May 2010: Visiting VM Groups in Haiti

Just got back from Haiti yesterday! Whew! Sweating steadily for a week. It is really hot and muggy there and it is only May. Visited with about sixty of our close to 300 groups there and I can tell you that there is a lot of enthusiasm and activity in helping to rebuild the country and to rebuild the shattered lives of the Haitian people.  The physical infrastructure is still in a shambles and the rubble seems to be largely still where it was when I was last there in February. But many many people are pitching in and the work is going forward. It is just such a big job that it is hard to see the effects yet.

David, South Africa: I know I have contributed

I recently got back from Haiti and to say they need help in that country is such an understatement. The people of Haiti are so spiritual. After seeing the devastation of the earthquake I realized why - spirituality is all they have. The children are amazing. I would smile at the children or say hello and one for one, every time,their faces would light up and beam with joy just from that simple smile and hello. There was no promise of food, or candy, or money--just a wave and smile from me from the car window. But that was enough for them to know someone cared.

VM Blog: Christina Alexander says Haiti is a long-term commitment

When the Haiti earthquake struck, Christina Alexander decided to go. She was on one of the first Scientology-chartered flights that brought doctors, nurses and other emergency response personnel to Haiti. What stuck her in Haiti was the desperate lack of everything, even the most basic needs. “I felt really proud but humble, and honored to be there among such selfless, hard-working volunteers from all over the world,” she said.

Barrett/USA: "By the end of our stay there we had that place in ship shape."

I arrived in Haiti on the second charter flight from Los Angeles on the 21 January 2010. For the first day we were just establishing the camp, putting up tents, sorting supplies etc. We then went on a project at University of Miami Hospital in Port-au-Prince at the request of one the head doctors. This ended up being the project I would work on for the next two weeks.

When we first arrived at University of Miami Hospital we didn’t get the warmest welcome. They didn’t allow us to bring any more than four volunteers and we were stopped by the not-too-friendly Special Forces security when we arrived. We explained that we were there upon request but they didn’t let us go until we had them talk to the head doctor. Once in, we asked what was needed and they had us organize one corner of the hospital supply tent. We then moved on to the food section of the tent and this is where the hospital staff could see what we could do for them.

Ellen, Mexico - Is this really reality what we live in?

Is this really reality what we live in? The roads, the buses, cars, perfumes, restaurants... As I was walking through the duty free shops at the airport today I realized how fake the modern world seems to me now. Hunger is now real to me, thirst is more real, but not what new bag i'm going to buy, that doesn't seem to matter anymore. Its almost as if what my old reality was, is no longer existent in my mind.

This short time I've been back from Haiti, I still have my thoughts over there and I keep comparing life here, to life there. Frankly, there's nothing to compare. They have nothing and we have everything.  The cold hard truth that i got snapped into me is that my life here in the "real world" is so simple, easy and comfortable, i have running hot water, food in a refrigerator and clothes hung up in a closet, its almost shocking to me that I never really noticed those details before and it makes me sad to think i didn't appreciate them either. I feel so gratified to know i will have food tomorrow and a place to stay, and a mother to hug.

Julia, USA - The Disaster Relief Effort in Haiti is a global activity

I just got back from nine days in Haiti. People have asked me what it was like but truly it is so hard to put into words.

The Disaster Relief Effort in Haiti is a global activity. There are people and organizations from all over the world working side by side to save the people of Haiti - volunteers, doctors, nurses, military and religious people. It didn’t matter who you were or where you came from before you got to Haiti, while in Haiti you were part of a united team.

Sylvain from Thailand: Haiti - Another Tour of Duty

After a few years as a Scientology Volunteer Minister (VM for short, a.k.a. "yellow shirt"), your name moves to the top of the address book. Next to it, it probably says something like "Call if all hell breaks loose". Wouldn't be so bad, except that hell is such a fragile place, these days, and with Haiti's earthquake, phones were ringing off the hook.

At least, that's how I imagine things. As I was packing my bags, I couldn't help but think how things had changed since my first VM operation. First the Tsunami in Thailand and in Banda Aceh, then Yogyakarta's earthquake and more recently the cyclone in Myanmar: I went from wide-eyed "newbie" to regular Scientology Volunteer Minister. I had seen blood, corpses, pain and despair, and it changed me, but more than anything, knowing that I could do something about it changed me. When you know that, you can't just say "That's sad" and flip to the next TV channel.

After the fact, a lot of people ask "What was it like, in Haiti?" so on my way back, I wrote this short (ok, not so short) report to describe my experience in Haiti. It’s written from my point of view only. Readers beware. ;-)

Flying from Thailand to Haiti took me a couple days. First to Los Angeles, and then boarding a charter plane with the rest of the Scientology team to land in Port au Prince in the middle of the night. Coming off straight on the tarmac and unloading your own plane is an interesting experience. No passport control, no metal detectors... and no baggage service. You jump down the ramp and go grab the supplies. Several tons of food and medical equipment and whatnot crammed in the cargo hold which you have to unload by hand, box by box, bag by bag.

Josh, USA - I wouldn't trade the time I have had here for millions of dollars.

(with permission of Blog.Volunteerministers.org)

Following his interview with NBC we asked Josh to tell us how he came to work in Haiti and his experiences in a field operating room that could compare war zone field hospital. Here is his response, straight from the Volunteer Ministers camp in Port-Au-Prince:

"I live my life with the motto ‘I am going to change the world’ and I try to live by this in everything I do.

"I love to work for organizations that help and to personally help as many people as I can.

"I had just moved from Los Angeles to Seattle two weeks earlier when my friend Yoshimi called me on Sunday, January 17, and told me that the Scientology Volunteer Ministers had been contacted by more than 100 doctors and nurses who want into to go to Haiti and needed Volunteer Ministers to go help them with anything needed. I immediately said I was in, dropped the job I was supposed to start two days later, told the manager of the apartment I was securing that I was going out of the country and with no money arranged a flight from Seattle to LA. I made it to LA, got my passport in one day and embarked for Haiti on Thursday Jan 21.

"Upon arriving here I was very excited about helping and wanted to get right into action. I accepted the first position offered at the first meeting I went to, not even knowing what it entailed. We started working at the Miami University Hospital organizing their very chaotic, unsorted, catastrophe of a supply tent. They were very skeptical of us working there at first–they would only allow four VMs to help them and we had to be cleared through their armed guards. Within two hours of us working there they loved us and they asked us to bring two extra guys. By the end of the day we had a crew of about 16 people working for them.