Report from Haiti

Garry Pierre-Pierre is the editor and publisher of “Haitian Times,” the largest Haitian newspaper in the United States. The day after the earthquake Pierre-Pierre and his staff flew from New York to Haiti to report on the disaster. They are staying with a group of journalists at the Hotel Villa Creole in Petion-Ville, just outside of Port-au-Prince, where a bureau chief established Internet access for all journalists. The hotel sustained some damage from the earthquake but there were no injuries. The roof of the restaurant collapsed and one guest wing has been closed, but the owners are continue to provide basic service and remarkably, many of their employees continue to show up for work. The hotel’s owners are managing a small shelter and a medical triage center in the parking lot for neighborhood wounded. The following are excerpts from reports filed by Pierre-Pierre. On Sunday Mass was about the dead PORT-AU-PRINCE - Rosemarie Tintin’s black hat and veil barely cover the sorrow on her face. She has recently lost her entire family from the earthquake and the only place she could find solace was at her church. But that, too, was not possible. Even the Houses of Worship did not escape. Sacred Heart; National Cathedral; Church of Christ... They are all in ruins. Tintin was one of about 300 parishioners gathered a the courtyard wearing their Sunday best to attend mass. Since the earthquake hit on Tuesday, the days have seemed like a blur to everyone and the easiness associated with the holy day has given way to the macabre task of digging out people stuck under buildings. The government continues to scoop up bodies burying them in mass graves, offending the sensibilities of many who feel that there should be a better way. People didn’t believe this was the big one Marjorie Louis was sitting in her kitchen eating dinner when she felt the house shaking, but she didn’t get up. “I didn’t think it wasn’t going to be serious...and was waiting for it to stop. But I noticed it wasn’t stopping and finally tried to get up off the table but just couldn’t get up,” said Louis, a banker who lives in Delmas. “I looked outside the window and saw a large cloud of dust and started to hear my children screaming.” Her story is similar to those of millions of others after Haiti’s capital was hit with this seismic disaster. They didn’t believe this was “the one” and were completely caught off guard. Haitians explained how mini-earthquakes had become the norm in recent years. They never imagined this catastrophe would happen in their lifetime. Herold Guillaume was driving along Nazon Road when his green Toyota sedan began bouncing off. He thought someone was hitting his car. He looked up to see buildings and debris falling all around him. “I left the car and walked home, all the while thinking about my father who was home alone,” Guillaume said. A night on Rue Berne: Living on the streets Dusk had barely set and already the residents of Rue Berne were making their beds. These bedrooms are makeshift, arranged neatly on one side of the streets, away from shaky walls and fragile homes. “You see what we’ve become,” said Herold Joseph, born and raised in this long-time middle class enclave. “The streets have become our home, no different from the stray dogs that we used to chase with sticks and stones.” The death toll so far has reached 50,000 people, but the misery index is countless. This city is a giant homeless shelter. Those who cannot sleep among friends in the streets have sought shelter in courtyards of various government buildings. As the few hospitals still functioning are overwhelmed with bodies, these government yards have been turned into makeshift health centers. Foreign doctors and their Haitian counterparts deliver babies - most of them born prematurely, induced from the shock. The doctors stitch wounds and make casts to mend broken bones. “It’s very sad,“ said Fernando Gomez, a Dominican physician. He said he has worked almost nonstop, going from government offices to health centers to treat the injured. As the dawn settles in, residents gather up their makeshifts bedrooms and try to live a normal life. When asked how long he was going to live on the streets Joseph said, “It’s going to be a long time, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.”