This past week the rains started. They came early in the evening and lasted late into the night as they usually do this season. Normally Haitians, thankful for the cool winds and the increased crop, welcome these rains. But this year that is not the case.
This year the rains come as an added stress to an already overwhelmed people. Haitian citizens are still trying to adjust to life after January’s earthquake, looking for work, waiting for schools to start. All across the country families are still sleeping outside under tarps, tents made from bed sheets, and make-shift tin shelters. Just last week, when people were starting to feel comfortable enough to re-enter their concrete homes, we experienced two more tremors. Now families who were contemplating normalcy are back out on the street and out in the rain.
The rains will continue to come in the following months, and with them we could see an increase in typhoid fever, dysentery, and other illnesses. “The rains are death,” a visiting French nurse commented as he looked out at a cloudy sky yesterday afternoon. And death is the last thing people here need to experience. After a month and a half of grieving and foraging for a new way of life, people here are ready for some semblance of stability. But with the changing climate and the introduction of new challenges, this stability may still be a long way off.
