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Haiti’s Situation Seems to Be Everlasting

Haiti, May 31, 2010. Dawn breaks in this city, but the sun does not rise. This has happened over the last few days, and the people on the muddy ground of the field tents have been awaken by humidity and a terrible stench, which only the new-comers smell, since the rest seems to have just become accustomed to it. Some times, the rain wakes them up. On others, it prevents them from sleeping, since the little children cry because they do not want to get wet, and the adults know that if the few belongings they have left get wet, the tragedy of the coming months would be unbearable.

It is Sunday. I wake up again with the feeling of being at home, like that day in January when I arrived from Cuba and I dreamt of a beautiful dawn surrounded by my family, until an aftershock woke me up and made me remember that I was in the middle of hell. Now, it is raining cats and dogs since very early in the morning. I must confess that I felt like staying in bed till the sun rises, reading a good book or watching an interesting TV program. But, I realized again that I was in Haiti, in the same place where over a million people live in the streets after a terrible tremor destroyed their homes, where more than 230,000 people died, where uncountable Haitians still remain under the rubble.

The point is that in Haiti there does not seem to be a happy medium. After going through one of the worst tragedies humankind has experienced, the recent rains forebode a fearful season. According to reports from the meteorological institutions, the 2010 season could be even more intense than last year’s. Only one storm will be enough to devastate Port-au-Prince, full of tents which cannot resist the weakest winds. Bill Read, director of the US National Hurricane Center, told EFE news agency that if only one or two heavy storms hit Haiti, where over a million people are living in tents, it would be enough to call the season catastrophic.

The reality is that the situation in Haiti seems to be everlasting. People build tents wherever they can: on any hillside, on the banks of the so far calm rivers, in the places most likely to get flooded.

This is the panorama of this Sunday in Port-au-Prince. And meanwhile the clouds forecast more rains, women hang out their wet clothing in one of the parks of Petion Ville, maybe hoping they will dry before the rain starts again. Children also take advantage of the weather and play barefooted in the park.

At this point, I am writing with the helplessness of being indoors while there are so many people suffering outdoors. Then, I wonder how long is all this tragedy is going to last. By Leticia Martínez Hernández (Cubaminrex- Granma)

 

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