Like I’ve Never Seen

The piles of bodies we had seen on TV were no longer in the streets of Port-au-Prince when we arrived. Most had been buried – unidentified - in mass graves to prevent the spread of disease. But the Haitian Capital was an emotionally draining place to be all the same. People were suffering all around us.

We saw high-rise concrete buildings collapsed like telescopes. Entire stories had been crushed as ceilings met floors. Hills of rubble lined the streets, some with car trunks or motorcycle wheels sticking out the bottom. Bulldozers attempted to clear roads while carefully searching for possible survivors. In residential neighborhoods, walls had collapsed revealing the now abandoned interiors of what had once been people’s homes.

[Photo borrowed – I forgot my camera!]

As we drove past one street corner, we saw a body that had recently been pulled from the rubble. It looked like a pile of clothes, but had a human hand reaching out from it.

On a couple occasions we passed the U.S. and Canadian embassies. No matter the time of day, there were long lines of Haitians seeking visas to leave the country.

Those with no other option but to stay set up tent cities in public parks. They hung tarps and blankets from strings tied to tree branches and used broom handles as tent poles. People with open wounds and untreated injuries lay listlessly on salvaged mattresses. Children played together, smiling from beneath head-bandages, and families cooked pots of rice over camp stoves. Suspending dignity, women bathed in the open. And gutters filled to overflowing with human waste as clean water became more and more scarce.

[Photo borrowed – I forgot my camera!]

While talking with people in a tent-city outside a Cathedral, a commotion erupted at the next tent. I saw a young man trying to take something from a woman who was desperately trying to keep it. Within seconds others joined the tug of war. A mob formed. Fists flew. What had been a scuffle suddenly became a huge fight. We left as fast as we could and watched from a safe distance until it was safe to return.

In a context of scarcity and desperation, such fights are inevitable. For this reason, foreign military has provided security to relief efforts. We witnessed the process of one organization’s distribution (I won’t name the organization here). U.S. army personal created a perimeter while a selected crowd listened to an obligatory religious message. Afterward, they lined up to receive a package of supplies before being quickly shuffled off the premises. The distribution was faceless and mechanical. And our translator told as that once the people exited the area, the crowd outside would rush them. Those too weak to hold onto their things – the elderly women, for example – wouldn’t get to keep what they had just received.

While some were panicked, others were still in shock. The most bizarre thing I saw was a grown man walking down the street – completely naked. We saw him at least twice, and both times he seemed completely dazed and unaware of what was happening around him.

[Photo borrowed – I forgot my camera!]

Walls left standing were covered by earthquake-inspired graffiti:

A map of Haiti with crying eyes

Requests for food and water

The words, "Obama, we need change"