Dear family and friends,

Forgive me for sending a communal letter however I risk not sending it to some of you if I don’t do it this way. Please forgive me also for not writing sooner. Today is the first day I have opened my mail since the earthquake and I am overwhelmed with your kindness, your prayers and your deep concern.

We are alive and well thank goodness. Many, many people of course as you know are not. I volunteered one day (so far) with the Red Cross and was appalled to see the deep wounds, infected some of them, gaping wounds that should have been stitched up but others I’m sure were worse so they didnt get to have theirs done. I am so grateful to be alive and able to help a little.

We had a close call in the sense that four of us were at our house at the time, Yves and I upstairs, Marny and a youth downstairs. The youth and Marny ran outside before a wall fell and Yves and I ran downstairs to arriving just after the wall fell thank goodness or we would have been hit.

We are well and all the extended members of our family too. Our house is not and we are looking for a new home. Keep us in your prayers that we will be able to find something suitable in the area and something safe. We no longer are interested in living in a two story home.

We have food and water and we sleep at night in the park in the village where everyone else from the village sleeps. Its just fine becuase we have sponges to sleep on and enoubh sheets to keep us warm. Others are not so fortunate. So far it has not rained and we will pray for that as well.

The friends that some of you know are all well. Some have lost their homes and their belongings. We are fortunate that we were able to take most of our things out of the house and if the rest has to stay its okay. The Bahai school is great except for the director’s house which was completely destroyed at the moment of the quake. Fortunately there was only one little boy alone in the home and they were able to get him out after with no injuries. We keep hearing of how people had close calls and we are so blessed to be part of them. The new buildings and the old ones are just fine Iraj and I am so grateful for that. We have you and Bernard to thank for that and of course the Mona Foundation.

I will try to keep in touch as time goes on but public transportation is not as easy as before and we have no electricity at our house and no internet connection either so telephone is easier.

Our love to all of you and from the bottom of our hearts thank you for your support
Sue, Yves, and family

This is an email we received from Raymonde Rocourt, principal at the Aux Alizés school in Haiti where Dr. Caleb Gattegno’s educational approach is extensively used. As you may be aware, we did a comprehensive teacher training program in Haiti in December. Our thoughts are with the people of Haiti and we are actively trying to make contact with those we worked with; we will keep you up to date on any news we receive.

For further information, please contact info@educationalsolutions.com

On Tuesday January 12, 2010 around 4h50 Pm, as we were about to close our school “Aux Alizés”, my daughter Patrica, 3 of my grand children Ann-Koraly (12), Karl-Philippe (8), Kristian (5); 1 student Jean-Frédérique (10); our secretary Gémima; 2 teachers Sabina and Joanne; 3 guardians men Jacnet, Jean , Antoine; our security guard Mario and myself Raymonde have lived a real nightmare, an ordeal that I cannot really describe during a whole, long lasting, dark minute.

Indeed, that day, the 7.0 earthquake hit us hard and broke down several places surrounding our school but, thanks to God, all 12 of us who were still on site did not suffer any physical wounds but we certainly got deeply traumatized. Karl-Philippe did not say a word until very late at night and he eats very few since then. As soon as we felt the quake, we moved and stood under the doors arcades or bins during the strong shaking of the earth.

We ran away from the house right after and stayed as a group holding each other tightly while listening to desperate cries coming from the neighborhood where houses went down, kids got hurt, people were bleeding, cistern got broken and water was flowing all over. Our damages at school are enormous. The main building is still standing but shows major wall cracks all over. Some inside walls got off the poles and ceiling to which they were attached but are still in place and may fall anytime. No glass windows or doors broke down during the heavy shaking which is hard to believe because during the quake flowers pots, plants hanging here and there, garbage cans got flown away.

Everything inside my office and in the administrative office is on the floor i.e. computers, all what was on shelves and so on. Fence walls around the school property got partially down in some areas and completely in others. Patricia’s car parked in front of the school got severely/heavily damaged. Actually, we are looking for our civil engineer to go with us to the school for an inspection of the extent of the damages for further decisions. We’re still under shock because “aftermaths “are still shaking our land from time to time. This morning we had one again.

As soon as we can enter the school and make the inventory, we’ll send update about the damages. Today, local phone communications start over again and so I could know that 1st grade teachers Sabina and Marie Kerline have several cracks/fissures in their house; 3rd grade teacher Venette lost her house; our guardian man Jacnet lost his house also. We still cannot reach 4 of our teachers and hope they‘re OK at their end. Besides the school building itself, 2 of our board members – Marie-Therese Angus and her daughter Diana together with Bernard Angus with his wife Debbie and 3 kids have lost their house which completely collapsed. They’ve lost everything and can be classified as sinister.

On behalf of all of us, I thank everyone who spontaneously got concerned about us in our drama, our tragedy. Many of you wish to help us restore our damages by sending money. The best would be to “transfer funds” to our bank account specifying names of donators and desired use.

We’re all thankful to our Lord that we suffered only these damages and we hope that the 158 students who had already left the school premises did not lose their love ones and properties. This situation caused a real disaster for the People of Haiti as a whole!

Raymonde Rocourt
Principal of Aux Alizés