Do you remember what you were doing on 12 January 2010 at 4:53pm?
Ask any Haitian this question and you will get a very precise answer.
Thirteen years later, no Haitian can forget.
Except those who are no longer here to tell their story.
Ayiti. 12 janvyè 2010. 4h53 nan apremidi. Goudougoudou.
Haiti. 12 January 2010. 4:53pm. Earthquake.
I’m not Haitian but I can’t forget.
I was at the IFRC Caribbean Regional Representation Office in Port-of-Spain when my boss at the time called an emergency staff meeting as the first disaster alert came in from Red Cross colleagues in Haiti.
I’d been working with the Red Cross for just over one year when I naively said to my boss, “Send me. I speak French.”
She believed in me and within 24 hours I was packing to leave for Santo Domingo as a team of Red Cross first responders known as the Field Assessment and Coordination Team aka the F.A.C.T. were gathering there to cross over into Haiti by land.
I walked on Haitian soil for the first time on 14 January 2010.
Life has not been the same since.
Not for Haitians. Not for me.
Thirteen years later Haiti is still recovering from the earthquake, cholera, successive hurricanes, political instability, gang violence, deforestation, chronic poverty.
That’s just part of the story told by mainstream media.
Truth is you’ll never know the full story unless you brave the bad press and GO THERE to see for yourself!
I did. And I’m so grateful I did.
Ayiti cheri… mwen remen ou.
Mwen pap jam bliyé ou.
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