Letter from Haiti

Catholic New Times, Oct 24, 2004 by Lorraine Malo

October 2004

On September 21 we arrived in Gonaives from Port-au-Prince. I can not begin to describe the devastation that we saw all around.

At one point on the way, we were stopped by a group of people who told us that it was impossible to go any further as there was a virtual lake ahead. We had a big, high truck and when two young men offered to guide us through the 'lake,' I was okay, until suddenly the lights went out. Then it was quite scary.

In reality they were under water if the truck had died at that point, I am not sure what we would have done. The water was past our waist at this point. I prayed to St. Joseph, the engine did not die, and after about fifteen minutes of 'lake travel', we emerged on fairly dry ground.

The devastation in the town of Gonaives is beyond anything I have ever seen. Water everywhere--awash in bodies, dead animals, huge blocks of cement, large overturned trucks and cars, houses buried up to the roof in mud, food floating all over. We went straight to Mother Teresa's convent in Gonaives, What a sight. The sisters were sure that they were going to die when the flood came. Like all properties in Haiti, a security wall surrounds their buildings and it was this wall that practically did them in. The wall retained the floodwaters and the water kept rising inside their house. They could not get out because the force of the water would have carried them away.

Fortunately the wall crashed and the water level in their house started to go down. But What a mess it left. All their sick and dying had to be moved into the chapel on higher ground.

The next morning, we went into town to see if Phadoul"s mother was all right. Phadoul, one of our staff members here at the hospital, came with us as his family lives in Gonaives. When we got to his house, it was completely submerged in mud, but his mother had gone to her other son's house the day before the rains started and so she was safe, except of course, that she lost, everything. We did find a body buried in the mud in front of the house and there were a few tense moments when we weren't sure if it was his mother or not. It wasn't.

We spent some time on the main street of Gonaives, talking to the people. I met a young couple who had left their two young children in the house alone --they were 8 and 6 years of age. The flood came and drowned the two little ones. Another man had lost everything in his food depot. I saw them carting out wheelbarrows full of food--and dumping it into the street where the current carded it off.

When I expressed my sorrow to him, he said "We thank God that he saved our life ... material things are passing!" I wept at such faith. Dead animals were floating in this same water. The children, as always, gave me shy smiles and little waves as we were leaving. It was truly the most difficult moment that I have lived in Haiti.

Yesterday, our huge truck went back from Port au Prince to Gonaives, loaded with water, food, medications, clothes, soap, etc., to help the people try to rebuild their lives. We already have a similar project going on in Fond Verette which flooded last July. That seems to be the best way of helping the people.

It has taken me two or three days to reflect on this experience, and I don't suppose I will ever be able to absorb it all. Although I am still very tired, I am grateful that I was able to go to Gonaives. It is certainly an experience that I won't soon forget.

Please continue to pray for Haiti--I sometimes wonder how much more the people can take and yet, in Gonaives, whenever I ask someone how they are doing--the response almost always is, "Thank God I have my life and my children. I am doing okay--and we just start over!" That pretty well sums it up.

Blessings to you all, Lorraine

Sr. Lorraine Malo, CSJ, of Toronto, works in Saint Damien's Hospital in Port-au-Prince.