Haiti earthquake: Aidworker diary, week 2

Oxfam health promoter Helen Hawkings was working in Port-au-Prince when the devastating earthquake struck. In follow up to her first week blog, she describes the situation on the ground and the funeral service of a dear colleague.

Monday 18 January: Before we implement a programme, we first need to carry out a needs assessment to find out more about the people who have been affected so that we can best respond to both their most immediate and pressing needs and also help them to recover and to rebuild their lives. We ask them about their situation before the earthquake, what are their normal habits and their beliefs? How has the earthquake impacted on their daily lives?

A helicopter flies over one of the camps in Port-au-Prince where Oxfam is supplying clean water. Photo: Kenny Rae.

Everywhere we go people tell us about their basic needs of food, drinking water, tents, toilets, medicine and sanitary towels for women. Many women have to wash themselves in public and then keep their wet underwear on as they only have one pair. Today I have sent off a large sanitary towel and knicker order!

In a couple of the camps we visit we meet women who have given birth since the earthquake. I know of at least one maternity hospital that was hit.

Generally hospitals have either been destroyed or are full. Many injured people with serious injuries like apparent fractures who urgently need medical attention, have still not been seen. They are either unable to reach the hospitals or the health centres they do reach do not have the capacity to care for them. I hear about dehydrated children at the hospital getting treatment but, because of a shortage of drip stands have their friends and family members taking turns in holding up the drips for them.

A member of our team visits a hospital with 1,500 patients and no water. We plan to supply water and sanitation here. The medical teams make plaster casts with water from a tap that is far away and ask us for empty water bottles to clean patients’ wounds, as they have just one bucket full of water. At least they have bottles of drinking water. There are no toilets for patients or staff. A woman sits on a cooler of amputated body parts that she does not know what to do with.

One of the camps – The Petion Ville Club – where Oxfam in supplying water and sanitation. [Photo credit: Kenny Rae]

Talking to the people I get a real feeling of solidarity. They share their food rations, which they have brought from their homes, even though they do not have very much.

No one is sure how long we need to sleep outside for following an earthquake. Usually the after shocks are never as strong as the original quake but people here are afraid. They will not sleep in their homes and are also worried about the risks of getting sick from contamination from dead bodies and the water sources. I have not slept for more than four hours for over a week and I need a good nights sleep to function effectively. Tonight I opt to sleep in my bed. I wear a vest top and a light-skirt in case I have make a dash for the door in the middle of night.

Tuesday 19 January: It’s a week since the quake struck. The number of dead bodies on the road are down. I have not seen a corpse for a few days now, but the rubbish is piling up and bodies have been dumped at the municipal rubbish site. We pass the local school on the way to the office. It smells bad. The first couple of days, people were searching for survivors here, now I can not imagine that anyone still trapped will be rescued alive, too much time has passed.

Helen Hawkings and Coty Reinbold scoping out where to put the latrines in this camp. [Photo credit: Kenny Rae]

We want to start constructing latrines as there are no toilets in the camps. Some people are able to go back their homes to wash and go to the toilet but as I walk through the camps I see nearly naked women and children and adolescents washing themselves, they are very vulnerable. We will also set up screened off bathing areas to allow people a little dignity when they are washing.

The fuel issue for the water trucks has been resolved, at least for today. I received a message late last night telling me that the trucks would be starting at 6am and we needed to be ready to organise the distributions early. 17 trucks went to the biggest camp we are working in to distribute water to thousands of people this morning. The needs of the people still completely outweigh the nascent aid efforts, but everyday we are reaching more people.

It is raining tonight. An unthinkable number of families are going to get very wet.

We had internet at home for at least five minutes tonight. It is wonderful to know that you are reading about us. I hear that many people have been donating money to help Haiti. Thank you for your help.

An Oxfam water bladder at the camp at The Petion Ville Club. [Photo credit: Kenny Rae]

Wednesday 20 January: My mother was never able to get me out of bed as quickly as I leapt up in a panic this morning, fumbling with the door knob. I sprinted across the living room and out onto the balcony while others barely awake looked around slightly dazed. It was a strong after-shock that set my heart racing. Haiti is not a quiet country but every time I hear loud rumbling sounds I’m on edge, anticipating a shaking.

The national team installed a bladder at ‘Place Jeremy’ in the baking heat.  The nights may be cold, but the heat of the day converts many fresh-faced aid workers into a glowing lobsters.

As I walk around the latest camp we will be working in at Martine 54, looking at potential toilet sites there are signs that everyday life is returning to normal.  The ‘petit commercants’ mainly women selling small packets of food and drinks have set up on the side of the walk ways, there are small generators charging phones and other electrical appliances for a small fee; a man gets his hair shaved in a small barbers’ tent.

Haiti has a history of being reliant on international aid. There are now signs popping up everywhere, large ones on sheets, or a small card ones like our neighbours have placed on the street:  ”We need food, we need water, we need help”, all written in English.

I wonder if my mum will have seen the footage of me talking to the BBC about the challenges of this current disaster response. It’s ironic that she can see me on television but because of all the communication difficulties it’s impossible for me to phone her.

Thursday 21 January: I spent this morning in the sun strolling around the golf course with the owner. It was not as glamorous as it sounds. We walked around the perimeter of the spontaneous camp looking for possible sites to build latrines. The areas that we passed through were already ‘informal latrines’, we were practically wading in it. There is a huge need for toilets here. The population here has grown over the last few days with people drawn in by the food distributions. There is more rubbish, more chaos and more noise. Large sound systems are in place blaring out loud music. I was pleased to see people taking water from our water point as we passed.

People queue for water at the camp at The Petion Ville Club. [Photo credit: Kenny Rae]

Someone had given me the name of a site that has asked for help. Despite the fuel shortage, the traffic congestion in Port au Prince is still terrible so it took a while to get there. Fallen walls and buildings narrowing the through ways worsen the jams. When we arrived at the shelter the guard at the door would not let us in.

While I was out doing assessments, my colleague Karine was working all out to get a water bladder to the hospital that she had visited the other day. Now they can do laundry and wash patients. She seems satisfied with her day.

I asked a member of our team how long he was planning on sleeping in the street. He said he would be there for several months. Haiti is prone to flooding, not earthquakes so people are unaccustomed to coping with the aftermath of this disaster and have no real idea about how long aftershocks will continue.

Back home I feel like I’m on a boat the ground is moving so much. Another six people arrived at our place this evening. This brings the total to about 30 with no taps or flushing toilets in the house. I don’t think we would even qualify for a 1 star hotel rating!

Friday 22 January: This morning’s aftershock sent me diving under my desk like a seagull to their fish dinner. I was in a room of colleagues who have recently flown in and who appeared completely unconcerned by the movement. I need to be less jumpy.

Our team generally splits into three groups to get the most out of the day. Today we focused not on water but on two teams in separate camps working with wonderfully enthusiastic volunteers digging six trenches for pit latrines. Tomorrow we will have our first pit latrines up and ready for use. Meanwhile the third group was monitoring the water points to find out how much water is being delivered to the camps everyday.

We passed the camp where we were not able to get through the gate yesterday. It’s based in a religious complex. The third nun we spoke to got quite excited about putting in latrines and lead us to a great spot where we can organise digging.

Our final stop was at a smaller site in an area with few homes still standing, that sickly sweet smell of death caught in my throat. Once again we find a high concentration of people crammed into a small open space. This neighbourhood was poor before the earthquake struck, now the women who engage in petit commerce tell me that people have no money to buy their wares.

Saturday 23 January: I was trying to remember the last time I went to a funeral. Thankfully it has not been for a very long time. I have been dreading Amedee´s funeral this week mainly because of the love that the staff of Oxfam felt for him, and the pain that his burial would bring to them after all the recent trauma that they have been living through.

We were ready to go at 4am – after 3 hours sleep I was not at my best but I imagined we would be able to sleep on the bus. The bus that we had ordered to come for us at 6am did not turn up and the hire car rented to take Amedee´s family to the funeral broke down somewhere between Port au Prince and Jacmel.  Finally two hours late we piled into three Oxfam cars and were on our way.

It was amazing to leave the city and the dusty piles of rubble surrounding the capital. I had forgotten about the rest of the country that has been largely untouched by the earthquake. I wanted to sleep but my desire to lose myself in the natural beauty that we drove through kept me awake. We drove through lush green countryside, colourful, bustling Saturday markets and then there was the sea. The palm lined beach just a tantalising few metres away.

By the time we arrived at the funeral, the service had  already begun. I can only speak a very limited Creole but I understood most of our Country Programme Manager Yolette’s tearful, moving speech about what an inspirational Haitian Amedee had been. Then there was the heartbreaking letter written by his wife and four children, “Daddy I love you so much, please come home, we miss you, we want to be with you to be happy again”.

The tears flowed freely and it was not until the end of the service when it was time to carry Amedee’s body out of the church that I realised that there were two coffins coming out to be buried. One was Amedee and one was his father who had been staying at Amedee´s house just down the road from the office. While we were all standing in shock on the road after the earthquake, someone from Amedee´s house had come over with the news that Amedee’s father had died, only to see Amedee himself dying just metres away.

We stopped for a few minutes at the beach on the way home. It felt good to be out in the open looking at some of Haiti´s magnificence. Thank you Amedee. RIP.

Sunday 24 January: The news today claims that 150,000 people here have already been buried. Yesterday in the church at Amedee’s funeral I couldn´t help thinking about all those bodies I had seen on the streets in the days after the earthquake, some put there by their families, others just lying near where they had died. Most of these people will have been buried in mass graves with no decorative flowers or loved ones present.

I had a planning day in the office today, while other team members were out in the field organising latrine building. Thanks to all the people who have donated money to the emergency appeal, Oxfam is able to plan an ambitious emergency response and early recovery programme. We cannot bring back those Haiti has lost, but we are doing our best to help the survivors.

Donate now and find out more about Oxfam’s Haiti Earthquake response