In Their Voices - Honoring survivors of the Jan 12 2010 Earthquake

January 12th 2010 - 14 years ago a more than deadly earthquake hit Ayiti. As a memorial to the day, we offer this episode to the memory and the miracles that happened not ever forgetting the instantaneous death that has haunted the streets of the capital for years and perhaps to this day as we will share these stories of our community with you.

To see the actual ⁠Discovery channel YouTube⁠ that I refer to and the damning evidence for the extreme level of death and destruction of "Goudougoudou" (Haitian's nickname for the earthquake) watch the video we watched even as we reeled from the effects in our own community and the psychological fall out of this event just a month afterwards. 

Hear in full Mona singing and mournful howling out the anguish of this event in his song "Ayiti an Dèy" or ⁠"Haiti in Mourning⁠" that our band performed at the French Institute about a year or so after the quake. Here are his poetic words:

"Haiti in mourning"

(poetry is difficult to translate all of the cultural meaning, but I believe the beautiful expression of the spiritual and hopeful feeling comes through)

 

When Ayiti was dancing

All her children were thinking

She was dancing a dance of hope

Their hearts had a folklore joy

Their lips had a galaxy smile

And their eyes contemplated another life

But in a very short time

Ayiti was beaten down on her knees

It was Mr. Catastrophe

Crushing, wiping out, killing

Haiti's in mourning

Her children are boiling leaves

So they don’t die

They are so traumatized

Haiti is sick

Please come and clothe her

She is trembling

She is biting her nails

She can’t any more

She saw too many children die

She’s going crazy

She calls out for help

With her father, the sun

Who always gives the best advice

And who said to her

She’s in trouble

The enemy is making war

With her mother who is the earth

The sun says my child I’ll give you light

To bring your mother out of her sadness 

Now call your mother’s other children

To come help you and your children

Haiti did that

And they came in willing to help

They said, you are our family

We owe you love

Here, we’re helping you

To help yourselves

Because today it’s your turn

And tomorrow it may be ours

Your problem could be ours too

Haiti is remade

Because it understands Mother earth

Who smiled

Life isn’t over

Now it’s to work

Even the night gave the unemployed work

She did that

Because she’s behind

Haiti is pregnant

It’s the time she needs more strength

For her to give birth

To many children

She called Father Sun

Who always give her good advice

To ask for more energy

To replace those that were lost

On the earth, our dear mother