Haiti Reflections
The following article was written by Dr. Burt Palmer, pastor of Bear Creek United Methodist Church. Dr. Palmer accompanied his mother, Ellen L. Palmer, RN MSN PhD, to Haiti in April 2010. Dr. Ellen L. Palmer has been going to Haiti at least four times a year since 1976 to do work with Highland Park United Methodist Church's “Haiti Eye Work” and with Grace Children’s Hospital, which is part of International Child Care USA in Haiti. Grace Children’s Hospital has been an UMCOR project for 44 years.
Growing up in Wichita Falls, I remember the devastation from tornadoes, but people were sheltered in churches and schools that were not damaged and the summer was filled with mission teams driving in to help.
I remember being a part of a team of people that drove supplies for newborn infants and their mothers from First Methodist Houston to Baton Rouge, Louisiana where the Methodist and Baptist churches joined forces to create a place for pregnant mothers and newborns fleeing the damage of Hurricane Katrina.
I remember the leadership of Bear Creek UMC choosing to open as a Red Cross shelter for victims of Hurricane Ike, without electricity. Church members brought their own generators and gasoline from home, people in the community brought food and clothing, and over 100 people were able to find shelter, food, and clothing at Bear Creek UMC.
I cannot remember feeling more helpless than when I visited Haiti, April 24-28, 2010. The devastation and piles of rubble covered the roads. Mounds of debris and trash were piled in street corners. None of what I saw even compared to my own experience with natural disasters and the resulting relief efforts.
As we flew into Toussaint Louverture International Airport, the city was covered in shades of blue. These were the many tent cities that were created as people fled the rubble of their homes. The term “tent” became a very relative term as we observed out the window of our ground transportations, it was clear that the shades of blue were tarps that had been used to make tent structures. Before the January 2010 earthquake, leaving the airport with your baggage was a challenge. Several men wanting to help with your luggage would literally take your bag out of your hand – not to steal but to earn their tip for helping you get to your transportation – as we drive I can still feel the adrenalin flowing from what felt like overwhelmingly close to chaos.
Along the roadway there were compounds with large steel gates being guarded by very well armed men. It was quickly observed that in this climate, the display of man power and weapons was the sign of strength and protection. The further we traveled toward Delmas from the Airport, the closer we were to the devastation impacting the lives of people. Buildings were left in piles of rubble and the people, noticeably in despair, would simply watch us drive by them. At times when the vehicle would stop it became difficult to look out and make eye contact with any person. So many devastated, weary people watching us drive by knowing that their life would not change with the passing vehicle.
We worshipped at College Bird Methodist Church, where the New College Bird School, an UMCOR project for the last 50 years, was destroyed. Though the Bell Tower collapsed, once inside sitting on the wooden pews it was hard not to notice the contrasts: not a window broken in the sanctuary, but broken people sitting all around; words of hope being preached in the most hopeless situation I have ever encountered; songs of praise being sung amidst the cries of grief for help; the peaceful quite of prayer shattered by the noise of traffic and yelling in the streets.
At New College Bird School, the three story structure collapsed and two other structures were condemned due to partial collapse. Somehow the largest three story structure had been removed and the ground has literally been scraped bare. In place of the three story school are now a series of concrete slabs roughly 80’x60’ and raised 8” from the ground level. Wooden framed pavilion structures were created as classrooms with simple plywood covering the corners to help define the outdoor classrooms.
Our Monday visit was to the Haiti National School of Nursing where over 90 nurses and a staff member died in the collapse of the three story structure. All that remains is the bare ground filled with crushed cinder block, rocks, shards of glass and pieces of rebar. Marie Yolanda Nazaire, the Director of the School still comes to work every day. She lost her own home in the Earthquake and now has only two changes of clothes. In the midst of that loss, Marie is planning to open the School in October to conduct the fall classes for nurses, but she doesn’t know how. Marie shared how hard it was to hear the cries of those trapped deep in the rubble. Those cries lasted three days. Eleven bodies were recovered and parts of bodies filled over 10 coffins as heavy equipment removed the debris. Those coffins were immediately carried by Haitians to the cemetery.
Our visit to Grace Children’s Hospital was a mixture of joyous relief and despair. Joy at the number of valiant surviving staff still serving others and despair over the condemned hospital structure. The grounds were covered with Military issue tents and any equipment retrievable was set up under tents. Large tarps that were stretched between trees created a shelter from the rain and sun for the nursery area where cribs were placed. Three Physical Therapist Instructors with Ph D’s were with us to teach nurses and health care providers about wound and stump care for those who had amputations. Of the 5 amputees that volunteered to help with the educational workshop, none had access to prosthetics. Nurses in Haiti are often called upon to offer far more care and assistance than we experience in other countries, so it was critical to teach them about muscle tone, mobility, and wound care until the patients receive a prosthetic device. (Grace Children’s Hospital is operated by ICC , International Childcare, for more information go to www.internationalchildcare.org)
As I sat in the Airport in Haiti, I was impressed by the number of Christian-based organizations that were arriving to help. I have several general assumptions from conversations throughout the week and in the Airport waiting area for three hours – where I experienced being an over hearer of what I will call “natural debriefing”; the telling of stories and events in an attempt to incorporate them into everyday reality. First assumption is that denominations are insignificant in the face of the devastation in Haiti, but the historic Christian faith is essential in compelling followers to see their neighbor in Haiti. Second, most of the work that is regularly associated with a mission trip is occurring outside the heavily populated areas like Port Au Prince, further out in the country and plateau areas. Third, I did not see “rebuilding” efforts, in the sense that buildings are being rebuilt in Port Au Prince; rather the school structures are seemingly temporary functioning solutions. Fourth, standing in the street between the untouched and still collapsed Presidential Palace and the tent/tarp covered grounds I sensed the hopelessness of the people of Haiti. Lastly, those doing the work of relief are weary in body and spirit, but compelled by their faith and the overwhelming needs of the people to press on in helping.
Pictured is Dr. Ellen Palmer, Board Member of ICC, with two children cared for by the staff at Grace Children’s Hospital, which now operates in tents. One child was lost in the earthquake collapse of the hospital. (photo: April 27, 2010)
click here to view video from April 2010