Healing after Haiti
Venise Toussaint still remembers coming home on Jan. 12 to the images of Haiti – her homeland – on CNN.
‘My dad told me what happened and I just started to cry,’ said Toussaint, a senior broadcast journalism and psychology major. ‘Haiti is already a country struggling so much and this happened.’
Now, a month after the magnitude 7 earthquake hit southern Haiti, killing more than 200,000 people, Toussaint and other SU students affected are still trying to cope with what happened.
‘It’s been sort of surreal,’ she said. ‘When it first happened it was so random – just so unexpected.’
The first few days were some of the hardest days, Toussaint said, because she didn’t know if her family members living in Haiti were OK. Toussaint’s cousin was killed, and at least 20 of her family members are still in Haiti.
Her dad’s side of the family still lives in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, and her mom’s side lives in Tirivere, a city close to the capital, she said.
‘They’re doing as OK as they can in this situation,’ she said. ‘They’re not great, obviously, because they are still living in it and living through it.’
Although Toussaint lives in the United States, she always kept close ties to her Haitian identity. She hangs a Haitian flag in her room, she wears Haitian jewelry and she owns a Haitian dress that her aunt made for her in Haiti’s colors.
‘Anyone that knows me knows how much I love my country,’ she said. ‘Whenever I see CNN and the images, I see myself in these people. Seeing people in pain and suffering on TV, I see myself and my family in pain and suffering. It affects me because Haiti is part of me and my life. I feel personally touched when someone reaches out to try to help Haiti.’
The last time Toussaint visited Haiti was in 1998, when she stayed in her grandmother’s house. She was planning to go there this past Winter Break, but her mom convinced her to travel with her dad, who goes every May to visit his family, she said.
Toussaint is not sure what she will expect to see when she goes in May. Her 98-year-old grandmother and aunts were forced to leave her grandmother’s house, which was damaged during the earthquake.
Emmanuel Louijeune, a freshman civil engineering major, also has relatives in Haiti and is trying to reach them in the earthquake’s aftermath. He grew up living with his mom, two uncles and two aunts in Haiti. He and his mom moved to the United States about three years ago, but the rest of his family is still in Haiti.
‘They gave me everything,’ he said. ‘After this, they’re living in the streets. Help hasn’t reached them yet. To see that I’m here with all of this opportunity and I can’t give them anything, it’s been really hard. When I call, what can I say?’
It took two days before they had even heard from their relatives to know if they were safe. Louijeune decided to stay home when the earthquake first struck so that someone would be there in case a family member called. When his uncle first called, all he was able to say was that they lost everything but they were fine.
‘During the period before he called, we just waited and watched, watching the news, hoping to see something that would comfort us in some ways,’ he said. ‘Sometimes it makes it worse. Sometimes knowing is good, but sometimes knowing hits you with reality – Wow, this is really bad.’
Louijeune’s family survived, but he lost one of his childhood friends in the earthquake. They grew up in the same house.
His family lost two houses in the earthquake. They are currently living on the street with a sheet for shelter, and they have to travel to other towns to buy food. His aunts and uncles are unable to take care of all of their children, so his older cousins are living with their great-grandmother on the coast while their parents stay in Port-au-Prince with the children, Louijeune said.
He said the tragedy is affecting his schoolwork to an extent. It was all he could think about when he first came back this semester.
He is unable to talk to his family in Haiti frequently because it is expensive and he can’t pay for the calls. Louijeune relies on his mom to pass along information, he said.
‘It’s hard to talk to my mom about this,’ he said. ‘She’s vulnerable. I have to talk to her and tell her it’s fine and to keep believing in God and that everything will be all right.’
To help with the pain and to help his family, Louijeune has been volunteering for the relief effort and encouraging others to do the same whenever he can, he said.
‘It gives a little bit of relief to know that I’m helping,’ Louijeune said. ‘It may not be big, but it’s helping them in some way.’
Louijeune also said he is thankful for all of the aid he has seen for Haiti, both at SU and on a larger scale. He is especially proud of how the Haitians have come together to help each other.
‘I’ve seen people helping people on TV. It’s their people,’ he said. ‘They’re trying to work together to save people that they might not even know. It’s the life that counts.’
Published on February 16, 2010 at 12:00 pm
