A son of Saint-Louis du Nord talks about life in Port-au-Prince in the days following the earthquake
Saturday, January 16, 2010 – St. Louis du Nord, Haiti
By Erika Olsen, NWHCM staff
Gesner Charles, January 16, 2009
Gesner Charles is a second-year medical student in Port-au-Prince and longtime friend and employee of Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. On Tuesday afternoon, he had left school early with a classmate to make copies of some materials he needed for a lecture. A couple of hours later, he was sitting at home when the earthquake hit. “Many of the people who have died were students, because they were in class,” Gesner said. He was one of the fortunate.
Gesner stayed in his yard for the next three nights. Although his house survived the original quakes, on the radio they are warning everyone not to go in buildings since there was no way to know if they were safe or if another aftershock would bring them down.
Gesner described people walking from hospital to hospital. “You can’t even get inside the hospitals because there are so many people looking for their family members,” he said. Â Everyone walks the streets by day and sleeps in the streets by night. “It’s not raining, but it’s cold” this time of year, and no one has blankets, he said.
People are leaving the city to return to the countryside. “They’ve even sent buses to get some people, because they know what will happen in Port-au-Prince — all the people will get sick. There is no good water to drink…It smells bad in the city…People have to put something on their face” like masks or rags.
“There are bodies in the street everywhere. As they bring them out of buildings they put them there because there is nowhere to put them. Then a tractor comes and puts them in a dump truck and takes them away…Even if someone finds their family, where would they put (the body)? There is nowhere to put them.”
Gesner shrugged as he described the heartbreak of families trying to search for their missing loved ones. “Nobody can know if they are alive or not…they can’t see them before they are buried.” As people walk through the streets, they hear the cries of those still trapped. “Some people are crying up there and no one can do anything.”
At 5 a.m. on Friday, Gesner began the long journey home to Saint-Louis du Nord — first in a dump truck with more than 300 people “packed like sardines” in the back. The truck went as far as Gonaives, then he hopped from tap tap to tap tap, from motorcycle to motorcycle, tirelessly working to get the rest of the way home. “I paid a lot of money to finally get home. I didn’t eat anything from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. because I didn’t have enough money.”
His wife and young son have still been living in Saint-Louis du Nord while Gesner attends medical school.
When I got home “they jumped on me! And my son, I had to wake him up…he’d been asking his mom ‘where’s dad, where’s dad?’ He didn’t know where I was…he’s just two years old. But he knew there was something wrong.”
Gesner arrived home late on Friday evening and came to visit friends at Northwest Haiti Christian Mission on Saturday morning. Phyllis Van Es, an NWHCM short-term missionary, had been anxiously awaiting Gesner’s return along with his wife, Yvrose. “I met him several years ago in the ‘dungeon’ depot where they kept donations. We were sorting clothes. That’s when I knew I respected him – he was working when he didn’t have to,” Van Es said.
When Gesner walked up and hugged her, she screamed and hugged him tightly. A small group sat at the breakfast table and listened over cold cups of coffee as Gesner showed photos and talked about his experience.
“It’s so hard to describe,” Gesner said. “I don’t feel like I’m in my right skin yet. I only know that I’m very, very glad that I’m home now, that I’m out of Port-au-Prince. No one wants to stay there.”
As he began the task of finally contacting the many friends and family who’ve been waiting to hear from him, Gesner smiled. “Thanks for all your prayers, for everyone who was worried about me. Thank you so much.”
Click here for a photo gallery of images Gesner took in Port-au-Prince. Note: Some images contain content that may not be suitable for young children.
Tags: News_DisasterRelief
