Haiti, We Remember

Haiti, we remember. 

I remember having two wisdom teeth out earlier that day. A friend came by with ice-cream and said, "Have you heard? There's been an earthquake in Haiti." We switched on the news, and my heart broke. 

I remember hours upon frantic hours of phone-calls, Facebook chats, Skype calls, trying to locate people - Storly's family members in Port-au-Prince, my former colleagues from World Vision. (We knew the 4VEH/OMS community in the north were not physically affected, but were providing help). I remember praying for people by name around the kitchen table with our small group. (After 5 days, we heard Storly's family were all safe). 

I remember searching the UN Haiti website, hoping not to see a friend's name on their list of staff who died when their offices collapsed. 

I remember friends from around the world calling, texting, emailing, wanting to check on us, and on our people in Haiti. Estelle, your call from Senegal meant so much. 

I remember being in constant contact with our colleagues at Radio 4VEH. They'd felt the shaking (there was no damage up north where the station is), they'd heard the news, but with communications down in Port-au-Prince, they didn't have details. As local and international news agencies, NGOs and others began to get news out, I passed the information on.  

I remember sending out lots of communications, letting supporters and friends of Radio 4VEH, the wider OMS community, know what we knew, how they could pray, how they could help. Ministry partners at TWR offered use of their AM frequency which reaches Port-au-Prince, to broadcast 4VEH live through the night to those who had access to a radio, and needed information, a friendly voice, and words of godly comfort. 

I remember receiving this message on the 4VEH Facebook page, passing it on to our presenters and hearing it on the air: " We are alive! To our parents, to everyone listening to 4VEH in St. Louis du Nord, we want you to know we are alive. Our names are Wandel and Loubert Leger." 

I remember Storly left for Haiti within a few days, leaving me at home, working around the clock, with a 3-year-old and 2-year-old. I remember Karen (whose daycare the girls attended) having the girls over for the night so I could get some sleep. I remember being sick, the doctor telling me he'd never seen so many swollen glands in someone's neck before. I remember from a previous time how the effects of grief can show up physically.  

I remember watching every news report I could find, and being devastated to see so much destruction of places I knew, and people I can picture. I remember being frustrated that the newly-arrived international news media did not have the context or relationship with Haiti, or people on the ground giving them that context to do justice in their coverage. I remember remembering I've at times been in their shoes too.

I remember being amazed that local officials were able to do anything to help. Local officials who had lost family members, homes, offices, colleagues, infrastructure. 

I remember being angry and frustrated at the indignation of the international community towards Haiti, when she was struggling to bury her dead. Did they not know what a terrible state Haiti was in before the earthquake? Did they not consider the magnitude of burying hundreds of thousands of people, in a jam-packed city crushed, with no emergency services? Did they not know people were transporting their dead in wheelbarrows? 

I remember watching news reports of people injured in makeshift hospitals, with no mention of the spiritual story that needed to be told as the patients sang praise songs to the Lord. I remember hearing that as the ground shook, witch doctors cried out to Jesus.

I remember so many people the world over wanting to help. And many people whose hearts were stirred then are still helping now. 

I remember being in church thousands of miles away in Columbus, on that first Sunday, singing, listening, through heavy tears, all filtered through the new lens of what was going on in Haiti. I remember knowing deep in my heart that the Haitian believers that I knew would be in church too, praising and worshiping their God in their overwhelming grief and suffering. Later that afternoon, I remember listening to Pastor Voltaire, at First Baptist Church in Cap-Haitien (our church in Haiti; at the service recorded that morning and played on 4VEH) as he addressed his thousands-strong congregation, knowing that young people from the church, who were in the capital city to study, had been killed. 

I remember five months later, on my next trip to Haiti, seeing the places that had been destroyed, the tents where so many still lived, and all the places that were still standing. I remember seeing people hard at work, knocking out concrete from collapsed buildings, taking down metal re-bar, selling shoes along the roadside. People hard at work, not sitting around waiting for a handout.

I remember a quick stop at the World Vision office, and the relief of seeing former colleagues in the flesh - alive! - and seeing the organization working flat out providing relief, protecting, helping people recover and rebuild shattered lives. I remember the tug at my heart as a leader asked if I wanted to come back and help.  

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At the time, Storly wrote: 

People talk about Haitians being resilient; me, I see hope, I talk about faith. Of course, we have a different Haiti from what we had before January 12, but people were starting to get back to life. 

School was starting again in many parts of the country. Tap taps (a form of public transport) were back on the streets. People were trying to get back to a more or less normal life because they say God has not abandoned Haiti.

I don’t think there is anything more powerful than that. In the midst of all the politics, all the uncertainty, all the money changing hands, all the relief, the pain and the chaos, the Peace comes. Gentle, simple and straightforward; abundant and sufficient from the cross of Calvary.

Thank you for helping us carry out this message of hope to the Haitian people.

 

Haiti, we remember. We will not forget. 

P.S. The answer to the question, "How is Haiti doing 5 years on?" is a complicated one. An article published today from Concern Worldwide provides a good overview. 

The road ahead for Haiti is riddled with deep and complex challenges, but five years on, hope is very much alive in Haiti. From "Five years on, hope is very much alive in Haiti"