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By Kathy L. Gilbert*
Feb. 22, 2010
Noel Zierne (left) prays during worship at St. Martin Methodist Church
in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. UMNS photos by Mike DuBose.
View in Photo Gallery
“January 12 is a bad day for Haitian people. We will never forget
this day.”
Emile Belorne, who works at the Methodist Guest House in
Port-au-Prince, like millions of others in Haiti, is still coming to
terms with her memories of the day a massive earthquake struck her
country, killing more than 200,000 people.
“I felt it was the last day of my life,” she said. “It felt like the
end of the world.”
The people of Haiti took three days of remembrance, Feb. 12 to 14,
to mourn their losses, including family and friends as well as their
homes and livelihoods.
During the three days, people dressed in white and usually spent
from 6 a.m. until 1 or 2 p.m. at church singing and praying, said
Kathryn J. Paik, executive with the United Methodist Committee on
Relief, who has been in Haiti helping set up a field office.
“It wasn't what I expected at all--wailing and angry toward God
for allowing this to happen--but rather a time to gather their strength
from God to go on still once more,” Paik said. “Of course, I'm sure
there are isolated cases of tension, frustration mainly toward their
own government for not acting fast enough or that aid isn't getting to
them quickly enough. But around where I was, streets were quiet and
crowds getting in and out of churches were peaceful.”
‘Take my soul’
The survivors of the earthquake remember the moments leading up to
the few seconds that changed everything.
Weeks after, Belorne said, she still feels the Earth move. Like all
of their neighbors, she and her family are living outside. No one who
felt the terrible shaking can trust buildings anymore.
“I was in my house with my husband and children. I felt the house
shake with violence,” Belorne said. “I cried out, ‘Lord, Lord save us.’
Everyone knew only Jesus could do something.”
Dr. Honore Clogya, a pediatrician with Grace Hospital, was in his
drugstore with his wife and mother-in-law when he felt the tremors.
The building collapsed and buried all three of them. “My wife cried
out, ‘God, you can take my soul,’ because she thought she would die,”
he said. His mother-in-law did not survive.
“I feel very stressed,” he said, a few weeks after the disaster.
“Haitians must believe in God. They must take a breath and bless God,
for everything is for his glory.”
Restoring hope
Samuel Loomery, 17, was buried in the rubble of his secondary
school. “I was on the fourth floor, then I was on the first floor,” he
said. “Concrete fell on my feet. I couldn’t move.” Before his world
collapsed, Loomery had hopes of being a diplomat.
Families crowd a makeshift camp at the municipal soccer stadium in
Leogane, Haiti, following the earthquake.
View in Photo Gallery
Val Keteline, 24, had been working as a chef in a kitchen
owned by the Methodist Church of Haiti. Like many, she is now
unemployed.
“Most families are sad; some people are mad. Some people are talking
bad because they don’t have faith. They need to talk to someone,” she
said.
The needs are great.
“There is no more Port-au-Prince,” is how 18-year-old Jules Peterson
describes life now. “Many, many people died.”
But there is hope.
“Haitians are such resilient people. They pick up after themselves
and life must continue,” Paik said.
How to Help
Gifts to support UMCOR's relief efforts in Haiti can be made online
by visiting www.umcorhaiti.org. For gifts by mail, please
make checks payable to UMCOR and mail to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York,
NY 10087. Please indicate Haiti Emergency, UMCOR Advance
#418325 on the memo line of your check.
*Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service in
Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615)
742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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