By Erik Parker
[Originally published in VIBE magazine April/May, 2010]
Haiti's pre-Carnival Celebration, two days before the quake. A chicken burns in the fire. (photo E. Parker)
OH MY GOD! Are you alright?!” It’s the morning after the earthquake and my wife answers the phone. She’s frantic. In the twelve hours since the quake hit, she’s heard nothing from me. I’ve been trying to get a call out every 20 minutes or so, but this is the first time my phone has rung. I search for words.
Along Haiti's Gran Rue (main street), this lady and her family, mourns the loss of her brother, who was killed in the earthquake. Her brother lies dead just out of camera view. (photo: e.parker)
The video posted here was captured on the walk back from Carrefour to Port-au-Prince. My fancy-shmancy video equipment ran out of juice just before the quake and my iPhone followed suit shortly thereafter. We were left with a thin kodak digital camera, that belonged to Vladimir. An outdated model, it had no special gadgets or doohickies. But it did allow for video recording, which helped us to show the magnitude of the suffering. It is taken precisely at day break. In Haiti, at this time, the sun rises in a rush and disappears in an instant. As you can see, it starts out very dark and the sun rises over the wreckage and exposes the tragedy.
Man sits outside Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) the day after Haiti's earthquake. "God gives them and God takes them away," he said. (Photo by Vladimir Leguerre)
Yes, I’m very late in posting this video from the morning after the earthquake struck Haiti. When the earthquake hit, I was in Port-au-Prince with Vladimir Leguerre, my fixer (and a journalist in his own right). We walked from Port-au-Prince to Carrefour, where he lives. In short, the video in this post is a continuation of what we saw on our way back the next morning. Read Full Story »
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