The Foreign Service Journal, April 2010

34 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 1 0 day. Staff work long hours and sleep in their offices be- cause they can’t go home. At the same time, they have a good attitude and, considering the lack of sleep, they look like the happiest zombies in the world! My hat’s off to everyone in that embassy. I do think it is important to emphasize, however, that even though the embassy is intact, it will be a long time before things are back to normal again there. If you want to know more about what I am doing, I have started a blog to keep friends and colleagues inform- ed: http://onthegroundinhaiti.squarespace.com/ Joey Renert Eligible Family Member ESTH Professional Associate, Beijing On loan to the United Nations A R ETURN TO H AITI Though I’m a first-tour officer in Caracas, I volun- teered for temporary duty in Port-au-Prince because I speak Haitian Creole, having been a Peace Corps volun- teer there 10 years ago. I’m grateful to my colleagues in the American Citizen Services section for putting up with my unplanned absence without complaint and, most es- pecially, to the ACS chief, who didn’t hesitate to tell me, in the midst of a very busy time of year for us: “We all work for the same government, and you have skills that make you valuable in Haiti right now. We’ll be fine here. Go.” I flew into Port-au-Prince on a Department of Home- land Security helicopter from Santo Domingo. As we got closer to the U.S. embassy, there were more and more piles of rubble. I couldn’t help imagining what building used to stand on each pile. Had it been someone’s home, a business or a school? I hoped there had not been any people in the buildings when they collapsed. We landed a short walk from the embassy, which is in absolutely perfect condition. There’s not a crack, not a scratch on it, because it was built according to American codes. They say it could have withstood a 9.0 quake. And the American flag is flying proudly out front, an unforget- table image. As a member of the evacuation team, I talked with countless Haitians and Haitian-Americans every day. Many Haitian-American children came to the embassy with grandparents, aunts or older siblings, and I asked them all, “Where’s your mom? Your dad?” The answer — which I heard all too often every day, and will never get out of my mind — was “I don’t know.” “When’s the last time you saw your mom?” And calmly, looking me straight in the eye, with a mixture of confusion and denial, the kids would say, “She went to work the day of the earthquake, but she didn’t come home. I don’t know where my mom is.” Even having lived in Haiti before, I still find it difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the loss that befell the country on Jan. 12. Much more apparent to me, spending time on the embassy compound and at the airport, is how simply incredible all of our colleagues are. The few Foreign Service employees whose homes were undamaged invited us TDYers, and less fortunate Haitian colleagues, over for meals and to sleep there at night. And more than a few FSOs hosted 10 to 12 guests in their two- bedroom homes. The consular officers from our sister em- bassy in Santo Domingo who came to work in Port- au-Prince carried bags of fresh produce to share with all of us. One Coast Guard flight even unloaded a half-dozen pizzas for the airport team. Then there were the Diplomatic Security agents and the military, without whom we wouldn’t have been able to do our jobs. And our team leaders seemed not to need any sleep, but continuously updated us on State Depart- ment guidance and just kept the team together and mov- ing ahead. After spending eight days on the ground in Haiti in mid-January, I boarded a Coast Guard C-130 — the same plane I’d been putting evacuees on all week — that took me to Miami. My sincere thanks and unending respect to all the fine people I was privileged to work with in Port-au-Prince last January. Amanda J. Cauldwell Vice Consul Embassy Caracas P ULLING T OGETHER Although I am not serving in Haiti or working directly on the relief effort, I see the response as an example of the entire Foreign Service pulling together. I am a consular of- ficer at a post where our American Citizen Services chief was pulled for temporary duty in Port-au-Prince and our F O C U S