Haiti in the eye of the storm

Poor Haiti. Spawned by imperialists, reduced by earthquake, sickened by cholera, and now “le deluge”.

I’m writing ahead of it because I won’t be able to Snowblog during it. Depending which satellite imagery you go with, by dawn our time, midday in Europe, whatever force will strike this island will have struck, or be striking, or be about to strike.

What impacts upon me immediately is the stoicism of the people – good natured, accepting of their awful fate and probable destiny. I was here two days after the earthquake hit in January. Since that time the urban sprawls of tented encampments have consolidated into canvas, timber, and corrugated tin homes. The density is absolute – ten to a shack, families are crammed everywhere.

Wandering through one camp of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) we came upon an intense football game – of great skill and of huge concentration for those ten boys playing. A boy was being towed along in a wheelie case by another. Everywhere there are tableaux of defiance, of turning whatever little there is to remarkably imaginative good use.

The most harrowing aspect of being here is the candour and openness of those you talk to. A boy from the cholera hit district beyond the capital tells me his mother died of the disease two weeks ago. He had fled the place leaving the dead behind him, and many more who were sick with the epidemic.

“I’m just looking after myself,” he tells me. “I just want to survive”.

Then there is the sweet woman in pink, hand washing at a basin in the corner outside a shack. Is she frightened? – not really, she’s been through so much.

“What will you do when the storm strikes?” I ask.

“I have nowhere to go, I will stay here,” she responds. Then I ask her, what about your children?

“They are dead,” she says. “The house fell down on them when they were in bed in the earthquake.”

What can you say in such a moment? Condolences are not enough. There is such agony all about – of dispossession, of discomfort – of hopelessness, and yet still this stoicism.