JEAN DUKENS PERCY (13 Dec. 1975) AND HIS WIFE CLAIRMINA (21 JULY 1980) They were in their small apartment on the second floor when the earthquake happened. They ran out and saved their lives. Even though the two-story building didn’t fall, they slept outside on the patio. The stress and psychosis that they are experiencing is striking. They have to take sedatives and medicine to sleep…
MYRLINE PAUL (5 Sep. 1986) and her daughter Lyne-Amedji Cenat (16 Nov. 2009) Myrline, a 24-year-old single mother, was working when the tragedy happened. Her two-month-old baby was at home, under the care of Myrline’s mother. She quickly set out toward her house on foot. On the way, she saw piles of fallen houses and her anguish grew as she thought of her mother and baby. When she arrived at her house, she found her mother outside with some neighbors, wailing and crying… The house fell on the baby… They thought she was dead… Together, they removed the rubble until they exposed the metal crib where Lyne was. Not one bar was standing upright. But to their great surprise and joy, Lyne-Amedji was white with dust but intact and smiling!!!
ELSIE and her daughter BAHINA, 11 years old. (they’re not on the patio at the moment, they went to a doctor’s appointment) In one of my many journeys bringing wounded to the hospital, while returning to the house I saw that a crowd was running and carrying something. It was Wednesday, the 20th of January. At first, I thought they were carrying a cadaver, but I immediately heard what they were saying and stopped the car to lean toward the people. Bahina was alive!!! She wasn’t talking as she was in a state of shock. She just turned her enormous eyes, and I saw the hint of a little smile. They emptied a public bus (“tap-tap”) and put the girl in the back to take her to a nearby hospital. A few days later, I wanted to follow up, and I went to see if she had survived. I found her con Elsie, her mother. The neighbors told her that Bahina had been taken to the hospital and she looked until she found her. She told us that Bahina had been under the rubble for 9 days, drinking her own urine. Alone, she cried to Jesus to take her to eat at a restaurant, to eat ice cream, buy candy, go for a walk… Obviously what every child at her age wants. Bahina had received good care, but on the day of my visit, January 23, she still couldn’t walk… I left my telephone with her mother so that she could communicate with me if necessary. She called me on the 26th to tell me that Bahina was now walking!!! Fantastic!! But when they found that she was well, the doctors said they needed the space and that she had to go home…but WHAT home??!! I went for her and brought her to the camp at my house. (I have video and, I believe, photos of this story. But due to the urgency, I don’t believe I was able to get them as the one who was acting as my “cameraman,” JEAN DUKENS PERCY, to be precise, went to the Mexican embassy to see if he could leave the country…)