So I was all super excited to wake up this morning to go to the two orphanages that I had mentioned yesterday, but of course things did not go as previously planned. It wasn't a big deal because it was another great experience that came up in the morning. This is usually what happens in the morning. We all get up in the morning, usually before 6am, but today was later at around 6:45am. We all get ready and then head over for breakfast at the compound cafeteria at around 7:25am. Then we all started heading toward the vehicles going out at 8am this morning. Today, I thought everyone was going to the orphanages, but then I found out that one other team was heading toward Leogane to film and report back to Master Cheng Yang. Carrfour was the epicenter of the earthquake, but Leogane was the most hard hit town in Haiti. I don't even know how to start describing the town. Let's start from the beginning shall we...
The drive was about an hour and a half from the capital Port-au-Prince, where our Tzu Chi office is located in Haiti. There were 9 of us, including the driver. We zipped through the downtown areas, where people were buzzing around in "TapTaps" (Haitian taxis) to get to their destinations. Today is Sunday, the day of worship for the Haitians. Everyone walking on the streets were dressed in their very best outfits to go to church. Men, women, children, and elderly were all walking with their head held high toward the nearest make-shift temporary churches. Most of the people here in Haiti are protestant and catholic christians, with a minor population practicing active voodooism. Even the poorest of people had one good outfit for Sunday church ready to wear for their faith. You can see from all of the "TapTaps" here words of prise for the lord, such as "Merci Dieu" (Thank God), "Dieu viendra ici" (God will come here), "Dieu est bien" (God is good), and "Dieu est la route" (God is the way). We drove for a while toward Carrfour and the earthquake aftermath started to get very real. The road conditions progressively got worse and worse as we drove further into the epicenter. The roads started cracking at first and then huge splits and deep crevasses started appearing. Right before we got to the border of Leogane, we had to stop and go around a round about way due to the huge height differences in the connecting roads. On our way toward Leogane, we were driving along the pacific ocean front, where the ports were located. You can see from a distance all the navy ships and port supplies. It gave a sense of hope for us, knowing that more supplies and help are on their way. There were many beach houses and hotels aimed at tourist that came to Haiti, but now those are all pretty much destroyed. According to our driver, the hotels usually cost between $65 to $90 a night for two people and it does not include meals or transportation. The hotels usually have their own private beach attached and it is considered to be relatively nicer than the public beaches. When we got to Leogane, the destruction at first was not that bad, it was about the same as the other areas that we have visited. We were in the downtown areas and we first went to visit the Mayor's office. The Mayor was at church, like 80% of the population today, and so we went to look at a couple of sites at first. We looked at possible distribution sites around the downtown areas and it just didn't pan out. We kept on driving, trying to look for the clinic for pregnant women and babies that the mayor had previously told us about. We finally found it after much effort and the building was so unstable that the locals told us to stand far away in case things fall. We will discuss further instructions as to if we can help rebuild that clinic in that area. The third site that we looked at was already being helped out by the red cross and other medical organizations, which was a great site to see. It was a huge tent camp full of families. On our way toward the outer areas, we stopped at a kindergarten school that had completely pancaked on itself. We were assessing the site for a possible rebuilding of another school. It was just very hard to stand there and stare at all that rubble and thinking just how many children and helpers are still stuck under there, decomposing without a face or voice. The last stop that we saw was definitely a huge emotional hit. Most of the places and compounds all have tents, but no waterproof tarps, but this site was even worst off. The site was called K-Pity camp and no one had a tent at all. The shelter units were all made with 8 thin wooden sticks with very thin bed coverings. They all sleep on rocks with leaves on top. The raining season is starting and last night we got a taste of what is coming. All of the K-Pity residents slept on wet grounds and this morning everything they own was on the roofs for drying. It was a very sad sight to see. The locals told me that last night they had one huge tarp from a neighboring camp site and they placed all the children on that tarp so they would be protected from the rain, while the adults slept just next to them. Just thinking of that breaks my heart. I spoke at length to the locals about the site and we are planning at least to go back this week to distribute 560 waterproof tarps to all the families. I just hope the rain will hold off for at least a day...
When we got back to OECC, I ate a really quick lunch because I only had 30 minutes to get ready for the next assignment. I was heading to the General Hospital with the Tzu Chi medical team to visit the trauma units. The Tzu Chi clinic cannot do on-site surgery and emergency response, so we do referrals to the hospitals that are in Port-au-Prince, which are General and Miami Hospitals. We headed to the General Hospital at around 2pm for a visit. General Hospital in Port-au-Prince is pretty much the only hospital there is around. It is the only hospital with a university program. The hospital sustained a lot of damage from the earthquake and many of the medical students died there. The University that was just adjacent to the hospital was the hardest hit part. The nursing school dorms completely pancaked on itself, burying 200 nursing students alive under the rubble. They are still there today and you can smell the odors in the air still. When we arrived at the hospital, there were tents everywhere. There were about 10 to 12 different NGOs (Non-governmental organizations) with their tents at the hospital. I was informed that the NGO doctors pretty much run the whole hospital right now and at night time the Haitian residents take over. All the tents were separated by units: OBGYN, Pediatrics, Orthopedics, Post-ops, Internal Medicine, Surgery, Laboratory, Clinic Intake, Blood transfusions, Maternal Ward, Divers, and Pharmacy. One of the nurses took us on a tour around the compound and we did some bed-side care with the patients. I visited the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and saw such tiny babies. I mean I saw tiny babies in Ethiopia already, but this was like a slew of them. So tiny, all pre-mature babies, only about the size of both of my hands combined. In the maternity ward, they were putting mothers on their backs with their legs supported by braces after they gave birth to let the placenta fall out and drain the excessive blood. That was quite a sight to behold.
On our way back to OECC, I asked the driver to take us to the most hard hit place around Port-au-Prince. Since he was a local policeman, he knew exactly where to take us. We were up by one of the mountain areas and it was so bad. So so so bad. Literally streets of houses would be flat and completely destroyed. The smell was actually so strong that we had to put masks on. I cannot even begin to describe that kind of smell. It was a mix of burning flesh and dust and rotting garbage, something to that effect. The driver told us that the black charcoal colors that we see on a lot of rubble pieces are from people burning the bodies. This was because so many people are under the rubble with their limbs exposed, but they cannot be moved. So people would just start burning the whole entire area, in hopes to get rid of the body parts and smell at the same time. It was so hard to see and go through just knowing how many died here and are still there today...my heart sank deeper and deeper.
It was a very emotional day today, seeing all the hardest hit areas by the earthquake. The last image I was left with before the sunlight gave out was the Haiti Presidential Palace that was still standing, but looked like could collapse at any time if something else triggered a movement. It really spoke to that no matter how rich or poor you are, nature will treat you the same way at the same time...
Tomorrow we will be heading to orphanages and working with both the U.S. and Jordan Armies on site assessments.
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