Recently Alex Bunn has been working amongst cholera victims in Haiti. Here The Revd Tom Quennet partnership coordinator for the Americas and Caribbean in the Methodist Church writes about his visit to Haiti soon after the earthquake and again last autumn as he retraced his steps to see what progress had been made. He writes:
“It looked as if a lot had taken place, but I could well imagine that for Haitians it must seem as if progress has been slow and very painful. Demolition of unsafe properties has taken place and rubble is being cleared; repairs to business that escaped the worst of January have been completed and new coats of paint have been applied.
“Only a few hundred yards from the airport, I was confronted by the informal tent settlements that had been erected by desperate people shortly after the earthquake. The ‘new’ look they had in February had been replaced by nine months’ worth of dust, the effects of weather and the bleaching of the sun. Some people had begun to use corrugated iron and wood and plastic and almost anything else to add to their little spaces. I couldn’t help but think what I thought many times in February: “This is a nightmare for years to come! When will you save the people, O God of mercy? When?” But then, all around me, despair at what had not happened gave way to signs of hope.
“The children in their immaculately clean uniforms going to school; the thousands of micro businesses on every inch of the roadside; the tap-taps (Haitian form of public transport) with their biblical references; the determined faces of Haitians getting on with living. This is a people that not even the worst forces of nature are going to cower down so as to give up, lay down and die. This is a resilient and resistant people.
“Much had been done and much remained to be done. Yet for many there was a home where previously there was none and a place to plant a flower and a fruit tree and to begin to hope.
“I left with an assurance and belief in the durability and tenacity of the Haitian spirit. A spirit carries you with it in search of justice, peace, faith and hope … and Haitians’ unconquerable minds.”
Helping Haiti