It was Tuesday, Jan 12, around 4:30 p.m. Anne St. Vil and her friend Diastie Louima had just gotten back from school. Like any other day before, the girls turned on the television to watch the telenovela “Las Dos Caras De Ana.” The electricity then went out. This was a regular occurrence hence no one thought anything of it happening on this particular day. With nothing to do inside, Anne and Diastie decided to go outside to play. They both climb on the hood of Anne’s father’s car.
Mere moments later, the car started rocking back and forth. The trees then began to sway. It wasn’t a windy day, so that seemed odd. The rocks in the yard also started to move around on the ground. The two girls had no idea what was going on. Anne’s mother then ran toward them, alerting them that it was an earthquake. They had never felt an earthquake before. Fear began to set in.
“My friend and I started screaming,” recounted Anne as she tried to remember the details of that fateful day. “It was impossible to move and that made things even scarier because we did not know what was going to happen to us.”
Thirteen years ago, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake wreaked havoc on the island of Haiti. Over 200,000 thousand people lost their lives, and an additional 300,000 were injured. The island’s capital city Port Au Prince was devastated, and the citizens in the aftermath desperately needed aid.
Anne was 12 years old at the time. She lived with her parents, Iseler Saint Vil and Gina Jabouin and brother Ginseler St. Vil who also survived the earthquake. Houses collapsed. Debris and rubble were everywhere. Even though her life and that of her family were spared, Anne remembers not being able to venture outside of her yard in the aftermath of the earthquake. The screams and crying of her neighbors signaled that other members of the community were not as fortunate.
The houses were said to be so close to each other that the likelihood of her knowing someone who had been injured or even died in the earthquake was too much for her young mind to grapple with. Although she and her family had to sleep outside in the open air because there was a fear that their family home would collapse on them, that’s as far as she would go.
“The pain and suffering of those around her were horrible to bear,” recounted Anne. The devastation that she eventually witnessed in the community she called home was unimaginable. For days it was impossible to pick up the pieces because of the subsequent aftershocks that occurred. Haiti is considered one of the poorest islands in the Caribbean and in the wake of the earthquake, survival, even for those not significantly affected by the earthquake, was a challenge.
Anne and her family needed a way out of this ordeal.
The U.S. government started the evacuation of Haiti a few days after the earthquake. Rescue efforts involved getting anyone who held a US passport out of the island. Fortunately, a few years before, Anne and Ginseler had gotten their American citizenship before moving back to live in Haiti. Their father’s brother had adopted them and secured their citizenship. Five days after the earthquake, Anne and her brother were airlifted out of Haiti on a C-17 Globemaster III. All her possessions were in a backpack.
Their rescue story was bittersweet because they had to leave behind their parents and friends in a sea of uncertainty. What would happen to her parents? How could she leave her best friend whom she has known all her life? Will she ever see them again? Her farewell to her parents, her friends, and her island home was very difficult, and leaving in the manner and time that she did wounded Anne severely.
For Anne, the earthquake left her confused and saddened because so many people lost their lives. She also felt that everything changed for the worse, and Haiti, as she knew, would never be the same. She acknowledged that Haiti, like any other country, is not perfect. However, for her, it was home, and she was happy. She is saddened that she was uprooted and separated from her parents, who are still living in Haiti. The trauma of having to go through such an ordeal at such a young age and not having familiar kinship is very difficult. Although in the U.S., Anne had extended relatives, it was not enough to fill the void she nurtured over the years.
In 2011 while attending high school, Anne met a Haitian girl by the name of Medjie Keitah Jerome. The two quickly became friends. It was while attending a party that the two girls found out they had more in common than just being Haitian. Unbeknown to either girl, their grandmothers lived in the same apartment building and Medjie’s cousin knew Anne. Back in Haiti, both families went to the same church and lived relatively close to each other. However, their path did not cross until after moving to America.
Medjie’s story is almost identical to that of Anne’s. During the earthquake, her young brain, in the heat of the moment, did not understand what was happening. Like Anne, having never experienced an earthquake before, she was all too certain the world was coming to an end.
“I remember asking my mother ‘is it the end of the world?’,” Medjie explained. “Are we all going to die now?”
Anne and Medjie tried not to talk too much about the earthquake. They both internalized their feelings and instead shared fond memories of their time living in Haiti. Over time, both came to understand that not being able to speak about what they experienced did more harm than good. Medjie speaks of the pent-up issues that seep out at the most inopportune time. Not only for her but also for her family as well. Her family members had their citizenship, except for her older brother.
Imagine the devastation of ending up at the airport only to be boarded on a flight to the U.S., leaving her older brother behind.
Every one of her family members was severely affected emotionally. She recounts that her mother, to this day, still cannot speak of the event without crying. While her younger brother shows signs of anger and resentment for having to leave the home he loves. Both Anne and Medjie speak of an invisible scar that they all possess as a result of the earthquake.
“I feel the people who stayed behind had a chance to process it and heal from it,” Medjie aptly puts it in describing the reality of their situation. “For us who left, we never actually grasped what happened.”
Physically, Anne left behind the disaster that occurred in Haiti, but the memories and triggers of such an ordeal accompanied her in America. She recalls how difficult it was for her to function normally for an extended period of time. It was very traumatic for her to stay inside a building without thinking an earthquake would occur. Years after moving to America, Anne remembers being in college when the classroom she was in began shaking. The building is said to have been so old that the slightest vehicle movement can give the impression of a mini earthquake. To everyone in the class, the movements were insignificant, but to Anne, this was a trigger. She leaped to her feet and ran out of the class leaving in her wake a confused professor and classmates. Upon her return, her classmates assured her that nobody likes giving presentations either, but it wasn’t anything to be taken so seriously. At the time, the professor was going over the syllabus and talking about a presentation each person had to do. The class mistook Anne’s reaction as literally bailing on doing a presentation when in fact, she was scared for her life. She profusely apologized to her professor and explained to the class the reason for her reaction.
Today, the memories of what occurred in her beloved hometown no longer haunt her.
She no longer experiences the triggers and angst when she experiences any semblance of an earthquake. However, for Anne, the pain she now feels for her island Haiti stems from the continued erosion of a place she once called home. In recent times news reports have dominated the airways of various uprisings taking place on the island. Just a year ago, Jovenel Moïse, the 43rd president of Haiti, was assassinated. To this day, the country is operating without a replacement. Anarchy is the order of the day, every day.
“The U.N. Security Council expressed deep concern over the security and humanitarian crises in Haiti,” reports the PBS Newshour. The article goes to further state that “The Caribbean nation is in freefall without effective governance or protection from gangs that routinely terrorize innocent civilians with kidnappings, sexual abuse and murder.”
Anne has been keeping abreast of the news and worries about the state of affairs in her homeland, but she is also mostly concerned for her parents. “Life is not getting easy and they are getting older,” she added, sharing that her father’s health is now declining. “Because of how the country is, it is difficult for him to get a much needed surgery.”
Anne is trying to get her parents to come to America under President Biden’s new immigration plan. The Whitehouse announced on Jan. 5 that the U.S. would accept up to 30,000 people each month from Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. Those selected will be allowed to work for two years in the U.S. if they have eligible sponsors and pass background checks. Anne is excited by this news. With the recent uprising in Haiti, she has feared for her parents’ safety and longed to have them leave the island.
Today life for Anne has changed for the better. She is grateful for the opportunity she was afforded to come to America. Even though she had to start all over and had to do so without the support of her mother and father, she is happy that she was able to pursue opportunities that would not have been possible in Haiti. Anne loves children and has always wanted to be a teacher. She has an associate degree in childhood education with an emphasis in mathematics. Anne is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies with a minor in early childhood. She also works full-time at one of the largest online retail companies in the US. When asked if she sees a future for herself in Haiti. Anne, without hesitation, declares that it was her desire to go back home.
“My plan was always to get a degree, work and then retire back home in Haiti,” said Anne. “We have so much land I just wanted to go back home and then build a little house and just live there.”
Words by Racquel Miller
Racquel Miller is a undergrad student at CUNY’s Hunter College where she is studying Media Studies with a concentration in Journalism. She hopes to one day become a news producer. Racquel loves giving back to those less fortunate and currently volunteers with the American Red Cross and New York Cares. She loves to bake, read and travel.