Haiti update

Dear Friends,

it has been only six days since I started to send out my SOS about Haiti. The response has been so huge and wonderful, that I am moved very deeply. So many of you responded, and even started fundraising actions on their own – it has been truly remarkable. I have been incredibly busy co-ordinating all of this, and also organizing the overall effort. So I had little time to email individuals back in detail. Here is an update:

As you know, I found out last Sunday that my 85 year old father is really much more traumatized and effected by being in the diseaster zone than I had understood before. This is partially, because he tries to keep up the good front. I discovered that he had given up on himself, deciding he should not put a burden on the young ones being old himself. Since then, I have called him almost every day just to show him that he is not forgotten. Each time I talk to him, it becomes a little clearer how traumatized and spacy he is. For instance, he used to speak Creole and French, now speaking French is too much for him. He coughs, but tells me he has no cold. I asked him could he go have new photos made for the paper to file to get him out – but this is asking too much of him right now, also. So I feel that it is quite urgent to get him to safety, so he can start to relax and recover.

Through an incredible circumstance and around many corners, I got in touch with a journalist presently in Haiti. She tried to go visit my father. When she called him, asking what he needs, he named soap and laundry powder. We had not envisioned him not being able to wash himself and his clothes. The journalist was not able to make her way to him. What used to be 20 min by car from downtown Port-au-Prince is now a 5 hour ride or longer. Another friend of hers will try to make it to my dad today. In his area, all houses but one collapsed, and it is not safe to go inside because of the aftershocks for another 4 to 6 months. They have no tents, and everyone just sleeps outside.

There is running water, but it is not clean and not drinkable. They have to buy bottled water, which is very expensive. Prices for whatever is still available have exploded, so normal comodities are unaffordable. I am imagining that the black market scene is blooming. They have electricity for part of the day, just since most houses have fallen in, I don't think there are a lot of lights left. Now the dreaded rains have started, so the danger of epidemies is very high. In the city area, the stench from the decaying bodies is unbearable. In the outskirts where my father is, that is not such a big problem. I realize that while we collected medicine, at this point clean water and soap might along with food might be the medicine most urgently needed, along with toothpaste and things like that. I will use the donated money for whatever is most needed to relieve people's suffering. My father's area still has not received international help. It seems that the great organizations are focussing on rebuilding the overall structure of the country. Up to the day before yesterday, most people had to go in and out of Haiti via the Dominican Republic, which is a 6 hour ride from Port-au-Prince. I hope we don't have to go out that way, because I am not sure that my father can take that after over a month of sleeping outside, not washing himself, not eating properly, plus being injured in his back from the earthquake. The very first flights in and out of Port-au-Prince have started, but they are few and far between, and still liable to be cancelled at any minute. As a friend said: it is simply a cathastrophy. I am really very uneasy thinking of all these people, shocked, injured, young and old, sleeping outside in the rain.

I will come to New York Thursday late night, and think that I will be teaching a class on the weekend. I am hoping to find out how to get the papers to get out my father by tonight – the famous journalist said that she found out the contacts of how to go about it, and that she will let me know.

If you don't hear from me in detail, then please be patient – I have a lot to sort out. I will give you regular updates whenever I can.

I would again like to thank to all those of you who contributed, in whichever way, and I received a long list of your names, plus many donations by people who remain nameless. In the name of the people of Haiti, I thank you with all my heart. Your names and compassion will be with me on my journey.

Your forever brother Jinpa

Valentine's day message

Hi Elly,

how are you doing? I am just about to finish my first set of retreat in France, when I found out that my father has post traumatic stress disorder - he is alone in Haiti and really shocked from having to fight his way out of the house in the quakes, being banged about. He is now 85 years old. I am the only one who has an American passport and can go to Haiti and get him out with me.

It's really rough now - he has slept in the street since the earthquake, and everyone has to stay outside for another 4 to 6 months before it is safe to go back inside. On top of that, he is so traumatized from being in the house in a big quake, that he is now too scared to walk back into a building. He asks to come to the US for the first time in his life. Nanette is already covering my flight to Haiti with her frequent flyer miles, but I also need to fly from France to NYC, and bring my father back with me. Plus I will have to provide him with winter clothes and some money. He can then live with my NY brother who cannot go, because he will lose his job if he leaves for more than 5 days and has two children to take care of.

I will probably have to be in Haiti with my father for 10 days while they process his papers. Nanette is taking care of everything. We are just waiting to hear when the papers could be processed, so I can go. We have been sending him money for food, but the whole neighborhood is hungry, so everyone is eating off of his check. The old people are now dying from the aftermath of the shock in Haiti, and we would not want our father to die alone like that. What I am looking for is frequent flyer miles, money, or a job to donate - my Haitian brother was able to take his children out of the country, he is now in Florida, but has no job. He is a business person, and so is his wife, so if you know someone in Florida who could employ them...

Let me know the best time to reach you on the phone.

Love, your brother Jinpa