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Happening ... in the Local Church
 Father
Delmas Camy of Jacmel, Haiti, sent this photo to St. Thomas Aquinas
Parish in West Lafayette to illustrate the post-earthquake situation.
Father Camy’s parish is twinned with the West Lafayette church. |
 Haitian
students gather in a tent. (Photo courtesy Keith Woeste) |
 An
interior view of an earthquake-damaged building (Photo courtesy Keith
Woeste) |
By Caroline B. Mooney
The
Catholic Moment
WEST LAFAYETTE — When members of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish recently visited Haiti, they saw a long, slow recovery ahead for the country devastated by a Jan. 12 earthquake.
John Ginda, treasurer and past president of the Haiti Committee at St. Thomas, has made 12 trips to Haiti since 2001. He was there with two engineers from the parish to assess damage incurred by their sister parish, St. Francis Xavier in Jacmel. Its church, rectory, four schools, four chapels, a convent and a library were destroyed or heavily damaged.
Father Delmas Camy, pastor of St. Francis, e-mailed Ginda with this report:
“The situation in Haiti is so ugly and dirty and it doesn’t make the newspapers here. The rainy season (April to July in Haiti) beats Jacmel … into subhuman conditions. Even animals cannot survive in such a situation of life. These people can no longer withstand five months more like that. Too bad they might not survive after having been narrowly saved after the earthquake. … The Haitian state puts down their arms as if everything is put in fine. And the news will say that all is well in Haiti.”
The quake, which killed more than 250,000 people, struck the poorest nation in the Western world.
Ginda said the sloppy, muddy conditions make rebuilding more difficult and living conditions worse. Some people are living in homemade shelters made of bed linens stretched over branches with palm leaves woven into panels to extend the sheet houses. Camps are cramped and disease prone.
Many roads are often impassable.
“If you want to go somewhere fast, get on the back of a motorcycle taxi,” Ginda said, “though it’s hard to look down when you are only eight inches from the edge of a cliff while you are hanging onto the back of a bike.
“Our engineers have ideas on how repairs should go forward, but we are trying to get folks in Haiti to work with us,” Ginda said. “There is a lot of progress going on, but to say things will be done in five years might be optimistic. It could be longer.”
Another St. Thomas group — Keith Woeste, his daughter, Helen, 14, and the Mustillo family, Tom, Sarah, and children James, 12, Noelle, 9, and Nathan, 2 — traveled to Haiti on June 16. They took hygiene and medical supplies, uniforms, soccer equipment, tents and duffel bags.
“About three-fourths of all institutional structures are completely destroyed,” Keith Woeste said. “Anything more significant than a shed was ruined. Some structures are useable, but in the countryside, a large percentage of structures are on the ground and unsafe. Just think, if every institutional structure here could not be occupied — that’s the situation they face in Haiti now.”
Father Camy would like to build a temporary compound to celebrate Mass. Parishioners have been sitting underneath tarpaulins on pews that were pulled from a damaged chapel.
St. Thomas Aquinas has funds to help rebuild their sister parish’s chapel, but it’s not enough to also cover demolition.
In an ongoing endeavor, the group met with a non-government organization to work on expanding a water purification project that St. Thomas has been funding for 20 years.
They also looked at reforestation, sustainable farming and how improved cultivation could be adopted by local farmers. The group visited many Haitian farms to learn how the people farm, what their limitations are, how they share resources, the kinds of technology and technical support they have and what improvements are possible.
“We saw subsistence farming on an enormous scale,” Woeste said. “Thousands of Haitians are scratching out a living while farming on virtually vertical cliffs. Only in Haiti could a man die by falling out of his field.”
Another visit was to a compound run by the Little Brothers of St. Therese, whose large school was destroyed.
“They are trying to educate a whole lot of children in an uncomfortable situation,” Woeste said.
“The kids have to sit under tarps, and the school year has been extended because a lot of days were missed after the earthquake. It gets really hot and uncomfortable outside. It is amazing what a difference it makes to stand inside one of the remaining cement structures — it is so much cooler.
“Driving through Port-au-Prince, you just see complete disaster,” he said. “People are still piling huge, enormous piles of rubble in the street. A little bit of work has been done getting it cleared. Some of the rubble is being broken down by men with sledgehammers; they are making it into gravel so it can be turned into cement. Father Camy said the cost of cement has skyrocketed, and plywood also has doubled in price with so many people using it. The cost of materials is making it too expensive to do anything.
“The trip was part of our ongoing sister parish relationship,” Woeste said. “It was an attempt to communicate to them that we stand with them and let them know that there is an outside world and people still care about them and their needs.”
Sarah Mustillo left Haiti after one week with her two youngest children, while her husband and 12-year-old son stayed on.
“Taking all our children went better than I expected,” she said. “The kids really just roll with the punches. I thought it would be good for them to see Haiti and make connections with the Haitian people. There were so many nice moments when they played soccer with Haitian children or made bracelets with them. It was priceless, but hard to have a 2-year-old there. There are dangers all around, with broken concrete, tangled rebar, dogs with worms, and other health hazards.”
Mustillo said she was really struck by how little progress has been made in rebuilding. The piles of rubble in cities are being cleared using wheelbarrows.
“Seeing people living in tents, going to Mass and school in tents — it’s all very much post-earthquake,” she said. “We saw a teenage Haitian boy dying, and it was shocking in so many ways. His family was so powerless; they had no health care, no medicine and they didn’t even know what he was dying of. They said it was from diabetes, but I looked at him and it was clear that wasn’t the cause. I asked and they said he had been diagnosed with malaria. I realized they just didn’t know. It was heartbreaking.
“I felt like the Haitians are very aware of their plight,” Mustillo said. “They are open about their struggles and their suffering, but at the same time, their spirit is just amazing. They are very positive, welcoming and warm. I was touched by how faithful and kind they are. They have so little, but are willing to share anything they have with others. Everyone shares there. I keep thinking like an American and what we need — Haitians think about what everyone needs. We learned from it. We saw a lot of people struggling and suffering, but we were moved by how strong, kind and generous people were.
“It was an amazing trip,” she said. “Part of why I wanted to go to Haiti was just to live the Gospel, to walk with people and let them know that we care.”
Funds raised to rebuild home for Haitian friend
WEST
LAFAYETTE — Red Cross volunteer nurse Sue Alexander credits a Haitian man,
Martin Glesil, for saving her life in his country’s Jan. 12 earthquake. As
thanks, she vowed to raise money to help rebuild his destroyed home.
Her goal of $10,000 for Glesil has been reached.
Alexander, a member of St. Thomas Aquinas Church, said donations came from around the diocese in response to an article in The Catholic Moment.
“People sent donations from Carmel, Kokomo and my hometown of Fowler,” she said. “I was pleasantly surprised by the gifts from people I don’t even know. It’s been wonderful to touch base with so many people.”
More than $300 was collected at a wine and cheese party at St. Thomas. While in Florida, Alexander gave a presentation to 15 women vacationing from Fort Wayne, and they donated $1,500.
Glesil came to Indiana on June 20 for a six-week visit, and while he is here, Alexander will host a celebration to thank all who contributed to “Martin’s House.” They can meet him and enjoy a picnic together.
“I kept my promise and we raised the money,” Alexander said. “While Martin is here we will discuss how he can use the funds to rebuild. He also will be working odd jobs while he is here, as he has done the past two summers.”
The thank-you celebration is a carry-in picnic at 4 p.m. Saturday, July 10, at Alexander’s home, 2918 W. 1200 S., Romney, Ind. For more information, contact Alexander at 765-538-2247 or e-mail sualexander34@gmail.com.