The Morning After — Earthquake Haiti 2010
“The sun is about to come up. The aftershocks continue. There is no way to even begin to share the things we’ve heard and seen since yesterday. Some of them feel wrong to tell. Like only God should know these personal horrible tragedies. I cannot imagine what these next few weeks and months will be like. I am afraid for everyone. Precious lives hang in the balance.” (Tara’s blog, a missionary writing from Port-au-Prince)
ROGERS — Cathy Walker, a teacher at St. Vincent de Paul School, received this message making the rounds of e-mail communication in the days following the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti Jan. 12.
Like other members of St. Vincent de Paul’s Haiti Mission Project, Walker had been tracking the Internet for any kind of updates, especially on the whereabouts of Father Rodolphe Balthazar, their contact person in Haiti.
In October Father Balthazar of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Bombardpolis, about 100 miles northwest of the epicenter, had been visiting Rogers to educate the students and parishioners about the ongoing work of the Haiti mission project. He returned to Haiti Jan. 7 to continue his work.
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On Jan. 14, the Haiti mission leader, Ronnie Hoyt, said that he had been in contact with Father Balthazar who was safe but was concerned about members of his own family in Port-au-Prince.
“I don’t know what will be asked of the priests with the Diocese of Port-de-Paix,” he said. “They may have to go assist in Port-au-Prince. I have been in contact with Father Rodolphe there who started the school missions in Bombardopolis, Haiti. We’ll talk again next week and try to get a better understanding of the situation. Hopefully, we will know more by that time.”
Pastor Msgr. David LeSieur, Hoyt and seven other parishioners were scheduled to travel to Haiti Feb. 24-March 2. They would visit St. Francis of Assisi Church and 11 schools it now serves near Bombardopolis.
In a meeting Jan 16, the group decided to still make the trip in February if they are allowed to fly into Haiti and if Father Balthazar and Father Cholet Augustin, the current pastor, are in a position to host the team.
“We will await input from them; however, this appears unlikely, so our contingency plan would be to move the trip to May 2010. If that is still too early, we would try to move it to August/September 2010,” Hoyt said.
The Rogers parishioners aren’t the only Catholics in Arkansas with special concern for Haiti. The Hot Springs Haiti Mission, formed by members of St. John the Baptist Church and St. Mary Church, has encountered the same situation. Plans to go to Haiti with a five-person team March 8-16 have been put on hold.
The co-chairmen of the group, Larry Womack and Brenda Sanders, received word that their contact person in Haiti, Father Banive Peralte, pastor of St. Andrew Church in Colladere, was unharmed. The village is 50 miles north of the epicenter,
“Father Banive was in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake came,” Womack said. “He said he was all right, but it was very bad there in Port-au-Prince and to please pray for the people there.”
Womack said the Hot Springs missionaries are concerned about Pierre Louis, a seminarian who worked with Father Banive in the school.
Louis “had been called back to the seminary in Port-au-Prince to continue his studies,” he said. “We have not heard from Pierre Louis, but we have heard from news agencies at least two of the seminaries there were totally destroyed. I am worried because when I visited Pierre in December at his seminary, it was a four-story dormitory built on the side of a mountain and a structure that would be susceptible to earthquakes.”
Since the mission group was formed in 2008, the Hot Springs parishes have been sending money monthly to Haiti for schools and food for children.
“Now we have so many people out there who want to do something for the earthquake victims,” Sanders said. “We have to figure out what steps to take next.”
Both missionary groups said they are committed to continuing their work in Haiti.
“We have projects sitting there waiting to be done,” Sanders said. “Larry and some of the others were there in November 2009 to assess the needs. We have been working on our research. It would be better to be on the ground in Haiti, but this will give us more time to get organized before we make the trip.
“We have struggled to get things together for this trip because we are a new group. Each step we take we find that God gives us a little clearer vision of what should be happening. We’ll do a better job when we get there.”
The aftermath of the earthquake brought home the communication problems Haiti is experiencing. Both mission groups pointed out the frustration during the past week of getting accurate information. Walker, who teaches computer technology at St. Vincent de Paul School, was invited to join the mission to help with technology in Bombardopolis.
“Before Father Rodolphe left, we gave him a USB modem for his computer. One of our members, Bob Dufour, worked with Father Rodolphe to learn how to use Skype, an interactive video conferencing technology, so we can see each other. Even though we can’t see him in person, it still helps to build that communication and relationships with our sister parish in Haiti.”
The group has three laptops configured; one laptop is already in Haiti at Bombardopolis with pastor Father Augustin. It also is configured with Skype software.
Walker said, “One of the most ironic things was that before the earthquake, we were trying to give them a communication system so that in circumstances like this, they would be able to continue to communicate. We also want them to be able to communicate with each other. It would also open up many educational possibilities for both the staff and the students.”
Long-term development is the goal of both Arkansas mission teams.
In Hot Springs, Womack said, “Being a young mission here, this is what we are trying to do. We are trying to understand how to provide long-term support for God’s work with his people there. We need to fix the electrical that is in the parish. It is very crude solar power because there is no infrastructure to deliver electric power to them. We want to improve that and repair it.”
Solar power is what is necessary for the communication system being developed by the Haiti mission team in Rogers.
“We are researching using smaller solar panels to generate for the laptops,” Hoyt said.
“The one we have down there now is running off a generator we sent there last spring to the facility. Solar power is something that can be spread out to all the schools if we can figure it out. If our dream is to get these out to the schools, we are going to have to do it with solar power. That’s what all the schools have available — the sun.”
How you can help
A special collection was taken up at all the Masses Jan. 16-17 to support the victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services, the official international humanitarian agency of the U.S. Church, will use these funds to respond to immediate emergency needs and reconstruction of the Church in Haiti.
Donations can mailed to Haiti Earthquake Relief, Diocese of Little Rock, P.O. Box 7565, Little Rock, AR 72217-7565.
The following other international aid agencies are working with partner agencies and local religious leaders in Haiti and are accepting donations.
The Salesians are accepting donations by phone at (914) 633-8344; online at www.salesianmissions.org; or by mail to Salesian Disaster Relief, Salesian Missions, P.O. Box 30, New Rochelle, NY 10802-0030.
Caritas Internationalis is accepting donations for Haiti at www.caritas.org.
Catholic Medical Mission Board is accepting monetary donations by mail to CMMB, 10 West 17th St., New York, New York 10011; by phone at (800) 678-5659; or online at http://support.cmmb.org /Haiti.
Medicines and medical supplies may be donated by calling Kathy Tebbett at (212) 242-7757.
Jesuit Refugee Service is accepting donations at www.jrsusa.org; click on “Donate Now” box on right of page.
