In light of Hurricaine Tomas and Cholera, I am returning to Haiti to Help out. Like my last trip to Port-au-Prince, I am heading down solo. It’s too difficult to round up a team and finance such a large trip on such short notice. I am gonna lone-wolf it. Much like last time, I am going to be doing film and media work. I believe that the best good I can do as one person is to inspire the rest of the world to help. I believe my camera is my best weapon in this battle.
The same as last time, I have resolved that if I come across someone who needs medical attention within my sphere of ability, I will put down the camera and help. I renewed my first aid/cpr after I returned last time, and I spent my plane trip obsessively reviewing the manual. I am no doctor, but I might be able resuscitate and stabilize folks if need be. I also brought stuff to protect myself from blood borne pathogens this time around. Last trip I had to get HIV and other bloodwork done when I got back. (negative, phew!) I had come into contact with quite a bit of bodily fluid.
As I am writing this, and keeping an eye on the NOAA hurricane model for Tomas, I am relieved that the majority of the storm is going to move west between Cuba and Haiti. Unfortunately, it is going to drop large quantities of rain. Since Haiti has widespread deforestation, heavy rain causes mudslides. I am now putting together data on the areas that will be the most impacted by this. I think I will focus on that.
I am currently sitting at the airport in Fort Lauderdale (correction), waiting for morning to catch my connecting flight into PAP. Check back here for updates. I will be trying to update media as frequently as possible. And of course, please keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts.
We put together a short form documentary about one persons struggle in dealing with the earthquake aftermath In Haiti. We hope this is a departure from the most of the “shocking” video we have shot. It is our hope that this humanizes the events, and allows the viewer to identify with the people who are living through this disaster.
This is footage from 72 hours after the quake. I had a difficult time editing the crying child. In retrospect, I wish I would have done more to comfort him. But at the time, I wasn’t touching injured folks because I had no gloves, and I couldn’t bring myself to tell him it would be all right, because I knew that it was a lie.
I could not help these people while I was on the ground. I am not a surgeon or an aid worker. I had no supplies, and no antibiotics. However, I am asking that the people that can help, those that can directly help these people, to do so. Please. Do not wait. Do not stop for red tape. Get in there and help NOW.
I wrestled with how much of this particular footage I should show. I believe that I achieved a good balance here, showing enough to let folks know that Haiti needs help, but being respectful to the victims and the audience by refraining from just showing “shock footage”
My trip to the morgue was just more than seeing dead bodies. I saw things there that no human being should ever have to see. It is hard to explain, I will just let the video do the talking
I am busy Editing and uploading the video I captured in Haiti.
In Haiti, Patrick is stunned by my question “Is there anything you want to tell the world?” The Answer seems obvious to him.
I am not quite sure where I was when I shot the above footage. I believe it may have been Petionville. Many people were showing me their wounds, and asking what they could do to fix them. Many wounds were beyond first responder ability. Most people had horrible infections that needed to be treated by a medical professional. I could see that some people were going to need amputations. I would say “You need to wash that out, keep it clean, and see a doctor as soon as possible”, But as soon as the words left my mouth, I knew how stupid they were. These particular people had one bucket of water between 50 - 60 individuals, and obviously there were no doctors.
One elderly gentlemen asked me to look at his wounds, and he had infected scrapes on his skull, and some lacerations on his arm, He had managed to bandage his arm, and used an orange skin poultice. I asked him how long the orange skin had been on there, he said two days. I told him to remove it immediately as the fruit skin had probably already started to mold and rot. I let him know that the citrus juice may be good for for cleaning out his wound initially, but using a fruit skin paultice would only cause infection quicker.
I had no surgical gloves, so I could not touch any badly injured people. I felt bad that I could not do more. However, I am not an EMT or doctor, I had no supplies. Just the shirt on my back and my camera. I did not even have water for myself at this point. I wish I could have put down my camera, and helped these people directly, but I knew the only thing I could do was document the situation, and show people of the world in the hopes that it would inspire them to send help.
On Wednesday night / Thursday morning I was in Haiti. (48 hours after the quake.) Seeing as there was no logistically feasible way to round up a team from the Twin Cities and get them to Haiti, we decided that we would go in with a video camera, and get footage that would inspire the world to help.
The short story is that I got in to the Dominican Republic, made my way to Haiti, hooked up with a local family who wanted to help me in my task, and then we spent Thursday going to the worst possible disaster areas in Port Au Prince.
After loading up on a days worth of footage, I managed to leave Haiti in one piece. I am currently scrambling to get all my footage edited and uploaded for the world to see. It is slow going, but I am currently doing my best to get the footage out there. I promised many Haitians that I would relay everything that I witnessed to the world.
I have three videos done so far that can be seen here. Please be aware that the videos do contain graphic content. It is not suitable for children or other sensitive individuals.
Thank you to everyone who helped with the flood Relief! The people in the Fargo-Moorehead region were very appreciative of the supplies that were sent.
The people in that community are amazing. They showed so much courage and camaraderie during this whole ordeal. I didn’t think I would see so many smiling faces in a federal disaster zone. Even with their homes and livelihood’s in the balance, there remained a neighborly feeling everywhere we went. People would cheerfully pitch in and help before you could even get the chance to ask for it. It was inspiring.
Come the weekend, we had trouble finding places where volunteers were needed. The volunteer stations were overcrowded with people waiting to help. So we saddled up and headed north. We managed to find some sandbagging to do in the rural towns of BrookTree Park and Hendrum. Getting there was a chore in itself. It seemed that swollen rivers and creeks were blocking us at every turn. We did manage to get there though. We put in a fair amount of work.
Although were were fairly busy, we still managed to snap a few photos.
We know that the people in the Red River valley are not out of the woods yet. We wish them luck, and regret that we couldn’t take another week to offer more help.
We have been busy sandbagging. The people here are very appreciative of the support that the Lake Minnetonka / Twin Cities community has given.
Remember, we have another large vehicle leaving tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. drop us a line at volunteer@bluefox.info if you have any supplies to send along! Or just drop them off at Minnetonka Motorsports before 5 PM
We are leaving the Twin Cities for Fargo in a couple of hours. Thank you to everyone who donated supplies to the relief effort. There will be a few more vehicles leaving for Fargo in the coming days. So there is still room for more relief supplies or volunteers. If you wish to donate supplies please drop them off at Lake Minnetonka MotorSports. Their Address is 4388 Shoreline Dr. Spring Park MN 55384
