This was sent to Chareyl by Rachel Coupad, who was the HLAH lawyer in Haiti for a time. Her experience since the earthquake reminds us of how much we have been given.
To All,
Today, I finally decided to take a few minutes to myself, to drop all else and write down a few words. It took me 15 days because in a matter of 35 seconds, not only did my country change, but so did my universe.
I wish to start by thanking each and every one of you who care, pray, wrote, and took action for us Haitians. I will not relate in detail the horrors I’ve witnessed, nor the feelings of despair, hopelessness and fear one experiences in such a situation. I was lucky enough to survive with little damage occurred - in comparison to most - so now I choose to talk about the beauty I’ve discovered in all of this.
***
I was sick in bed when it happened. I did not realize the magnitude of the disaster at first but within an hour, after hearing from my immediate family members, I put on my tennis shoes and walked to a nearby maternity to offer my help. What I saw there cannot be put in words… the despair of kids dying in the hallways and of people with open wounds I had only seen in war movies. I left the clinic at midnight, went to my parents’ home so we could all be together. The next morning, I went to volunteer in another hospital in the neighborhood and quickly realized that the horror of the night before was just a preview of what was to come. With the lack of staff, a friend and I found ourselves acting as an assistant/nurse in the O.R. for an amputation and for a liver operation! How did I get there, you ask??? . But at that point, I chose to see the beauty in the midst of the chaos, as I learned that some choose life over all…
The woman whose operation I assisted had one leg chopped off. When I stopped for a while and decided to compliment her on her strength, she answered: “I choose life over legs, I have 2 daughters to raise.” How could she smile and actually thank the team who took away this big piece of her body? She simply chose life, she said…
I spent 5 long days at the community hospital and many long nights hosting visiting surgeons. What films and pictures do not show are the emotions, the pain in the voices and the agonizing smell of bodies slowly decomposing on the grounds. But on the other side of the slide, I saw beauty…
Indeed, in the midst of it all, I saw everyone giving a hand in a way or another; I saw foreigners whose names I will never know save lives of people whose names they will never know; I saw a nation devastated, but its citizens taking the next step by simply choosing to survive and helping others do the same. I saw young, not so young, rich, not so rich, poor, black, white, literate and illiterate, Haitians and foreigners acting as one! I saw the universal language of hope, survival, love, strength, determination and solidarity. THIS, I choose to remember and learn from.
Many days later, I thank the Lord for my blessings. My worries are the same as everyone else’s: What comes next? What will we do? Where will we start? but I said to a friend, we already started. Now it is for us to decide on the type of Haiti we want, the type of nation we will become and the kind of individuals we will be. I took me the same 35 seconds to be reminded that no matter where we stand from, no matter how different our journeys are LIFE and LOVE are what matters the most.
Again, I thank each and every one of you for the support. In these tough times, knowing one cares is enough to keep another going in the right direction. Your messages arrived from all over the world and my wish is that you keep praying for Haiti and its citizens as we have never been so vulnerable.
Again, thank you.
Rachel Coupaud
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