Haiti | Then and Now…
  is there something less than nothing?

I am watching the news from Haiti and alternating between anger and tears.

In 1983 I had the opportunity to do medical missionary work in Haiti. It was a three-week commitment. I stayed for three months. This was during the regime of ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier, the second generation of ‘dictators for life.’ Living by one’s wits in a third world military dictatorship is life changing.

We worked with the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s organization, in clinics, hospitals and hospices in Port-au-Prince and in a southern coastal village called Jacmel, which seemed to attract expatriates from all over the world. But, if you walk out of Jacmel for 15 minutes or so and look around you, you will have no idea where you are. It might be Africa or some other part of the world, but not possibly the Caribbean.

The sisters who ran the clinics, like most of the nuns in the order, were from India and had been trained in Mother Teresa’s clinics in Calcutta. I asked them how what we were treating in Haiti was different from Calcutta. They responded that other than the dark skin and different culture and language, the illnesses were similar.

The exception was that, while many of the skin conditions looked like Leprosy, they had rarely seen any actual cases here. ‘Is THIS leprosy’ became our insider joke.

Also, because of terrible nutritional deficiencies that kept immunity so low, machete cuts would never heal and eventually required amputations. As the EMT and ‘bandage guy’ of the team I cleaned and rebandaged those wounds daily.

It is now close to thirty years later. Reports I’ve heard in the past two days indicate that some things had improved with the democratic regime. The hospitals that collapsed in the earthquake did not exist back then. Let me give you a context for the current crisis in Haiti by looking back to my time there.

First, I have never met more hospitable and friendly people. Haitians had, by our standards, nothing… even then. But they are trusting, open hearted and had a ready smile and a kind word for anyone who smiled at them. I made good friends that were hard to leave.

Some of the street kids I hung out with in Jacmel are now, if they survived, in their forties. Many would have moved to Port-au-Prince looking for work. We probably will never hear about conditions in Jacmel, but it, too, is close to the epicenter of the earthquake and is probably now completely cut off from the capital.

The slums in Port-au-Prince were, when I saw them, walled neighborhoods that were a maze of narrow lanes lined with cinder block shacks each perhaps 10 feet by 10 feet.  A dirt floor, perhaps one or two holes for windows and a tin roof. Typically an entire family shared the single room. Often more than one generation lived together.

At the end of the lanes were shared outhouses. Drainage and sewage flowed in shallow concrete ditches that ran along the walkways and out to the street.

There might be a few small stores in the community, which carried foods that require refrigeration, like butter. Making chicken for dinner started by buying a live chicken at the market. It took all day to cook dinner.

These shanties had no electricity except perhaps one bare light bulb. Electric service was spotty at best. Neighborhoods had power for a few hours a day in random rolling blackouts and brownouts.

Running water was available from community spigots that did not always flow. The locals could drink the water without illness. Foreigners, like me, needed to be very careful to drink only water purified by small purification plants. I once mistakenly drank a locally prepared sweet drink packaged in a reused soda bottle. I was horribly sick for almost a week.

These conditions resembled the industrial slums and rural areas of America in 1900. No electricity. No refrigeration. No running water. No indoor plumbing. Families sharing one room.

I doubt things were much better in those slums a few days ago, before the earthquake, than they were when I was there.

Now, all the makeshift buildings have collapsed and people don’t even have the little shelter and conveniences they once had. Is there something less than nothing? Perhaps we are finding out now.

The silver lining to this nightmare is that Haiti is being seen. The third world country at our back door is now getting attention and commitments of long-term help.

Haiti is the only republic in the world that gained its independence through a slave revolt. It has been vandalized by a long list of outside invaders, including the US, and it’s own home grown dictators and their paramilitary goons.

Perhaps, in this time of great need, the Haitian people will finally get attention and help that will let their country truly recover from a long history of unimaginable difficulties.

Send whatever you can to the effort to save the Haitian people. Especially, your prayers.

David