Voices From the Hell of Haiti

Marc Asnin and Joshua Herman were working on a book about the work of the Chabad rabbis, to commemorate the Chabad victims in the terrorist attacks on Mumbai. They heard that the Chabad rabbi in the Dominican Republic would be heading to Haiti to help and flew there to meet him.

We drove all night to meet the rabbi at the Haitian border. Before dawn we headed into Haiti, not knowing what to expect, with the sole mission of finding the incoming Israeli Defense Force team and the ambassador accompanying them. With a UN escort leading the way, we passed through the crumbled streets of Port Au Prince, slowly making our way to the airport to join the Israeli soldiers flying in to setup a field hospital.
 
We were invited to join the Israelis and soon found ourselves in the midst of an operation to build a fully functioning field hospital aimed at tackling the innumerable injuries. By 8 a.m. the next morning, after setting up the hospital throughout the night, patients began arriving in mass, mangled with wounds now three days old.  Hour by hour patients continued pouring in, as medics and surgeons worked round the clock to treat and release the wounded, making room for the injured waiting outside the gates.
 
Through the night we could hear the wails of the injured as the Israelis continued operating without stop.  The next day we set out into the city with the Chabad chaplain of the Israeli Defense Force to assess the damage and see where help was most needed. We saw a city laid in ruins and a disaster of overwhelming proportions. Thousands aimlessly walked the streets, collectively mourning the loss of life as they once knew it. Building after building lay in rubble, entombing the bodies of family and friends as the living collected around once familiar sites staring with disbelief and despair.
 
Our translator, a young man named Bema we hired off the streets, mentioned to us that he had just lost his father three days earlier in the earthquake.  The ease with which he told us this is a testament to the fortitude of the Haitian people.  The suffering is collective; no reason to place one’s suffering above others.  He offered to take us to see his home, half destroyed, and meet the survivors of his family.
 
Drouillard, a housing project in Port au Prince, was left relatively unscathed by the earthquake, but half of Bema’s home had been destroyed. We were greeted by his mother and siblings. They spoke of the loss of their patriarch and their way of life and spoke candidly of the the desperation that now defines their life and their people. They plead for the rest of the world to not forget the Haitian people. They express sincere gratitude for the help that has arrived, for the journalists telling their stories, and pray that they will not be forgotten with the passage of time.  Their appeal can be heard in the video above.

Complete Haiti Coverage on Truth.Travel

More Reporting on Haiti from the editors of Condé Nast Traveler
* Clive Irving asks: "Where are the Americans?" (part 1 and part 2)
* When Kevin Doyle visited Haiti in February 2009 with Population Services International, he saw a country of "crippling poverty."  Post-quake, Doyle hopes that Americans  "realize just how close to home Haiti really is, and how desperately it needs our help."
* How to Help Haiti:  A list of organizations on the ground
* How to support the work of Condé Nast Traveler partner Population Services International with their work in Haiti
* Cruise Haiti?  A question posed to readers