What I do Every Day......April 15, 2025
/Since I last wrote, we had a direct attack in our area, immediately behind St Luke Hospital.
The heavy shooting started and 1:30am, and some of the workers came to wake me up, but the shooting had already woken me up.
I went with a few others to St Luke Hospital, where some people fleeing from their homes were coming in the gate to be safe within our walls. Most people find a place to hide and lie low in the area of their homes because it is dangerous to be on the street.
Because of what just happened in Mirebalais, even to nuns, we were all quite on edge. But after about thirty grueling minutes the gunfire stopped and bandits did not assault our hospital.
In the dark, without knowing where the bandits are, once it is quiet no one moves. The wounded lay low, and those who would seek the wounded lay low, because the roads become a death trap. But with the rising sun comes enough courage to see, evaluate, and act. So it was that at the crack of dawn the bullet wounded were brought to us. I also also went to seek them. There were no dead.
A very young woman name Chrismene (“Christ leads”) had her right foot dangling from her ankle by a piece of skin. We took her and the other wounded to Doctors Without Borders (quite nearby), but it was evident she would lose her foot.
Her picture is far below, taken when discharged after her amputation, and came to St Luke Hospital for follow up. Her face is sad but resolute. She is one more innocent and tragic victim of this violence, her whole life ahead of her with inner and outer scars. She is also one more incredibly strong and heroic Haitian woman. We will stay close to her, and see soon about what is poissible for a prosthetic foot.
The incident caused a crisis in our hospital. Both the heavy shooting and then caring for the dramatically injured is an emotional damage to our staff, not trained in trauma situations, war-like injuries, or victims of urban terrorism.
Because most of the people who still work with us could not find a way to leave Haiti for Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Canada or the USA, they have to be very careful IN HAITI to avoid places like Tabarre, where we are.
We spend a few days thinking our hospital would be forced to close by understandable abandonment of staff. But as the days passed, and as we understood better what had happened near us and the motivation, everyone renewed their commitment to keep St Luke Hospital open, because there are so few hospitals left.
We have been busy organizing some helicopter flights to move nuns who are trapped over the heads of gangs and to safer areas. We have been able to do this for about 10 Sisters so far.
The brother in law of one our lead St Luke physicians was kidnapped within the past week, and kidnappers sent Whatsapp messages to the family of his torture.
Once again thanks to our staff who have known for years how to lead us to face to face discussions with bandits who can and do help us (always in a humanitarian exchange of one kind of another), Dr Pyram’s brother in law was freed after three days for very little money (paid by the family), and is under good care for his injuries. It is all very savage. As the saying goes, the body keeps the score. But so does the heart and the soul.
Mireblais is still a dangerous place, and I have seen the images of the destruction of the police station there. We were never able to recover the bodies of the Sisters, whose bodies are precious to all of us in the Church, and to their families and friends.
The mountains of Kenscoff are also still under siege, but like in Tabarre, our NPH (NPFS) programs at St Helene in Kenscoff have been under no direct threat.
We are preparing these days for Easter, especially preparing to distribute as much food and assistance as we can in about 20 areas of difficulty.
Like everyone else in the country, we are in freefall and can only help in the most limited way, but in God’s eye, no help is too small.
I don’t show Chrismene for pity, but as a human reference point. Real people are suffering. We have to also be real people, authentic in humanity and Christianity, toward our neighbors.