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No matter what happens around children they appear to have a magnificent resilience. At a makeshift camp in Port-au-Prince, photos were taken recently of young Haitian girls playing jump-rope, only days after the devastating earthquake.
Michael Deibert, who recently returned to Haiti, affirms that while the scenes of devastation were nightmarish, he was amazed at how resilient the Haitian people are.
Roughly 100,000, of the 9 million population are dead and thousands have been left without homes from the earthquakes that have rocked Haiti. Nearly 300,000 people are living on the streets, in Port-au-Prince. A 6.1 earthquake has followed the earlier devastating 7.0 quake and its 24 aftershocks.
Deibert was encouraged by scenes such as he witnessed in the Petionville market, where regardless of the late hour and lack of electricity, goods and fried chicken were still being sold in the orange glow of kerosene lamps.
Deibert reported “Far from being the looting mobs that some media have portrayed them as, hardly anyone who has witnessed the response of the Haitians to this great catastrophe has not been moved by their incredible resilience and solidarity and their intact sense of humor in the face of an unimaginable tragedy”. Yet looting has taken place in some areas with at least two people killed when authorities opened fire on a warehouse where a group of looters were supposedly living.
Heated arguments have broken out over the control of the airport and the distribution of aid.
Due to lack of space at the airport and total congestion of air and parking space planes have been reported as being forced to turn back, including one carrying foreign dignitaries.
With the National Palace and many ministries destroyed, Haitian President Rene Preval meets with his ministries in the open air, in a circle of plastic chairs.
Haiti's Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive informed AP that disposing of bodies had become crucial. "Sadly, we have to bring everybody to mass graves because we are racing against a possible epidemic”. Haitians already have been piling bodies and burning them.
It appears the relief and aid conditions are much harder than they were after the Asian tsunami of 2004, because of the devastation to the government and the infrastructure.
While the Haitians weep for the desperately needed aid, they are open in their statements that the presence of the foreign military must be temporary. “It is not ideal to have a foreign army on our soil, but tolerated, so long as it is temporary,” said Bishop Jean-Zache Duracin, of Haiti’s Episcopal Church.
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