Earthquake In Haiti

Saturday, January 16, 2010     

On Tuesday, January 12, 2010 an earthquake of magnitude 7.1 hit Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti.  I learned of the earthquake when I turned on my laptop that evening.  There were three things that came to mind.  First of all, I thought about how close Nick would have been had he still been in the Dominican Republic as he had planned and I am thankful that he is in Guatemala.  Next, I thought of my friend John because he was in Port-au-Prince in November of 2009 working with Rotary and Word Vision to bring clean water to the country.  I wondered how many of his friends had lost their lives in the previous few hours.  Then the reality of this tragedy began to sink in as I thought of the devastation that had just occurred and the people whose lives were affected by it. 

The depth of sadness I felt for people who I have never met surprised me.  I’ve always thought of myself as a compassionate person, but since returning from Bosnia, well, I find my feelings rising to the surface much more easily.  The intensity of what I feel is so powerful and at times, rather distressing.  I was hard-pressed to focus on much other than the tragedy in Haiti all week long. 

I’m not really interested in watching TV, so most of my information has come from the internet.  I was impressed by the outpouring of money from people on social networking sites such as facebook.  On Wednesday morning, I joined a group formed by World Vision called “Fundraising Project:  URGENT Haiti Earthquake Relief.”  By posting it on my “wall” all of my friends are able to learn about it and have the option to join the group as well as give money to relief efforts.  I heard that it was possible to donate $10 simply by texting “HAITI” to 90999.  No longer do we need to get out the checkbook, write a check, place it in an envelope, try to find the proper address, add and stamp and drive it to a post office to donate money. 

As of last night, the Red Cross estimated the death toll to be around 45,000 – 50,000 and it will surely rise.  Government workers began burying thousands of dead bodies in mass graves.  There was no time to identify, document or photograph the bodies as removing them quickly has become paramount. 

Because most homes are either destroyed or severely damaged, hundreds of thousands of Haitians are sleeping on the street.  It is believed that there are still survivors who are trapped under rubble, thought their time is running out.

Paul, Emily and I were saddened to learn of an orphanage in Haiti that is full of children whose paperwork had been completed and were ready to go to their new families in America when the earthquake hit.  Now all the paperwork is under tons of rubble, never to be seen again and the poor children are stuck in Haiti.  Their future is bleak.  It is so sad that because of beaurocracy, hope for the future is lost.

It will be very difficult for Haiti to recover from this natural disaster.  The country was so impoverished before.  They had no natural resources and just struggled to survive, but now, things are so much worse.  During dinner last night, we had an interesting discussion with our friend Roby, Emily, Chris and 5 of his friends.  One of them, Alex pointed out that it is during times of tragedy that countries tend to unite and I was so impressed by the maturity of these kids’ viewpoints.  My hope in the coming days, weeks, months and years is for unity among our world.  I wish that it wouldn’t take tragedy to bring people together, but I am thankful to see people from all around the world working together to help the people of Haiti today.