Local dentist who volunteered in Haiti, waits for news from friends there

Dentist Stuart Robertson and his wife Barbara have worked all over the
world, in the Caribbean, Africa, the Dominican Republic and have also
volunteered their desperately needed dental skills to people with
little or no access to that kind of service in Haiti. Here in Ontario
Stuart practices frequently in a hospital and a residential high
school in Sioux Lookout.
The Robertson's last working trip to Haiti was about eight years ago
when Stuart taught at the Dental School at the Universite de l'Etat in
Port-au-Prince. From that visit Stuart remembers in particular a
day-long course on infection control for the students at the
university but to which about 75 dentists also attended. He recalls it
as a wonderful day of exchange with his Haitian colleagues.

Since then Stuart has worked a number of times in the Dominican
Republic where Haitians are migrant workers in the cane fields.
Stuart's most recent trip to Haiti was a vacation he took there last
summer. He was there with a friend from Paris was tracing his
ancestors who were plantation owners in Jeremie before the revolution.
Stuart says he went along to show his friend around but also to scout
places to work in the fall when he hopes to return to Haiti for a
working trip.
In response to the many questions and concerns about Haiti being
voiced by friends and family members Stuart sent out an e-mail, of
what he knows of the situation there and of his recollection of
Haiti's state just last summer. Here is a part of that January 17
e-mail.
Many have asked me about my Haitian friends and I thought I would send
out a general update of what I know of them.
I was last in Haiti in July and spent a week in Jeremie, a small town
200 kilometres west of Port-au-Prince. We stopped overnight in the
capital. What struck me then was the huge improvement of the Haitian
life since my last visit there eight years before. Ironically now,
that development seemed so good to me. There was security, and many
building projects going on. Some cranes building high rise structures
up towards Petionville, where the middle class were living. The
downtown core, near the water, was still teeming with life then and
did not appear to have changed significantly, except that it did
appear calmer and more safe for tourists.
We stayed overnight with a young physician and his family. He took us
around the city, showing us with great pride his new office in the
basement of a building just behind the cathedral. His house was in
lower Delma, another middle class neighbourhood between the downtown
and the airport. I have no news of him or his family.

I have had an email from friends out in Jeremie who were unharmed by
the earthquake, but they are unable to get news of their own family
and friends in Port-au-Prince. The entire infrastructure is gone, and
only very sporadic news is coming out of the central zones of the
earthquake. Another good friend is in Jacmel, on the South coast but
just over the mountains from Port-au-Price. No word as yet from him.
A good Haitian friend who is an anesthetist in Hamilton is returning
(to Haiti) to work in the hospital he has been involved in running.
Nine of his cousins were killed in the collapse of their home, but
most of Alex's family live in Port-au-Paix, on the north coast of
Haiti and well away from danger. They are all fine as well.

It will take weeks before communications are restored properly in
Haiti so I expect it will be a long time before we know a great deal
more.

I do hope that everyone is being generous with giving to the relief
effort. That is really all we can do to help at this stage. Once the
initial traumatic work is over, the business of rebuilding can start.
Haitians are extremely hardworking and resilient. This will try them
more than some of the previous events, but they will overcome this
too. And if world aid can restart this broken country, the future
will certainly be better for them

Stuart Robertson

Footnote: Reports coming out of Haiti last week state that the damage
to university buildings where Stuart taught is severe. The Faculty of
Linguistics building has collapsed, while those housing the Faculties
of Human Sciences, Law, Medicine, Science, and the Teachers' College
have been extensively hit. According to press reports, many students
were attending classes at the time of the quake, and the devastation
on campus makes it is impossible to estimate the number of victims
among the student body, professors, and researchers.