Haiti Deployment Diary: Day 3, Wednesday 20th January

First day in the field always feels like a baptism of fire – this morning was no different. It started at 6am when we were rudely interrupted by a severe aftershock. Rated 6.1 on the Richter scale it brought down a number of buildings in Port au Prince. Fortunately, the hotel we are straying in seems quite secure and we were safe.

My work day started with the daily team briefing. Our team is in a state of flux at the moment. Those who managed to get in very quickly after the earthquake are already heading out. The new team members arrive during the next couple of days. But passing over of essential information and ensuring institutional memory is not lost is challenging.

During the briefing we were reminded that life and death are inseparable. During the evening the medical team in our clinic safely delivered two babies – born to mothers living in tents on our compound.

To help understand the situation I was taken around The Salvation Army’s large compound. I was joined by a structural engineer who made a brief assessment of the buildings. The Haitian people refuse to go inside – still afraid of collapse. Looking at the poor condition of many of the buildings still standing, I fully appreciate their feelings. However, some buildings survived with minimal superficial damage so we wanted to assess whether they could be used.

This assessment gave me opportunity to walk through the camp that has been informal set up by the local community. The resilience of the people is amazing. The local economy is getting going again with people setting up small stalls outside their tents. Actually, it would be wrong to talk of tents – most families have cobbled together a shelter using scavenged materials. There are few tents and no toilets.

The water supply is poor – children swarm around asking for water or food. But they do it with a smile on their face and are happy to hold hands with the relief workers as they walk around.

The Salvation Army’s work largely revolves around the medical clinic being staffed by a team of international doctors. During the last couple of days they have treated over 200 patients each day.

Getting relief supplies is still a huge challenge. Flights offer very limited cargo facilities – we haven’t yet secured a safe warehouse and the distributions we have managed to do have been very difficult. Yesterday there was a riot. We had a supply of Croc shoes – the community broke into the storage area and ransacked it. On the plus side – as I walked around the community yesterday there were some very colourful shoes being worn!!

Last night we sent a few of the early team members home and new ones arrived. Today the same thing happens. So by tomorrow the team will have virtually changed. There’s a challenge to ensure all the institutional memory is passed over and things don’t fall between the cracks.

Tomorrow is a new day and we’ll start focussing on finding a warehouse and assessing community needs. The team are all well and grateful for the many messages of support and prayer.