Carrefour: The Haiti Earthquake's Epicenter

This morning we headed to Carrefour to visit a Nun's monastery. There were 75 nuns living at this monastery and many of them are in tents due to a lack of space for living. It took us about an hour just to drive to this area of town. Before the earthquake, Carrefour was already considered the one of the poorest part of Haiti. People didn't have a lot and weren't that educated. This would be considered the more country side of Haiti. Now, after the earthquake, people have even less and the small glimmer of hope for a proper education before has been buried under all the rubble, as well.

St. Theresa is quite hidden and it very high up in the mountains. It was very hard to get the trucks up to that place. Nevertheless, we made it! The sisters all greeted us with glee. We sang and we danced and we praised the lord together. They showed us the old buildings where it was nothing but rubble left on the grounds. I learned that four sisters passed away during the earthquake and quite a few were injured, but all have since successfully recovered. Of course, the emotional trauma will take time to remedy. Right now all the sisters are sleeping in temporary beds inside or in tents outside. Many of the sisters spoke about how there is an intense fear to be under a roof right now, so they rather sleep in the hot tents. During the day, the tents get scorching hot, it is not possible to stay in the tents at all. They even said, sometimes when it gets way too hot at night, they would just pull some mattress out on the ground and sleep outdoors without any covers. Of course, this makes their bodies a night feast for all the mosquitoes around.

When the tour was over, we started our small ceremony of giving. The donations that we brought over were rice, corn starch, red beans, tents, stabilizing pipes, and flour. We couldn't bring over a lot of aid, because the sister had told us that they were afraid that other people would see it and come rob them. Tzu Chi volunteers sang for the sisters, and the sisters sang for us in French in return. It was a lovely ceremony.

We said goodbyes to the sisters and headed to another part of Carrefour. We came across this huge area where all the women were washing their clothes by this small stream. It was very deep down and you can still see all the marks left by the previous raining season. It is amazing just how strong mother nature is. When I asked the locals just how far the rain water raises, they all said that many times they would have to abandon their homes because it would be completely submerged in water. The rain season in Haiti is about to start up again. I can only pray for all the Haitian's safety and for mother nature to spare them a little this year. Many of the women who are washing clothes were all nude from the waist up. It was as if they did not care if people looked, filmed, or took pictures of their bodies. I asked our drivers how come this is such a common phenomenon and if it is due to the fact that after the earthquake people are always outside, so they don't have a choice. The drivers told me that this has nothing to do with the earthquake and that this was what happens in the countryside. If we saw this in the city it would be because people have no place to go to take a shower and they are forced to shower outside due to earthquake, but in the countryside it is because lack of education. People don't think the same way.

On the drive back to Port-au-Prince you can really see the huge difference between the two cities. Carrefour's building are not all flat and collapsed, but the poverty level really shows in what the people wear and the way they carry themselves. Even with the car between me and the people, I can still feel the pain they are going through and the desperate faces of wanting something better.

At night time I was invited to attend a party at the Jordanian army base. Turns out it was also a celebration of the Jordanian King's birthday today. A lot of UN people and other army commanders were invited to this party. There were dancing, singing, speeches, and all around good Jordanian food. Normally there would be belly dancers, but since we were in the army base, there were no women present, other than guests. The men still put on some dancing show and it was very entertaining. Some of the movements the officers did were just awesome. Everyone had a good laugh. I loved the music and the motivational words. They also did a parody of the movie 300, Jordanian style. It was pretty funny. I said goodbye to Major Mohammad and all the other officers there. I am going to miss them very much. One day I will go to Jordan to visit all of them.

One more full day to go...it is going to be very hard, this I know...