CITE SOLEIL,
The three-and-a-half hour mix of hopeful and heart-wrenching scenes that followed crystallized the very purpose of the
An interpreter for the troops told a tent city of
homeless earthquake victims to begin lining up for the supplies – and
cheers erupted. So did chaotic pushing and shoving to be first.
Eventually, the line was organized, and Haitians filed through by the
hundreds.
They passed under a painted sign on the outside wall
of a preschool that urges attendance in order to learn, to love and
“pou pataje” — to share.
A girl led her blind father. Women balanced newly
received boxes of baking goods and bottled water on their heads. After
taking one package of food from a paratrooper, a woman extended her
hand for another. But the rule was one per customer.
“I’m sorry,” said Sgt.
A boy wearing a blue-and-white Tasmanian Devil
T-shirt smiled as he carried four packages of nutrient-enriched
crackers distributed to children.
Asked his age in French, he whispers: “Huit.” Eight.
A toddler wearing only a shirt lifts the front of his shirttail as a basket to hold his crackers.
Before his infantry battalion boarded their plane for
Ft. Bragg used for pre-boarding. He didn’t know when they would all be
in one place again.
“I told them, ‘If you take one thing away from what I say,'” Salmo recounted, “‘It is this: We are going to
Doling out sustenance to the earthquake-ravaged
population of the western hemisphere’s poorest nation has to provide
troops a sense of accomplishment. They on Sunday passed out more than
15,000 bottles of water; hundreds of bags filled with cooking goods
such as oats and rice; and, 2,000 food packets filled with dishes such
as chicken and rice or peanut butter and jelly.
Salmo, though, quickly acknowledged the depth of the need is staggering — it overshadows what the paratroopers doled out Sunday.
“The effect of this will be measured in hours,” he said at the food drop. “That’s not going to cut it.”
Like the broader international relief effort, the
82nd’s supply of food ended before the line of people did, though
occasional repeaters were spotted. The time and troops required to
distribute the food, plus the difficulty of corralling the crowd,
highlighted the logistical struggles of providing even one day’s
nourishment.
The crowds of Haitians who were living in nearby
tarp cities because their homes had crumbled underscored the collapse
of an infrastructure that was already insufficient before the earth’s
crust shifted.
It’s also unclear how Haitians will perceive an extended U.S. military presence. The nation holds somewhat mixed views toward
Yet Haitians still see America as a destination of
economic hope, as it holds the largest concentration of Haitians
outside that country.
The T-shirts emblazoned with U.S. logos on young men in the food line Sunday included
Reporters from Spanish and French newspapers asked the American general leading
Brazilian Maj. Gen.
who leads the U.N. troops from 18 countries and does not answer to
American leadership, stepped in to dismiss the idea and emphasized that
the two forces had forged “the best possible relationship.”
Lt. Gen.
“I’m here,” he said, “for as long as I’m needed.”
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(c) 2010, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).
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