Bill and I enjoyed visiting our son, Peter, and his familiy in Florida this past November. We were happy to be with them for Thanksgiving. Pete has worked for the State Dept in Port-au-Prince, Haiti for the past two and a half years. He comes home as often as he can to be with Roxana and their two boys. He finishes this assignment in August and his next assignment will be Tijuana, Mexico with his family. Bill and I were considering going to Haiti this May.
On Jan 12 when we turned on the news we learned there had been an earthquake about half an hour earlier in Haiti. I was concerned and called Roxana to see if she had heard from Pete. When I called she was just learning about the quake from her sister who called. About an hour later she called back to tell us that Pete had sent her a short text message that he was ok. She was unable to contact him. She thought Pete had probably still been at the embassy at that time. Later she learned he was in his home which is a little ways out of the city and about two blocks from the Montana Hotel which fell.
Pete experienced the huge quake with crashing glass but his house did not fall. Three neighboring homes did collapse. One of these was the home of an embassy family where Peter helped to get three seriously injured people out of the rubble and carry them a long distance on makeshift stretchers to a place where they could receive medical aid. He worked very long hours at the embassy with little sleep. When he did sleep it was in his chair or on the floor. Meals were military rations. He was able to call Roxana through a line which went through Washington but could not call every day. With all the after shocks everybody at the embassy was on edge and would run outside of the building whenever they felt tremors. The embassy is a newer building and better constructed. A lot of people tented outside the embassy and there were very long lines for showers and bathrooms.
When we visited in November Peter was planning a Christmas party for the Haitian bodyguards and their families. It was the first time families were being invited and Pete had a list of all the childrens' names and ages. We went to Toys R Us to get small gifts for these kids. We heard later the party was a great success and the kids loved their gifts. They have very little. Pete said many of these children died.
About a week after the quake Pete posted on facebook. "I want to thank my family, friends, co-workers and DS Brotherhood for all of your wishes of support this week. It means a lot to me. It has been horrific, heartbreaking and unimaginable. To all my Haitian friends the human spirit that comes through in a tragedy such as this defies words. You are strong!"
