By Joanne Oostveen - The Weekly News
When the Newell family went to Haiti last month the last thing they expected was an earthquake.
"But having lived through something like that, you will never forget, never," said Heidi Newell in an interview from her Dartmouth home. "It felt like we were standing on a boat. The world was rocking beneath us."
The entire family, including Heidi, her husband Tim and their children Kate, Aiden, and Erin went to the impoverished nation on a short-term mission trip on Jan. 5 to Deschapelles, Haiti with Hands Across The Sea, a non-profit organization that serves children and families. They had just finished a day of work helping out at the orphanage there when they felt the first tremor.
At first, they didn't even know it was an earthquake, said Tim.
"I was outside when it happened, there was no time to be scared," he said. "The whole thing happened in about 40 seconds or so."
Newell said once he registered "earthquake" in his mind, he began looking for his children and the others.
"Everyone who was inside the building ran out and we took a headcount," said Newell. "You could see the house shaking and some of the walls of the compound seemed to move back and forth, and cracks appeared in the pillars. But thankfully our compound was spared any major damage and everyone was accounted for."
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Erin Newell (second from left) plays with JJ (left), Leica, Mirlande and Moise, children from the HATS orphanage. |
Everyone included the almost 250 children at the HATS compound which has an orphanage and a school. People were scared, Newell said, but at least they knew they were safe, had food and water and satellite and Internet service.
They decided not to have anyone stay on the second-floor level of the building and moved mosquito tents outside for their rest area. And then the aftershocks hit. There were about 20 of them in the first 24 hours, Tim said.
"From watching CNN we soon found out that Port au Prince, about 150 kilometres from where we were, was devastated," he said.
The first order of business after checking to see if everyone was safe, was to email family at home. Then some in the group decided to bring food and water to Port au Prince to help anyone they could. The Newells said their friends told them they had seen disasters on television but nothing compared to what they saw in Port au Prince.
"They told us there were bodies everywhere," said Newell. "They had to have armed guards with them when they were distributing the supplies. But really, I would challenge anyone, anywhere not to react with fear just like those in Port au Prince. Their world was destroyed."
Heidi Newell decided to limit what the children could see on the television, saying there wasn't any reason for them to watch the continuous loop of the same horror and pockets of violence.
She then became concerned about the drive to the airport. A drive they would have to take through Port au Prince. It was time to leave Haiti.
A week after the quake the Newell Family and nine others from their group set out from the HATS compound. They rented a truck, armed police officer and said many prayers on their way to the Canadian Embassy in Port au Prince.
"I also told the children that when I said to duck their heads, they were to do that, and to cover their faces if the smell was bad," she said.
Thankfully the trip to the embassy went much better than they expected. Their truck happened to follow a UN convoy and their route avoided most of the devastation. Newell said she did see people digging mass graves and lots of buildings down, but they were able to avoid seeing the worst.
And they were lucky when they reached the embassy too, she said.
"As a group, we had to link arms and move through a crowd of hundreds of people who were looking to be evacuated," she said. "We held up our passports in our other hands and managed to get through. The Canadian staff there were amazing."
The Newells were evacuated that day on board a C-17 Globemaster Canadian military jet to Montreal. Heidi said it was especially gut wrenching to hear people crying out to them as they waited at the embassy before their flight.
"People were crying out, wanting to go to Canada, saying they would clean for us, anything. It was a scene I will never forget," she said.
Now that they have had a few days to rest and think about their experience, the Newells said they have nothing but respect for the resilience and strength of the Haitian people. And they have a personal connection with the people that will never be broken.
"We wanted our children to step up to responsibility and they did that and more," she said. "I am so proud of them. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required. I hope others in metro will continue to give to the people of Haiti."
joanneoostveen@accesswave.ca
To learn more about how to give through the HATS organization, go to http://haititeam2010.blogspot.com/
