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From: "M D"

Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 9:59 AM

Subject: Good information about what's really happening in Haiti

> Friends and Family,

>

> Haitian whose normal mission is protecting soil resources, empowering

> communities and transforming wastes into resources in Haiti (I am a

> member of the board of directors). She and several staff members have

> taken supplies down to Port au Prince and are trying to put their

> working vehicle to good use in the devastated city. The location she

> refers to as "Matthew 25" is a guesthouse where I have been staying

> for years, those of you have traveled to Haiti with me on a delegation

> will remember it. The soccer field has been transformed into a

>

>

> Subject: Kouraj cherie: Update from Port au Prince

>

> January 19, 2010

>

> This afternoon, feeling helpless, we decided to take a van down to

> Champs Mars (the area around the palace) to look for people needing

> medical care to bring to Matthew 25, the guesthouse where we are

> staying which has been transformed into a field hospital. Since we

> arrived in Port au Prince everyone has told us that you cannot go into

> the area around the palace because of violence and insecurity. I was

> in awe as we walked into downtown, among the flattened buildings , in

> the shadow of the fallen palace, amongst the swarms of displaced

> people there was calm and solidarity. We wound our way through the

> camp asking for injured people who needed to get to the hospital.

> Despite everyone telling us that as soon as we did this we would be

> mobbed by people, I was amazed as we approached each tent people

> gently pointed us towards their neighbors, guiding us to those who

> were suffering the most. We picked up 5 badly injured people and

> drove towards an area where Ellie and Berto had passed a woman

> earlier. When they saw her she was lying on the side of the road with

> a broken leg screaming for help, as they were on foot they could not

> help her at the time so we went back to try to find her. Incredibly

> we found her relatively quickly at the top of a hill of shattered

> houses. The sun was setting and the community helped to carry her

> down the hill on a refrigerator door, tough looking guys smiled in our

2

> direction calling out “bonswa Cherie” and “kouraj”.

>

> When we got back to Matthew 25 it was dark and we carried the patients

> back into the soccer field/tent village/hospital where the team of

> doctors had been working tirelessly all day. Although they had

> officially closed down for the evening, they agreed to see the

> patients we had brought. Once our patients were settled in we came

> back into the house to find the doctors amputating a foot on the

> dining room table. The patient lay calmly, awake but far away under

> the fog of ketamine. Half way through the surgery we heard a clamor

> outside and ran out to see what it was. A large yellow truck was

> parked in front of the gate and rapidly unloading hundreds of bags of

> food over our fence, the hungry crowd had already begun to gather and

> in the dark it was hard to decide how to best distribute the food.

> Knowing that we could not sleep in the house with all of this food and

> so many starving people in the neighborhood, our friend Amber (who is

> experienced in food distribution) snapped into action and began to get

> everyone in the crowd into a line that stretched down the road. We

> braced ourselves for the fighting that we had heard would come but in

> a miraculous display of restraint and compassion people lined up to

> get the food and one by one the bags were handed out without a single

> serious incident.

>

> During the food distribution the doctors called to see if anyone could

> help to bury the amputated leg in the backyard. As I have no

> experience with food distribution I offered to help with the leg. I

> went into the back with Ellie and Berto and we dug a hole and placed

> the leg in it, covering it with soil and cement rubble. By the time

> we got back into the house the food had all been distributed and the

> patient Anderson was waking up. The doctors asked for a translator so

> I went and sat by his stretcher explaining to him that the surgery had

> gone well and he was going to live. His family had gone home so he

> was alone so Ellie and I took turns sitting with him as he came out

> from under the drugs. I sat and talked to Anderson for hours as he

> drifted in and out of consciousness. At one point one of the Haitian

> men working at the hospital came in and leaned over Anderson and said

> to him in kreyol “listen man even if your family could not be here

> tonight we want you to know that everyone here loves you, we are all

> your brothers and sisters”. Cat and I have barely shed a tear through

> all of this, the sky could fall and we would not bat an eye, but when

> I told her this story this morning the tears just began rolling down

> her face, as they are mine as I am writing this. Sometimes it is the

> kindness and not the horror that can break the numbness that we are

> all lost in right now.

>

> So, don’t believe Anderson Cooper when he says that Haiti is a hotbed

> for violence and riots, it is just not the case. In the darkest of

> times, Haiti has proven to be a country of brave, resilient and kind

> people and it is that behavior that is far more prevalent than the

> isolated incidents of violence. Please pass this on to as many people

> as you can so that they can see the light of Haiti, cutting through

> the darkness, the light that will heal this nation.

>

> We are safe. We love you all and I will write again when I can.

> Thank you for your generosity and compassion.

>

> With love from Port au Prince,

3

> Sasha

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