Based on a recent visit to Haiti by Sister Margaret Farrell as told to Mischa Geracoulis.
Despite the passage of two years and the continued presence of approximately 6,000 non-governmental organizations, Haiti is still wracked by a plethora of devastation. Most of Haiti’s citizens—excepting the 8-10% of the population that makes up the wealthy class—were, and continue to be, impacted by the January 12, 2010 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Hundreds of thousands died, another several hundred thousand injured, and nearly a million people were rendered homeless.
Today countless thousands live in squalor, in displacement camps and makeshift structures, and without formal employment. Open sewers, contaminated water, rampant cholera and inescapable stench-filled air are not just an immediate aftermath of the quake, but the current order of the day. Water and sewage flow through downtown Port-au-Prince in which people with no access to clean water “bathe” in a river of filth. This drives home the point that, particularly in terms of clean water and sanitation infrastructure, Haiti is the most underserved nation in the western world. 
Sister Margaret, who has pretty much seen it all and is rarely fazed, says that nothing could have prepared her for this.
Most of the evenings during Sister Margaret’s hot autumn visit saw rain. This helped to cool things off, but also brought on swarms of bugs—both inside and out. Because of the fetid air and insects, Sister Margaret observed, the people with whom she stayed had developed a daily ritual of spraying down their body, hair, bedsheets and pillow cases with Lysol.
Noticeably, Haiti’s elder population is absent. Most lost their lives on that fateful January 12th; hence, the current population is a young one.
“One day we visited a home for boys who had all lost their parents. The staff who were with them told us that the children badly needed shoes, and later dropped off a list with their sizes, begging me to help,” reports Sister Margaret.
Many Haitian children are unable to attend school. Due to an unavailability of school buildings, poverty, or parents or adult supervision, orphan children are left to fend for themselves. Sister Margaret did, however, visit a school site. In fact, she connected with a Methodist church group from Colorado and helped with the rebuilding of one such school. The wall that had once surrounded the school had been destroyed by the earthquake, and now needed to be demolished and rebuilt.
“It was hard, back-breaking work in about 100 degrees heat and 80% humidity. We used picks, axes, and sledge hammers to break the wall, then put it into buckets with a shovel to haul it away. We developed a pattern and worked well together, but we also sweated a lot. One day one of the local Haitian men who was working with us worked in his bare feet! Can you imagine breaking rocks all day in your bare feet? Certain things like that were shocking me.
After the earthquake the government made an agreement with the aid agencies involved in rebuilding and redevelopment; they were to employ local Haitian workers and the Haitians were to lead the projects, which is a different [better] way of doing things.
The children at the school were great and they enjoyed coming over and hanging out with us during their breaks. Although none of us spoke their language, which is Creole, we were able to communicate. Some of them were fascinated by my white skin, and sometimes I would feel their hands touching my face. They loved to trace my veins and play with my hair.”
The Methodist church in Haiti is involved with developing programs for women in rural areas in the sectors of healthcare, agriculture, literacy, and microfinancing. Here too they’ve trained local Haitian staff to administer and operate the various programs. For example, small financial loans, generally about $25, are made to women for the purchase of craft supplies in order to make their crafts to sell. This helps the women to become more self-sufficient. Sister Margaret was able to visit a rural area where the women and their families were each given one goat and six chickens and taught how to care for them. So far the families in the area have raised 1,200 chickens and 500 goats.
Ironically, the arrival of post-earthquake food aid organizations have actually created greater hardship for Haitians. Growing, harvesting by hand, and selling their crops (bananas, plantains, mangoes, guavas, avocados, carrots, corn, and sugar cane) was a main source of income. But with food aid organizations in place, locals haven’t been able to sell their own produce. Agriculture is one of the oldest, most integral activities of civilization, the very engine of rural ethos and enterprise. And so the paradox is that aid organizations have all but ruined an industry that as recent as ten years ago comprised 40% of the Haitian economy. Up to date, according to the Haitian government, more than 50% of Haitian food consumption is from abroad. Farming, clearly, needs to be reinstated, though the obstacles to implementation assume overwhelming proportions.
For the tiny nation whose history is rife with instability of every sort, is still reeling from the earthquake that struck almost two years ago, and seems to be losing the interest of the international community, the questions regarding what to do persist like its humidity and hang heavy in the air.
Nevertheless, Sister Margaret was touched by the spirit of the people and hopes to one day return to Haiti.
Sister Margaret is a Religious Sister of Charity from Ireland and is the Spiritual Ministry Coordinator at Covenant House Hollywood, a nonprofit organization that provides shelter and transitional housing for homeless teenagers and young adults. Some of her work includes social justice, prison ministry, working with homeless, juvenile offenders, and LGBT youth.
Tags earthquake, Haiti, Sister Margaret Farrell
