![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.oxfam.org.uk\/generationwhy\/cgi\/process_comp\/photos\/2010\/01\/haitiearthquake_small_8.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTuesday 12th January<\/strong> Wednesday 13th January<\/strong>
\nIt had been an average day in the office; conference calls, report writing, fighting off mosquitoes. My clock showed just 10 minutes until it was time to leave for the day, when the ground made slight movements, which rapidly became violent. The earth shook harder than I have ever felt before, I ran to the door but could not get out. I hid under my desk, my hand pressed up against the surface protecting my head, hoping it would hold up two stories falling on it. If I were buried under debris, would I ever get rescued? Was this the end for me?
\nAs quickly as the earthquake started, the violent tremor stopped. Covered in dust, I scrambled over the rubble and made it out to the safety of the street. People were coming out stunned, some crying, some injured. A count of heads showed one member of the team was missing, stuck under the rubble. Companions brought him out and carried him unconscious to the nearest hospital, where he died. Several hospitals collapsed. Homes, schools, offices \u2013 the buildings we spend our lives in become our greatest danger.
\nCars were left abandoned, roads were impassable. We walked the long way home not saying much, amongst people praying, crying, hysterical. It was surreal. We made a large detour around the petrol station that had exploded. A couple of people were wailing outside a collapsed building, the broken sign showed it had been a university.
\nI had no way of letting my family know that I had survived and hoped that they wouldn’t hear about the earthquake until tomorrow.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLast night we walked home in the dark and tried to sleep in the space in the garden least likely to have a wall or building fall on it. I lay feeling the aftershocks through the night under a beautiful sky heavy with stars.
\nToday we walk back to the office. We pass a man carrying his dead child, repeating that he has his beloved dead child in his arms, not knowing where to go. We pass people being carried on makeshift stretchers, doors, blankets or whatever they can get their hands on.
\nWe went up and down the main road six times, each time more corpses appeared, some covered in sheets some just lying contorted and stiff and coated in dust. I wonder if their families know where they are?
\nIn Canape Vert Park, hundreds of people are sitting on the street. The smell of urine and excreta is strong.
\nSupermarkets have either collapsed, been looted or are closed for fear of aftershocks. The only food for sale is some unappetizing fruit a group of women are selling. The cost of water has gone up. I wonder how long we can last on the food we have at home, maybe two or three days? I am concerned about the possibility of unrest related to the lack of food.
\nWe attend an Oxfam staff meeting; we are a small organization yet seven people had their homes destroyed. Haitians are heeding the advice that it is dangerous to sleep in their beds because of the aftershocks. Most are sleeping on the street.
\nWe go to the meeting with a group of organizations who work in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene to coordinate the WASH response. In an emergency many organisations come to help so we need to work together and organize who does what and where.
\nStreams of people with suitcases are leaving to stay with friends and family in other parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The earth moves almost constantly. I feel queasy. Just before midnight a large noisy trail of people pass our house, worried that a Tsunami is coming. It\u00b4s raining a little. Tonight Port au Prince is spending its second night sleeping under the stars.<\/p>\n