little girl named Jonatha who had been
dropped off six days after the earth-
quake. The girl had survived under the
rubble alone, without water or food.
That seemed a miracle indeed. My
kids wouldn’t make it a single day
without water or food. Even when we
were stepping out for a quick errand,
I packed as though we were going on
a two-day canoe trip with an assort-
ment of snacks and multiple brim-
ming sippy cups.
When I told Alphonse I had to find
this child, he directed me to a place
he called “Sonapi.”
“Go to the Trois Mains and turn
right,” he said.
I was still scared, but there was a
slight loosening of the coils in my stom-
ach. In a few hours, I was going to head
out and find that orphaned girl.
WHEN THE SUN rose the next morning,
the view was devastating.
Port-au-Prince was built around val-
leys that had once been verdant with
trees. At first glance, it also seemed
that there were waterfalls flowing down
the hills around the city. A closer look
revealed that the white wasn’t flowing
water but concrete blocks that had
spilled down the valley, one small
house smashing into the next.
Jumbled piles of concrete lined both
sides of the street. The buildings were
reduced to skeletons of rebar and wood.
Some offered clues to their former lives:
a Yamaha sign, a large wooden cross
with Jesus rising.
A vast camp spread around the presi-
dential palace in what had once been
the city’s version of Central Park and
Times Square combined. Now, home-
made tents fashioned from bedsheets
clogged every inch of ground.People lay on the streets all around,
under sheets or tied-up tarps. Others
rummaged through the rubble, heaving
hammers and digging with their bare
hands. Signs made with spray paint
flashed from walls and hanging sheets:
“We need food. Water please. S.O.S. We
need help. We need help. We need help.”
I took notes as I toured the city. Brett
and I were the second team of reporters
from our newspaper to arrive, reliev-
ing our colleagues who had already
reported on the death and destruction.SIGNS MADE WITH SPRAY PAINT FLASHED FROM
WALLS AND HANGING SHEETS: “WE NEED FOOD.
WATER PLEASE. S.O.S. WE NEED HELP.”rd.ca 95