Haiti - Coping with the Emotional Aftershock of the Haitian Earthquake
Posted: Friday, March 12, 2010
by Rose-Marie Chaperon
Chaperon Consulting, LLC
One of the most difficult things in life is the feeling of helplessness. The great tasting yogurt I was eating was so tasteful; it made me forget where I was. After a long day at work, I was tired but ready to go out to have dinner with my colleagues. There was a little bit of excitement in my part to try this new restaurant. Half way through my yogurt, my phone was vibrating with my sister's number on the caller ID. The voice on the other line sounded very scary, she was speaking so fast, I could barely understand her. I screamed and asked her to hold on while I separated myself from my yogurt and my colleagues. Rose can you hear me? She shouted. An earthquake just hit Port-au-Prince, 200,000 feared dead. I was speechless and all of a sudden, I was cold.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 200,000 feared dead! Please make it stop!! This can't be true, my mother, sisters, grandmother and several other family members are in Port-au-Prince. No way can't this be happening. Is this another bad disaster movie by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, I was thinking. I am one of those who have a heart that beats for others' tragedies. Yet I am here, existing in a world where everything seems calm, while somewhere just a little bit lower in the hemisphere literally lays in complete shatters. Lives beyond destroyed. A land absolutely devastated. Hope and healing seem to be little more than just labels on aid campaigns. I want to have hope and I want to help with healing, yet I only feel helpless. As I was sitting in front of the television, my eyes were glued to the screen, it seemed big but it seemed foreign. I had not spoken to my mother in four days when it happened, I kept wondering, will I ever have the opportunity to speak with her or to even give her a proper burial?
The news was on every channel, it was coming in huge chunks but it fits in my small mind. 200,000 missing people suddenly do not seem like a massive amount of numbers but rather 200,000 sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, and friends. I am enroll in a class to learn about working with other's problems but right now, in the wake of so many enormous issues, I feel absolutely incapable of fixing anything if I cannot even fathom it fully myself.
So I stood in front of the television, I was staring at the walls wondering what to do next. I tried to pray for those who were already dead; amongst those were my sister's boyfriend and many family members and friends. I tried to fall asleep, I could not. I was thinking of Haiti and I thought of where I was, I wanted to give all I was able to give to bring those people back or even to give them a proper burial. I did not know the faces which were blasted on the television screen, but I could not help it, I felt ashamed, horrible, and so helpless, I started to cry.
As far as earthquakes go, it was over in a matter of seconds. But with 200,000 people dead, another 300,000 injured, and years of rebuilding in store, the catastrophe that struck Haiti on Jan. 12th was far from over. Around the world, onlookers felt helpless as Haitians buried their loved ones, dug friends, and neighbors out of collapsed buildings and struggled for survival amid shortages of food, water, shelter, and medical care. But others, including youngsters of Haitian descent all over the US, were not content to merely stand by. I was not content! I wanted to help; I did what I could to raise money for earthquake relief. And it wasn't easy. After all, every Haitians were directly affected by the deadly earthquake. I was affected!!
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Thank you for sharing this. As intrigued as I am about natural disasters, I am still aware of the human element.
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