EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is a letter written from Haiti, Sept. 8, 2008, the day after it was hit by Hurricane Ike, the fourth major storm to overwhelm the country in less than 30 days.

The letter and photos are from Carmel Valdema, a Haitian public health nurse and the wife of the Rev. Fritz Valdema, an Episcopal priest in charge of the Croix des Bouquets parish. The parish, with which Alabama’s companion relationship is focused, consists of six geographically separated churches.    The letter was written to Burt Purrington of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan and others, including the Diocese of Alabama, who have ministries in the Valdemas.    For information on how to contribute to hurricane relief in Haiti or other affected areas, please see "Alabama Responds to  Hurricane Devastation."

Monday, September 8, 2008

Dear Burt and other friends of Haiti,

We thank you very much for your prayers.  It is with much sorrow that we write this letter to you.  Because we believe very strongly in prayer, we hold fast to the belief that God will not destroy the country completely.  There must be people who remain to give testimony to what we are seeing happen today in the country of Haiti.  It's something I haven't ever seen since I was born.  I can understand how it was in the time of Noah when people were drowning in the water. 

We have already had rain for two weeks in our country.  Every time we think a hurricane is gone and we take a little breath of relief, they announce another.  So in this way, the earth can't accept any more water.  All the rivers have begun to overflow.  We are having floods all over in all ten departments.  All places we are calling are flooded.  There isn't a department that can give relief to another department.  Each of these places has their own problems.  There are places where the road has been cut off.  There are places where the bridges are completely collapsed.  There are places with landslides.  There are places where the raging wind is demolishing homes; destroying gardens.  All the animals are in the water.  Thousands of victims have lost all of their possessions.  They have lost family, children, friends, and so on.

I must tell you that we in Croix-des-Bouquets have some places nearby with problems such as Bon Repos and La Plaine.  MINUSTAH [the UN] and the Red Cross are working to gather up the people who are in the water.  We have Gorman which is completely flooded.  At Crochu nearly all the homes are damaged.  This morning we spoke with Louis-Jacques and Tazia.  They told us their home and little toilet are both badly damaged.  The church, the rectory, the former church are all badly damaged.  They lost all of their gardens.  They don't have a road.  Up to now we haven't been able to go there because there is still wind and rain.  The water at Gorman is too high.  Pere Val still hasn't been able to go to this area.  We get the news by telephone.  Raymond, supervisor of our health workers, and his wife and child almost died in Gonaives.  They lost their home too.  They spent three days on the roof of their house without food, without water.  Up to now, we haven't been able to go to see them.  Because all of these problems are being repeated in all ten departments, the Minister of Education distributed a communiqué about the opening of school, which was to begin on September 8.  He set it for October 6.  There is no way for school to begin here this week.

Right now it is very difficult for one to leave one department and go to another.  That demands a lot of thinking about how one would go.  I must tell you that last week we had nutrition clinics.  We had a chance to go some places, but there are some areas we can't go.  But we learned that in some of the places we can't go there were children that the health workers had just accepted into the program who were very sick.  We were obligated to find a way to meet the families on the road where a car could go and take those who came down with them who are sickest.  There are some among them we can't keep ourselves because we don't have a hospital.  They have kwashiorkor, marasmus.  When we took them to Little Brothers and Sisters Hospital, they didn't have room for them.  We took them to the general hospital. You can see the children in the photos.

I must tell you that it is always the program Lespwa Timoun (the children’s nutrition program) that buys medicine for these children.  Right now they are still in the hospital because their parents don't have the means to help them.  The others we saw are still at the compound at St. Simeon where we can take care of them and can give them enriched milk, akamil and other medicine.  They come from Crochu, Thomazeau and Thoman.  They are still with us.

Now they are telling us that there are still  more hurricanes that will come.  We are still looking out and praying.  What we are thinking here is that after these natural catastrophes more misery will spread in the country.  More epidemics of illness, diarrhea, rashes, typhoid, pneumonia, more children who become malnourished, more hunger because the gardens are almost entirely gone.

Each time these problems appear and we have an opportunity to take these actions, we say thank you to God and we thank all the people who do these things to help us through their churches and Lespwa Timoun.  They should know that they have a special place in the hearts of all of these families.  It is always a gesture of solidarity and one that they know they won't lose.  God will bless them and their families because they helped someone who is weaker.  According to what is written in Matthew 25:40: "The King answered them: 'Truly I say to you, each time you did this for one of the least of these among my brothers, you did it for me.' " Always remember us in your prayers and we will pray for you too.

Thank you,

Carmel and Pere Val  

For more on our companion relationship with Haiti visit our Haiti webpage.