kreyol “listen man even if your
family could not be here tonight we want you to know that everyone here loves
you, we are all your brothers and sisters”. Cat and I have barely shed a tear
through all of this, the sky could fall and we would not bat an eye, but when I
told her this story this morning the tears just began rolling down her face, as
they are mine as I am writing this. Sometimes it is the kindness and not the
horror that can break the numbness that we are all lost in right now.

So, don’t believe Anderson Cooper when he says that Haiti is a hotbed for
violence and riots, it is just not the case. In the darkest of times, Haiti has
proven to be a country of brave, resilient and kind people and it is that
behavior that is far more prevalent than the isolated incidents of violence.
Please pass this on to as many people as you can so that they can see the light
of Haiti, cutting through the darkness, the light that will heal this nation.

We are safe. We love you all and I will write again when I can. Thank you for
your generosity and compassion.

With love from Port au Prince,
Sasha