{"id":218094,"date":"2010-01-20T09:06:11","date_gmt":"2010-01-20T14:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"tag:www.southernstudies.org,2010:\/\/5.12106"},"modified":"2010-01-26T13:44:58","modified_gmt":"2010-01-26T18:44:58","slug":"voices-in-haiti-courage-and-compassion-trump-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/218094","title":{"rendered":"VOICES: In Haiti, courage and compassion trump violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Haiti<\/a><\/span>By Sasha Kramer, New America Media<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

This afternoon, feeling helpless, we decided to take a van down to
\nChamps Mars (the area around the palace) to look for people needing
\nmedical care to bring to Matthew 25, the guesthouse where we are
\nstaying which has been transformed into a field hospital. <\/p>\n

Since we arrived in Port au Prince, everyone has told us that you
\ncannot go into the area around the palace because of violence and
\ninsecurity. I was in awe as we walked into downtown, among the
\nflattened buildings, in the shadow of the fallen palace, among the
\nswarms of displaced people there was calm and solidarity.<\/p>\n

We wound our way through the camp asking for injured people who needed
\nto get to the hospital. Despite everyone telling us that as soon as we
\ndid this we would be mobbed by people, I was amazed as we approached
\neach tent people gently pointed us towards their neighbors, guiding us
\nto those who were suffering the most. <\/p>\n

We picked up five badly injured
\npeople and drove towards an area where Ellie and Berto had passed a
\nwoman earlier. When they saw her she was lying on the side of the road
\nwith a broken leg screaming for help. They were on foot and could not
\nhelp her at the time, so we went back to try to find her. Incredibly,
\nwe found her relatively quickly at the top of a hill of shattered
\nhouses. The sun was setting and the community helped to carry her down
\nthe hill on a refrigerator door, tough looking guys smiled in our
\ndirection calling out, “Bonswa, Cherie,” (Good evening, Dear) and
\n“Kouraj” (Courage). <\/p>\n

When we got back to Matthew 25, it was dark and we carried the patients
\nback into the soccer field\/tent village\/hospital where the team of
\ndoctors had been working tirelessly all day. Although they had
\nofficially closed down for the evening, they agreed to see the patients
\nwe had brought. Once our patients were settled in we came back into the
\nhouse to find the doctors amputating a foot on the dining room table.
\nThe patient lay calmly, awake but far away under the fog of ketamine.<\/p>\n

Half way through the surgery we heard a clamor outside and ran out to
\nsee what it was. A large yellow truck was parked in front of the gate
\nand unloading hundreds of bags of food over our fence. The hungry crowd
\nhad already begun to gather and in the dark it was hard to decide how
\nto best distribute the food. <\/p>\n

Knowing that we could not sleep in the
\nhouse with all of this food and so many starving people in the
\nneighborhood, our friend Amber (who is experienced in food
\ndistribution) snapped into action and began to get everyone in the
\ncrowd into a line that stretched down the road.<\/p>\n

We braced ourselves for the fighting that we had heard would come, but
\nin a miraculous display of restraint and compassion people lined up to
\nget the food and one by one the bags were handed out without a single
\nserious incident. During the food distribution, the doctors called to
\nsee if anyone could help to bury the amputated leg in the backyard. As
\nI have no experience with food distribution I offered to help with the
\nleg. I went into the back with Ellie and Berto and we dug a hole and
\nplaced the leg in it, covering it with soil and cement rubble. <\/p>\n

By the
\ntime we got back into the house the food had all been distributed and
\nthe patient Anderson was waking up. The doctors asked for a translator
\nso I went and sat by his stretcher explaining to him that the surgery
\nhad gone well and he was going to live. His family had gone home so he
\nwas alone so Ellie and I took turns sitting with him as he came out
\nfrom under the drugs.<\/p>\n

One of the Haitian men working at the hospital came in and leaned over
\nAnderson and said to him in kreyol “listen man even if your family
\ncould not be here tonight we want you to know that everyone here loves
\nyou, we are all your brothers and sisters.” Sometimes it is the
\nkindness and not the horror that can break the numbness that we are all
\nlost in right now. <\/p>\n

So, don’t believe CNN’s Anderson Cooper when he says that Haiti is a hotbed of violence and riots. It is just not the case. <\/p>\n

In the darkest of times, Haiti has proven to be a country of brave,
\nresilient and kind people. It is that behavior that is far more
\nprevalent than the isolated incidents of violence. Please pass this on
\nto as many people as you can so that they can see the light of Haiti,
\ncutting through the darkness, the light that will heal this nation.<\/p>\n

Sasha Kramer directs the grassroots Haitian organization SOIL, which
\nworks with rural and urban communties to develop indigenious solutions
\nto environmental problems. She wrote this dispatch from Port au Prince
\non Monday, Jan. 19.<\/p>\n

PHOTO: Earthquake victims receive medical treatment at an encampment in front
\nof Port-au-Prince’s Presidential Palace. UN Photo\/Logan Abassi.<\/i> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sasha Kramer, New America Media This afternoon, feeling helpless, we decided to take a van down to Champs Mars (the area around the palace) to look for people needing medical care to bring to Matthew 25, the guesthouse where we are staying which has been transformed into a field hospital. Since we arrived in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}