NEWS > Haiti Earthquake > Revisiting Haiti - Blog
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Revisiting Haiti - Blog Brian Hatchell is cbm's Emergency Communications Coordinator. He is currently in Haiti, visiting the regions affected by the earthquake. You can also follow Brian on Twitter. Thursday, 11 November 2010 What a difference 45 minutes can make. When I woke up this morning I was in Port au Prince, a city still struggling to rebuild after a massive earthquake 10 months ago and now caught up in the grips of a cholera outbreak. As I write this I’m sitting in an airport lounge in the Dominican Republic enjoying a cappuccino, some melodic Caribbean music and the entertaining conversations of tourists depressed by the thought of returning home. Haiti and the Dominican Republic may share the same island, but they are worlds apart... Read more. Wednesday, 10 November 2010 Yesterday I visited an unbelievably inspiring programme called Pazapa, which means ‘step by step’ in Creole. Pazapa is primarily an education centre for about 225 children with disabilities, but in reality it is so much more. It offers nutrition and health care services, family planning, clubfoot and orthopaedic care, community outreach programmes, income generation training, training/education for parents of children with disabilities, rehabilitation, vocational training for older students, sign-language classes for the hearing impaired and home visits for parents and children who can’t attend the school... Read more. Saturday, 6 November 2010 Spent the day today driving around Port au Prince, Carrefour and Criox des Mission visiting camps and trying to determine what impact Tomas has on those living in tents or located near the seaside. I must admit, in many cases, if you didn't know a Hurricane had passed through the area, you would never have suspected. There was hardly any water in some of the lower lying areas we initially thought would resemble a swamp. And many other areas we thought might suffer severe wind damage, showed no signs of any disturbance what-so-ever. We even joked amongst ourselves in the car asking it if even rained in these areas... Read more. Friday, 5 November 2010 It appears the worst is over, and it may not have been as bad as anticipated. As of 8 pm tonight most tracking maps show the eye of Tomas has passed north of Haiti and is moving towards the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. We certainly received a lot of rain over the last 24 hours, but thank goodness it wasn't as heavy as we feared, at least not in Port au Prince. However, that isn't the case in other locations around Haiti. According to early local news reports there was heavy flooding in Leogane to the south and west of Port au Prince. I've seen some pictures of people wading through waist high water trying to get to secure locations... Read more. Thursday, 4 November 2010 I woke up before the sun this morning in order to get an early start on the day, but as it turned out the sun never made an appearance at all. Most mornings in Haiti are filled with blue sky and plenty of sunshine, a constant reminder of the fact you are in the tropics. But today there was no blue sky, no sunshine, only the feeling something ominous was on the way. Talk of Tomas dominated every conversation I had or overheard today. The thick, dark billowy clouds overhead were a constant reminder that this was no ordinary day... Read more. Tuesday, 2 November 2010 Just over a week ago I wrote a blog voicing my disbelief that after everything the residents of have already been through they were now facing a cholera outbreak. I couldn’t believe that things could worse. Well once again I am wrong, apparently they can get worse. There is a possibility that Hurricane Tomas may swing through this already decimated country, and even if it doesn’t pass directly overhead, it is sure to push some wind and rain in this direction. Not exactly the kind of news you want to hear if you live in a tent on an island in the middle of the Caribbean... Read more. Saturday, 30 October 2010 I spent the morning watching a group of young boys playing football under a clear blue sky. What a beautiful image. The smiles on their faces. The laughter in the air. The endless singing and dancing whenever one of their shots found its mark. It wasclearly evident these boys were enjoying themselves, probably imaging they were playing for Brazil or Argentina and scoring the winning goal in the World Cup. It was a scene I’m sure was being played out on a million pitches the world over. The only difference here is the setting... Read more. Thursday, 28 October 2010 Today I spent the day in the presence of a true hero - a nine year old boy named Rodenson. He taught me that a hero is not determined by their actions, but by their character; this young boy has strength of character beyond his years. When I arrived at the tent city his family now calls home I wasn’t sure what to expect when I poked my head into the entrance, in fact, I had prepared for the worst. But when I did, I was greeted by one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen... Read more. Sunday, 24 October 2010 It's been a crazy couple of days in Haiti. All anyone is talking about is the recent cholera outbreak in the northern part of the country - Artibonite region - about 100 kms north of Port au Prince. As of Sunday 250 people had succumbed to the illness and 3,000 others were affected. No matter where you go and who you talk too 'cholera' was the topic on eveyone's lips... Read more. Thursday, 21 October 2010
When I was planning my return trip to Haiti there were a couple of people I was desperately hoping to reunite with – Stefan and Fara. While I know cbm has done some incredible work with thousands of quake survivors over the last 10 months, each of whom has their own heart wrenching story, it was the story of Stefan and Fara that stuck with me since the day I met the pair at the Adventist Hospital... Read more.
Tuesday, 19 October 2010 What a day of highs and lows. Our plan today was to drive out to Carrefour, a suburb of Port au Prince, and visit a couple of children who cbm helped early on in our emergency response to see how they are doing. Driving anywhere in Port au Prince can be a nightmare. The roads are rough, extremely bumpy and packed with motorbikes, cars and trucks. In fact, if possible I think that is one thing that has gotten worse since my last visit... Read more. Monday, 18 October 2010 I arrived safe and sound this morning in Port au Prince. Walking off the plane at the airport I was quickly reminded of how hot and humid Haiti is. As soon as the flight attendant opened the door a wall of thick, moist air rushed into the cabin and I began sweating before my feet even hit the stairs... Read more. Friday, 15 October 2010 Just finishing packing in preparation of my return trip to Haiti tomorrow. Hard to believe it has been almost six months since I was last there. Not sure what to expect. I have seen and read plenty of news articles over the last few weeks, and from the sounds of it, not much has changed in the last few months. Rubble still dominates the landscape, people are still living in tents or make-shift shelters and the economy is still struggling to recovery... Read more. |
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