Haiti now: Mormon Church members resume lives after quake

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Five days after the Haiti earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, I was witness to the massive destruction of a city and an enormous loss of life and misery. To say that covering this scene was jarring would be the understatement of the century.

Most photojournalists would agree that somehow a camera held to the eye acts as a shield and barrier while photographing the worst moments of life and death.

Dallas freelance photojournalist Lawrence Jenkins, who covered the earthquake initially and has been back to Haiti three times, simplified it by saying the camera allows a photographer to detach himself from the scene. It was only afterward, while editing the horrific images, that he began to cry over the misery he had witnessed. Hopefully, those who see the images that photographers shoot can bring about change, he added.

"I understand what post-traumatic stress is a little better now," Jenkins said.

Fast forward seven months in Port-au-Prince, and it doesn't appear to me that much has changed in the streets. Many houses and buildings still lay in ruin, with rare rebuilding efforts in effect. The Haitian people's happiness has improved, however, with some jobs and schooling opportunities, according to Haitian LDS Bishop Harry Mardy.

His congregation is doing better, he said, although the homeless don't have the money to rebuild and are living with relatives and friends rather than on the church grounds in tents and makeshift shelters that served as homes for several months after the earthquake.

Six hundred people made the Pétionville LDS Church grounds their home after losing their homes. Bishop Mardy spent 17-hour days taking care of them. Today, he is still busy with two jobs — his bishop duties and duties for his family of four, but he has more time to breathe.

Haitian LDS Church members "lost many things, including family and friends," Bishop Mardy said, "but they live in hope of jobs and going to school. They feel better, and life has come back. There is hope in the presidential election in November."

Instead of seeing dozens of tents and tarpaulins on the Pétionville church grounds, I witnessed a handful of young men playing soccer and basketball. A few Haitians told me that there was more food available to them through the Bishop's Storehouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and through various other organizations that are providing help. The staple of the Haitian diet includes rice and beans with fish.

For me, the meals have changed from January, when I ate only military MREs. During this visit, it's hamburgers from Le Plaza Hotel. And this time, I'm in an air-conditioned hotel room with an outdoor swimming pool, compared to a mattress on the floor with only an open window for comfort from the heat during the days following the earthquake.

Despite the current chaotic street scenes of rubble and destruction, Haitians are slowly getting back on their feet. They are trying their best to survive.

e-mail: jallred@desnews.com