Thursday Feb 18

The day starting when I met my new cook's granddaughter. My creole is getting better and after a few minutes I was able to grasp the real story. Genesis's (my cook) daughter was killed along with her husband in Port au Prince when the earthquake happened. Her grandaughter was also trapped in the house , for 15 days, but she survived. Someone was going through the rubble and found the baby who is only 1 year old. The baby was taken to the university hospital in PAP and remained for 3 days. She suffered cuts and bruises and just has a small scar on her left cheek and back. Physically she seems fine but one cannot even imagine the emotional impact of that situation on a 12 month old.

Genesis is so happy to have her granddaughter with her now but tears started to stream down her face when I asked about her daughter. She said she was only 20 years old and a beautiful, sweet girl.

As I sat with Karen after we said how that was only one story of the over 200,000 that lost their lives. In health care we're beginning to move into the recovery phase but how will the country deal with the long term emotional impact of this earthquake? Psychologists are starting to flow into the region, for both adults and children to help them deal with the impact. It is only the beginning.

Tiffany
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