23279: Minsky: Gonaives report from Sonia Lee, Fonkoze (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "tminsky@ix.netcom.com" <tminsky@ix.netcom.com>


A report written by Sonia Lee, the Director of
Projects of Fonkoze.

Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 16:30:47 -0700 (PDT)
> From: "Sonia Lee"
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I am writing because I just wanted to give an
> update on what is going on in Haiti.  I am sure
> by now you have heard about the flooding that
> happened in Haiti, and the devastation and deaths
> it has caused.  I went to Gonayiv yesterday to
> visit our staff out there, and to see the
> situation.  Words cannot begin to explain the
> devastation.
>
> First of all, to get to Gonayiv, you have to pass
> through a place called Sav-On Dezole, which
> basically is a desert area with an abundance of
> dust, sun and cactus.  I couldn't believe what I
> saw when we arrived there.  This desert has
> turned into a huge lake, and you can only see the
> tops of the cactus.  There were tons of cars
> there, waiting around watching other trucks and
> 4x4 vehicles cross in the water to see if they
> would make it to the other side.  We slowly
> followed them.  The water is completely brown and
> murky, so you can't even imagine what our car was
> driving over in the water.  It got to a point
> where the water got so deep that it started
> seeping into the car.
>
> When we finally got to the other side, we started
> passing houses that were either destroyed, under
> water or "recovering".  You could see on the
> walls of cement houses where the water had gotten
> to, you could see that the water had almost
> covered the entire house.
>
> As we were entering Gonayiv, you start to see
> people everywhere on the street, and dirty brown
> water everywhere.  It covers the streets, it's in
> houses, businesses, offices, etc.  And piles of
> mud, garbage, clothes, mattresses, dead animals,
> etc. are all around.  Those who survived are
> trying to salvage anything they can.  Everything
> is covered in mud, coke bottles, wooden chairs,
> clothes.  Women are washing clothes in the water
> on the ground, men and children carrying buckets
> filled with mud and water trying to clean their
> homes, people have put all their possessions on
> the tops of their houses to dry.
>
> We got to Fonkoze, and waited for the director to
> meet us.  We saw him in the distance walking
> towards us.   He was wearing a t-shirt, shorts
> and plastic slippers.  This is all he had left.
> He was stained with mud.  People in Haiti do not
> walk outside dressed like this, unless they are
> at home.  He and his family lost everything,
> including his clothes and house.  We wanted to
> give him the provisions that we brought for the
> staff, but he told us he doesn't have a home and
> didn't have a place to keep them.  We went to his
> cousin's house, and they said that they didn't
> have any room.  To get to his cousin's house, he
> had to cross through mud that arrived almost at
> his knees.  We finally found another cousin of
> his who agreed to take the stuff.  All our
> employees are accounted for, except 2 of the
> women.  We wanted to deliver the stuff to the
> employees, but all have lost their homes so they
> are all scattered around.
>
> The director explained to us that on Saturday
> around 1pm, there was a light rain but no one
> thought anything of it.  It was around 8pm that
> they started hearing the water coming.  Finally
> around 1am, the water was just violently rushing
> down the streets, people were scrambling to hold
> on to anything, grabbing and climbing trees,
> those with cement houses rushing to the roof,
> jumping from roof to roof because the water was
> just getting higher and higher.  Imagine too it
> was at night with no electricity.  People just
> being swept away in the water.  They have
> estimated that the death toll is over 1,000, and
> still thousands are missing.  Those who are
> missing are undoubtedly dead, probably swept into
> the ocean or drowned in the water, and their
> bodies will probably only be found once the water
> has dried up.  They are buring the dead in mass
> graves, but also there are worries that this will
> cause new diseases.
>
> Gonayiv is a place already known for its
> mosquitoes.  Like many other bigger towns in the
> provinces, it lacks infrastructure, open sewage,
> garbage, crime.  Imagine it was  already a
> "disaster", and now, the flooding has made it
> even worse.  When we were going to Gonayiv, we
> heard on the radio that the smell  in the town
> was awful due to all the damage and the dead
> bodies and animals.  When we got there, we saw
> people with masks over their mouths or rubbing
> limes under their noses to block the smell
> outside.  I don't think you could prepare yourself for the smell.
> The smell is like the smell of burning tires, and
> when you look around, you know why.  Near the
> office on the street, I saw the scattered carcass
> of several pigs, they were baking in the sun.
>
> The majority of people lost everything.  Many
> families were just wiped out in one fell swoop of
> water.  Homes destroyed, belongings lost.  People
> don't even have clothes.  And there is no food.
> The UN soldiers (Argentines) and some relief
> agencies are distributing food, but it seems to
> the same people, and in a rather humiliating way,
> people have to fight or run for it as the food is
> just thrown to them.  Peasants lost their land
> and what was planted on it, animals are dead,
> which in Haiti is one of the major assets a
> family can have, and people's livelihoods are lost
> as many of them are engaged in small trading
> activities and their merchandise has been
> destroyed.
>
> The presence of the government is almost
> non-existent.  The "prime minister" flew in on a
> helicopter, and remarked that the situation was
> grave.  The "president" is appealing to "their
> friends" for money, and it seems that this gov't
> response has been to list how much money they
> have secured.  Meanwhile, people are without
> homes, clothes and food.  And who knows what
> diseases are festering among all of this.
> Sending some tractors, draining vacuums, etc.
> could really help.  But even the General Director
> of the Ministry of Health made a statement (never
> having gone to Gonayiv after the floods) that the
> problem was not so bad, it's just some water.
>
> It is 2004, the 200 year anniversary of Haiti's
> independence.  And it all started in Gonayiv.  It
> is called the city of independence.  200 years of
> struggle, and now in 2004, Haiti has lived
> through another coup, lost its
> democratically-elected president voted in by the
> majority of people, who are the poor, a flood in
> May that killed 3000 people,  the return of the
> brutal Haitian army, the cost of  living getting
> more expensive everyday due to the whim of those
> who have, more factories, less agricultural
> production, insecurity and crime everywhere.  I
> don't think this is what Haitians were fighting
> for 200 years ago.
>
> I couldn't sleep at all last night.  When I got
> home, after I had finished bathing, I just sat in
> my room and I could still smell Gonayiv.  I can't
> even imagine what the psychological impact of all
> of this on the people is and will be.  Can you
> imagine what it was like for a child?  I asked
> our director what do you do in a moment like
> that?  He just looked at me, and said, "What can
> you do?  You do anything to survive."


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