The smell of death is strong here tonight after a day of national prayer marking the first month after the January 12 earthquake. The hot, humid weather ensures the rapid decomposition of the thousands of bodies still buried under the rubble. It pervades the air everywhere hanging over the hundreds of thousands of living, praying, gently singing citizens of Port-au-Prince.
It is 2am now and in a few hours we will be distributing almost 80,000 pounds of food and water to our 70,000 desperate neighbors. Luckily we have help: the 82nd Airborne, which will help to ensure crowd control, has been BEYOND AWESOME, giving us hope that we may yet have a peace-keeping force we can all be proud of....
We are in 3 days of prayer after the tragedy and before the rains make it an even greater tragedy. As a small non-government organization we are filling in gaps and supporting programs of all kinds in very significant ways to the best of our very stretched resources.
With tomorrow's distribution, Airline Ambassadors' aid delivered to date will reach 2 million pounds of food, water, medicine, tents, etc, combined with facilitating the transport of over 600 medical personnel on 15 flights from the United States. We are also supporting as best we can the highest-rated public-private hospital in Haiti: CDTI (formerly Sacred Heart Hospital), which promises to be the best teaching hospital in the country for orthopedic after care (amputations and RE-amputations because of infection, breaks, etc). It's amazing what the volunteers have accomplished so far.
Daniel Susott
AAI Medical Director
