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ONE YEAR LATER

There are only so many words you can use to describe the earthquake that shook Haiti a year ago. You could start by calling it a catastrophe, or a disaster, or a tragedy; but really none of these words go very far, not once you've seen the pictures of dust covered men and women trapped interminably beneath piles of rubble, or the images of children with bandages where their appendages used to be. N0, words like catastrophe, disaster, and tragedy don't do this justice. Sadly, you could fill a whole book with mournful adjectives in an attempt to capture the true nature of this ______, but you would still fail at conveying to any real extent the unbearable reality.

The earthquake that struck Haiti was the most powerful quake to hit the earth in nearly 200 years. In a matter of minutes, the nation's capital was ripped to pieces; people's homes and communities crumbled down on top of them, crushing anywhere between 200 and 300 thousand people to death. Over 300,000 people were injured. Over 0ne million people were left without homes. And even those who had a house chose to stay in the streets for fear that one of the 52 aftershocks would finish off what the earthquake had left behind.

There are no words to describe the horrors that gripped Haiti; we simply cannot fathom what it must have been like to see the world come crashing down like that, or to rise from the rubble of a broken city knowing that loved ones and friends could be somewhere beneath the sea of snapped concrete slabs.

There are only question marks.

It has been a year since the earthquake. A year of tent cities, a year of poor access to drinking water, a year of cholera, and political unrest, and re-surging gang violence. They say it may take a decade and billions of dollars to return Haiti to where it was before the earthquake. An entire decade to pick up the pieces of a country that was already carrying far too great of a burden.

The initial response of the international community to the earthquake was absolutely incredible. The entire world responded to the crisis in a way that the world has most likely never seen before. But that time has passed, there are other issues in the news and in our minds.It is difficult to dwell on things as dark as this, and in the face of a problem characterized by big black question marks, it is a challenge to simply know where to begin.

I personally say that the beginning should have been long before the earthquake. It saddens me deeply that it took the most powerful earthquake in contemporary history, the death of thousands, and the rise of the most difficult crisis management operation in human history to awaken the minds and hearts of those just a few hundred miles away, let alone the rest of the world. Haiti has never been a stranger to injustice, or death, or disease, or natural disasters. Those ills have been irrevocably etched upon the walls of Haitian history, and their influence was only magnified by the international community's previous lack of interest. However, that wall cracked in 2010, and regardless of the past, there is only one present, and only one future.The biggest question mark of all then is what will be written of the new Haiti.

When the dust first settled, many argued that the grim reality of Haiti's present condition came with a silver lining, an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start all over again. But as we are so often reminded, history has a cruel way of repeating itself. To think that you can just wipe away centuries of pain and forge a more perfect union is to ignore the reality that Haiti has already endured. However, there is hope, and no matter how dark the future may become, things can still be made right.

Haiti deserves more than the world has given it, and it deserves far more than its own government have taken from it. Ultimately, regardless of where past faults may be attributed, the country's fate rests delicately in the hands of its leaders, its diaspora, and the governments and citizens of the rest of the world. There will not be a quick fix, the question marks will not subside once the spread of cholera is suppressed, and even once the tents are replaced the country will need more; that is why we say dye mon, gen mon ... that behind every mountain is a mountain. Endurance however, is a trait written into the genome of every Haitian, they will not forget the struggle. . . what of the rest of us?

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Partners in Health

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THE STORY OF CARLY ELVA

Hope comes in all shapes and sizes and forms throughout the course of one's life. It is a source of inspiration that teaches us to reach beyond our own current conditions and latch on to something beyond our understandings. I believe that we only truly find hope when we are meant to; although we may be constantly surrounded by incredible mysteries, our ability to perceive the beauty of the world around us is often keenest when we are at our weakest moments, or when we draw too deeply within to ourselves. And when we arrive at moments like that, when we are on the verge of collapse, hope floats gently into our lives and restores us.

Over the course of these last two weeks I have been blessed to find my strength and joy restored by a little girl named Carly Elva. Carly is visiting the United States on a medical visa that will expire after a year. My family's connection to Carly began when my mother found her picture on an orphanage's website a week before the earthquake tore apart the Haitian capital. Carly joined a wonderful orphanage because her grandmother lacked the means to take care of her, and because she lost her mother at the age of one.

The extent of Carly's medical issues has yet to be fully determined. There are no records of Carly's medical treatment while in Haiti, and as far as we know, despite her numerous ailments, Carly was not able to see doctors in Haiti for this paralysis. What we do know is that Carly was born with a tethered spine, which supposedly left her paralyzed from the waist down. And to our knowledge, Carly has been incapable of bending her legs at all, walking, or even feeling anything from her waist down for some time.

Carly's situation worsened when the earthquake struck Haiti. Clean drinking water was a rare luxury, and as a result she managed to contract some type of parasite. Sadly, the parasite caused Carly to drop from 30 to 24 pounds in a single month after the earthquake. With the situation unraveling my mother became determined to find medical help for the girl. Months of work and planning coalesced in November when Carly boarded a plane for the United States (despite an impending hurricane) and flew to Miami to meet my father. The trip and the medical attention that she has been receiving has only been made possible by the generosity of the specialists who are working with her. Numerous doctors, surgeons, therapists, and hospitals pledged their time and resources to work on Carly completely free of charge.

From the moment Carly scooted herself into our house she was a blessing. It takes a certain degree of gumption to thrive amidst the chaos that constantly engulfs my family. You would naturally assume that a little girl without the use of her legs would be overwhelmed by the constant whir of our house, but from the instant she entered Carly became a driving force. I was shocked when I got home from college to find this petite Haitian girl shooting across the living room floor, propelling herself solely with her arms. And while the physical strength that Carly possesses is unreal, her exuberance for life is absolutely shocking.

Carly has a special gift, a love of life and of the people around her that surpasses understanding. Whether or not it is right, it is human nature to look at someone with a disability and feel sorry for them and their situation. It is a humbling and a unique experience to look at a partially paralyzed four and a half year old girl who grew up in a wheelchair in a Haitian orphanage, and feel completely unworthy of her presence. But that is what you feel when you see Carly, you are overcome by her unbridled joy and zest for life. Her squeals and constant energy remind you of the beauty of the human spirit and its incredible resilience.

Today Carly returned from the hospital after her first surgery on her tethered spine. The surgeons are skeptical about her chances of walking, they believe that she might have been paralyzed by some form of meningitis as a baby. However, today Carly gained feeling in her lower body for what could be the first time in her life. Five adults (most of whom were doctors or nurses) crowded around her hospital bed witnessing her joy as this special little girl wiggle her toes for the first time.

There are a lot of things wrong with this world, but there is also so much beauty. I am lucky to have been so thoroughly reminded of that throughout these last two weeks.

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THE GLORY OF THE NORTHWEST

Yesterday I had the chance to go hiking with some of my best friends. It always amazes me how beautiful this place is. It's not a pretty kind of beautiful that you can really capture with postcards and pictures, it's one of those kinds of beautiful that overwhelms you and reminds you of how utterly tiny you are and that can only be experienced in person. Nonetheless, here are some of the pictures that I took from our adventures. . .