from Johanna Berri­gan on behalf of Miriam Ford, Bishop Tom Gum­ble­ton, Colleen Kelly, Bill Quigley, and Susan Rice

Another day is wind­ing down. Before I go out to the tent, I decided to send at least a lit­tle some­thing like I said I would. Each day has been this incred­i­ble com­bi­na­tion of bear­ing wit­ness to over­whelm­ing destruc­tion, suf­fer­ing and death. At the same time we are with peo­ple who exhibit such courage, hope and faith. I am in awe of the out­pour­ing of com­pas­sion and help from all over the world. Yet, so many peo­ple in these poor com­mu­ni­ties still have not received food, water or tents for shel­ter. A priest from one of the local parishes here in Port au Prince said,” The emer­gency med­ical relief is about over, now every­one needs food, water and shel­ter.” He, along with any­one we have spo­ken to, lives in fear of what will hap­pen to the peo­ple when the rains come. It is awful to think about; every­one is liv­ing on the streets . A “for­tu­nate few” have tents, but most are liv­ing in makeshift “sheet tents” as Bill Quigley called them. We are try­ing to get infor­ma­tion about aid dis­tri­b­u­tion and why it is not reach­ing these communities.

We are try­ing to inves­ti­gate what is being brought in because we have seen no sign of food and water being dis­trib­uted by any­one. Peo­ple are beg­ging for tents. We under­stand that there are tents avail­able, but they are not being dis­trib­uted because appar­ently the UN doesn’t want the peo­ple to stay in the city. They want them to go to orga­nized dis­placed per­sons camps out­side of Port au Prince. For all of the promises made by our admin­is­tra­tion to not aban­don the Hait­ian peo­ple in their hour of need, the Haitians are not exactly feel­ing the sup­port. This is most dis­turb­ing in light of all of the love, com­pas­sion, sup­port, and con­cern we wit­nessed from peo­ple all over the coun­try before we left.

Each day we have gone out to the neigh­bor­hood of Carre Dur, the loca­tion of our future com­mu­nity health cen­ter. This com­mu­nity, near the church of St. Claire, had not seen any health care providers since the earth­quake. Our com­mu­nity health agents orga­nized in an amaz­ingly effi­cient and hum­bling way a “field clinic” con­sist­ing of a tent, and a tarp. Exam rooms for pri­vacy were cre­ated out of sheets. We saw from 88 to 134 peo­ple each day. Some,wounded by the earth­quake, still had not had care: frac­tures, infected wounds, var­i­ous kinds of trauma. A young woman was brought to us who was extremely ill and had been hem­or­rhag­ing for days. There was no pos­si­bil­ity of care for her. We were able to carry her in a sheet to the car and take her to the “field hos­pi­tal” here at Matthew 25 House. There she is receiv­ing very good care. She would have died with­out inter­ven­tion. We saw a woman who gave birth four days ago in a tent on a foot­ball field that has been turned into a dis­placed per­sons camp. She explained that after the baby was born another woman helped her cut the cord. Most likely a lay mid­wife. Heart­break­ing in an inex­plic­a­ble way is look­ing into the eyes of the elderly who have lost every­thing: their homes, mea­ger pos­ses­sions, and chil­dren. There are so many stunned, griev­ing and fear filled people.

The destruc­tion of down­town Port au Prince is beyond imag­i­na­tion. It is very sen­sa­tional to see it on the news, but to see it up close, smell the stench of death, and lis­ten to the sto­ries – while tears flow — of who is under the rub­ble is another thing all together.

I woke up at 5:00 this morn­ing to the sound of the peo­ple singing songs of praise to Jesus. The dig­nity and the faith of the peo­ple under such duress is yet another mind bog­gling aspect of the expe­ri­ence of being here. Yes­ter­day we went to St. Claire’s church to drop off med­i­cines. As I walked to the door of the rec­tory, there were about 60 women in the court­yard singing and pray­ing the rosary. Our health agents sang a song to open our meet­ing; they explained they were singing for mercy and the guid­ance of the Holy Spirit.

Early this evening we saw the Sacre Coeur Church down­town. It is totally destroyed. How­ever, the pre-standing Cru­ci­fix in front of the church remains. It is a pow­er­ful sym­bol of the cru­ci­fied Hait­ian peo­ple who wait with hope, their res­ur­rec­tion. Despite all of the tragedy, you don’t feel a sense of des­per­a­tion or see hys­ter­i­cal drama. The Hait­ian peo­ple con­tinue to pray, work hard and take care of each other. May their and all our prayers be heard.

Peace,

Johanna Berri­gan on behalf of

Miriam Ford

Bishop Tom Gumbleton

Colleen Kelly

Bill Quigley

Susan Rice