Even Poorer than the Poorest of the Poor

By Mary Lou Larkin

Tuesday 2/16

Even though I've always considered Jacquesyl as the poorest of the poor, even here there are neighborhoods that are even poorer. We visited these houses today, houses made of only mud and sticks, red-headed children with pot bellies, signs of malnutrition and worms. The pot bellies mean that they're also probably not in school- or they would have been treated for worms.

Wednesday 2/17

The aftershocks continue. We learn of a building in Cap Haitien that has collapsed. I find myself looking at the ceilings if I'm inside - always preferring to be outside. Megan tells me this morning she didn't want to even sleep with her earplugs in- just in case... It may sound strange to you, but it is very real here.

I can't stop thinking about how Haitians are going to live with fear for a long, long time. We've had very heavy rains and the mud sucks your shoes right into it. Our clothes and legs are covered in mud but we don't care a bit. We all just keeping praying it's not raining like this in Port au Prince. We think of the thousands and thousands of people living in tents- if they've been lucky enough to get even that. I think of the rain running right through the tent cities, the mud, the lack of latrines, clean water...

I feel an impending sense of doom waiting for the disease to come...

Mary Lou