A Peorian's Haiti Photobucket

When a commenter on the blog mentioned that she would be going to Haiti, I asked her if she would please share with us some of her thoughts and photos upon her return. She has been gracious enough to do so. Here are comments and her Photobucket:

"I made the unfortunate decision of leaving my digital camera at home and using an instant camera since we were unsure about where we were going to be staying and if we'd be able to secure our belongings. Some of the pictures I have turned out pretty well, but I kind of feel that it doesn't quite capture the intensity of the situation. Likely though, nothing would. It was just so crazy.

I really want to write this prolific wonderful summary of my trip, but honestly, words fail me. I cannot accurately describe the vast destruction, the devastating poverty and the absolute beauty of Haiti and the Haitian people. I have never experienced such extreme joy and such debilitating sadness in a matter of a few short days. We spent our time repairing damage to school buildings, repainting classrooms and organizing donations. Our translator, who is an incredible individuals who I now have the privilege of calling a dear friend, took us into the devastated neighborhoods surrounding the compound in which we were staying. The cultural insights he provided were invaluable. He personally lost 3 friends that day.

The children absolutely stole my heart. I become incredibly emotional thinking about the conditions in which they live. One little boy named Woodly worked so hard all week to pronounce our names so he could call out to us and wave every time he saw us. When walking down neighborhood streets, at any given time we could turn around and see a group of between 10 and 15 children following us, often they would hold our hand and smile at us. On the last day I was there, my mom and I walked into a church and sat in the back pew. There were easily 300 to 400 people there on a hot Saturday morning. Within minutes, child after child began sitting in our pew. All in all, 20 children stuffed themselves into that one pew, smiling and waving at us. I would have given anything to be able to speak Creole during moments like this.

The general living conditions were unreal. We stayed at Blanchard, which is situated about 10 minutes from Cite Soliel, the poorest slum in the western hemisphere. For the residents of this community there is barely electricity and plumbing. At night it was so eerie. Pitch black, except for the mountains, which were lit up by the lights of the wealthy Haitians who have access to power. One family near our compound was living within 2 walls. That was literally all that their house consisted of. However, just because it was dark, did not mean it was quiet. There was rarely a moment that we didn’t hear singing. It was unreal and if nothing at all, I hope I never forget how it sounded.

Port au Prince is a mess. The airport building is unusable, ruble and debris litter the streets. Tens of thousands of people are living in tents or under tarps that are set up everywhere; in parks, blocking off streets and some in medians between the lanes of traffic. It literally looks as if the earthquake happened 2 days ago, not 2 months ago. School has not yet resumed in Port Au Prince. One picture I included is of a classroom chalkboard that still bears the date of the earthquake. It as if time is literally standing still.

One evening we were walking past a church that was barely standing. No ceiling, the floor was reduced to complete ruble and the integrity of the standing walls was questionable. The building was packed with people who were chanting. I asked Byambiason, our interpreter, what they were saying. He replied, “We want a better life. We want a better life”.

Oh, one other thing that I wanted to mention that really struck me. Our translator was telling us about what some people are eating in lieu of having food. Mud mixed with butter, dried into cookie shapes. They are being sold for 5 gourdes. Beside the general desperateness of eating dried mud, reportedly they are riddled with parasites. He said in particular, pregnant women are eating them, but I'm not exactly sure the reason behind that. Our first day there we saw a line heading into the US miliary base at least a 1/2 mile long. All women lined up to get a bag of rice. I will never again complain about lines at the grocery store!

I am still pouring through photos, but it’s such an emotionally draining process. Over the coming months, I'll be posting more pictures to the album.

Here is the blog of one of the guys who is staying at the compound that we were at for the next year. He tends to post some pretty good pictures. http://www.harvestforhaiti.com/ "