Haiti Earthquake

During the past few weeks I have been giving talks on the recent earthquake in Haiti and relating it to my earthquake experience in Kobe. I have been going to elementary schools and volunteer groups and doing Power Point presentations on the Kobe earthquake. The 1995 Kobe earthquake killed approximately 6,500 people, decimated over 100,000 buildings, and totalled $132 billion in damages. Of course, the situation in Haiti is 1,000 times worse and they face such an upward battle to rebuild what is left of Port Au Prince. The level of poverty in Haiti is unbelievable and I cannot imagine what it must be like to go through an earthquake in that country. A lot of the Penticton businesses have launched a “Hearts for Haiti” week and are doing fund-raising drives to help the earthquake victims. The biggest affect the earthquake had on me was psychological (lots of post-traumatic stress which lasted a long, long time) and I would like to do something to help bring some joy into their lives…not sure what to do at this point but hopefully something will come together.