For Haiti Survivor, Aftershocks Continue

Community News - Community News

Written by Muslim Link Staff

Thursday, 04 February 2010 09:26

Washington, D.C. native Sameena Mulla’s husband Yahya Verella is Haitian. Verella’s parents run a private school in a suburb of the capital city Port-au-Prince, catering to about 300 children in kindergarten through 12th grade.

For the past few years, Mulla joined her husband for about one month during the winter to teach children at the school. Verella, a Ph.D student, teaches math, while Mulla, an assistant professor in anthropology who graduated from Johns Hopkins two years ago, teaches literature.

This winter was no exception. The couple spent much of December in Haiti; their return flight to Baltimore was booked for Jan. 15.

On Jan. 12, at 4:53 p.m., the ground shook for 40 seconds.

Safely back in the United States, Mulla spoke to The Muslim Link, offering a glimpse into a cataclysmic event which killed approximately 200,000 people, according to some estimates, and moved the rest of the world.

The couple was staying at Verella’s sister’s apartment, on the second floor of a two-story building, when the earthquake struck. Verella was preparing his school lesson for the next day, while Mulla was reading.

Then, the building began shaking.

“It was like a jack hammer, but the sound was not coming from one place, it was coming from everywhere,” Mulla recalled. “I thought it was a bulldozer or something, but the shaking was getting stronger and stronger.”

“Yahya and I looked at each other and shouted ‘earthquake!’ He said we should get under the door frame, but when we stood and started toward the door we fell down. Waves were going under our feet through the room, almost like water.”

The violent shaking continued for several seconds, loud rumbling and sounds of structures cracking filling the air. The couple stay put on the floor.

“I was just praying to Allah for mercy,” Mulla said. “I kept one eye on the ceiling, looking if it was going to collapse on us. Even if it did, we wouldn’t be able to do anything. Everything was in Allah’s hands.”

Finally, the ground became still. It lasted less than one minute.

The family rushed to the door for fear their building might collapse. The building’s movement had jammed the door. Frantically, the couple forced it open, only to find that though the stairwall was intact, a wall collapsed on to it made it impassable. They jumped out of the building from a landing. Now outside, they saw the buildings across the street were either tipped over, or had collapsed entirely.

“It was then we started hearing the crying, the wailing, screaming,” Mulla said. “People were praying in French, in Creole, calling out to God.”

The family ran up the street, Verella shouting out to neighbors to get out of their houses.

The couple’s first thought was the school, and Verella’s parents, the children, the teachers, who were inside. They ran.

“I remember seeing two things,” Mulla said. “Yahya had no shoes on, and there were dead bodies lying in the street.”

As they approached the school, they saw it intact.

“We didn’t lose any immediate family,” Mulla said. “We didn’t lose any children.”

Everyone at the school, including Mulla and Verella, would sleep outside on the school’s basketball court. Neither the ground nor the buildings were stable.

Soon after reaching the school and accounting for immediate family, Verella said he was going to try and access the building’s Internet. Cell phones were not functioning and radio and television were off the air. Family and friends had to be notified that the couple was alive and unhurt. In Washington D.C., Sameena’s parents and brother had to get their message.

“I didn’t want him to go [inside the school building],” Mulla said. “Finally I said if he goes I’m coming, so we both went. He was able to reconnect the Internet.”

Their connection was a wireless link via satellite. The couple posted a short message to Verella’s Facebook account, letting loved ones know they were okay.

That first night, one of the radio stations came back on, albeit briefly. People were getting on air, telling whoever could hear that they were alive.

Mulla said the first few days were filled with many earthquake aftershocks. Some nights, weakened buildings would come crashing down, jolting everyone awake.

For the first week, Verella went up and down the streets, attempting to account for friends and distant relatives. Both used the school’s Internet to communicate with others inside and outside Port-au-Prince – via Facebook and Twitter – while helping to account for friends and acquaintances.

“A few children [at the school] lost parents. One teacher lost a wife,” Mulla said. “One parent who was staying with us at the school cried all night because someone who saw her house said it had totally collapsed.”

“The parent’s 80-year old mother was taking care of six orphans – from three- to nine-years old – in that house. The parent assumed the worst and wept. When she finally made it to the home, she found her mother and the six orphans sitting in the backyard. The house collapsed on them, but the mother was able to lead the children out, saying ‘we are playing a game, so follow me’.”

Mulla said there were many such stories – amazing, happy, moving and tragic.

“A lot of times someone is going to recover bodies, only to find their loved ones surviving under the rubble,” she said. “On the other hand, we had some friends die who were [just] 21, 22 years old.”

The people in the school survived on what was in the school canteen. The couple also went back to the apartment a few times to salvage what food items they could. Some street markets continued to operate.

Mulla continued to send Twitter messages as the days went by.

On January 14: “darkness falls and the singing starts again-- Port-au-Prince is praying.”

On January 15: “made it through the night. 2 aftershocks. Trying to figure out how to top up cell phone minutes to Digicel/Voila.”

On January 16: “Hope for Haiti headed to [Port-au-Prince] today with 75,000 lbs of supplies.”

From her vantage point, Mulla sees media reports about chaos in the city as “exaggerated.” The disaster brought out the best and the worst from people, she said.

Ten days after the earthquake, the couple went to a bus depot – now being used as a camp for U.S. Marines – and waited in line for two $75 tickets for a two-hour ride to the neighboring Dominican Republic. After another six hours to the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, they boarded a flight to Baltimore.

The entire experience, Mulla said, was overwhelming.

“If my life was spared, it was spared for a reason,” she said. “I have to ask Allah what He wants from me. I did not die.”