Guest Post by Hedva Elharar
After a long trip, we arrived in Haiti to a warm welcome by Norma, the physiotherapist at St. Damien. She generously praised our colleagues, Ayelet and Ofra, whom we just replaced. We promised her we would do our best to meet the high standard they set! On the way “home,” for the time we will be here, we began the process of adjusting. Port au Prince is incredibly densely populated. When we were in the plane we could see from above the stretches of paltry shacks – where most Haitians live, the tent camps dotting the city and people camping outside their half ruined homes. Now on the ground, we see that people are outside their homes (if they survived!) because they are afraid of the roofs collapsing. The streets are narrow and sometimes unpaved and if traffic moves at all it is as the same pace as walking! Pick- up trucks and taxis are decorated with wall paper on all sides and carry inconceivable loads of people. Women carry huge bundles on their heads. There are “restaurants” in the middle of the road – these are cauldrons with some bubbling stew which the chef/owner tries to sell to passers-by.
The whole city is a huge crowded market. Everyone is trying to sell something – old shoes, second-hand bras, fruits and vegetables. The squalor and crowding is heart breaking. Many houses are half demolished and there does not seem to be any major work being done to evacuate debris, though some places do show signs of construction. After more than an hour and a half of traveling we arrived at our neighborhood and our “home” for the next three weeks. The house is right next to a huge crowded camp. I cannot imagine how people can live like this for a prolonged time.
Surveying the camp gave us an immediate feel for the Haitian spirit- people are happy and smile despite the terrible situation. The children are incredibly sweet and lovely, very communicative in a straightforward and touching way. We have arrived at the start of Easter and here in Haiti kite flying is a local custom. It looks like every single child made a kite – from plastic bags and twigs – and everyone was flying their colorful kites with great deftness. It was hard to make our way through the crowds of kite-flyers. To see this sight in a camp so crowded that tent touches tent and dust rises with every single step and becomes slippery mud with every drop of rain and stinking streams of sewage run between the tents – is a sight that almost defies description.
The children have not yet returned to school- we’ve been told they will after Easter. We took only a few pictures because we felt embarrassed to point our cameras and capture such sorrow.
