You never, ever know…

By Nico — January 28, 2010 | 13 comments

Like I said in my last blog, you never know. You never, ever know.

Tonight I was going to Carrefour Feuille to do a night shoot in the streets. I was just about to arrive when I saw happy looking people crowding the road side.

This is uncommon sight these days, so I stopped. The rumor was that they had found someone alive under the rubble of a house sitting on the hill side.

Of course, this is impossible 15 days after the earthquake.

I noticed a rescue team from the French “Securité Civile de la Gendarmerie Nationale” getting all busy digging under the stare of excited journalists perched on the roof of a small room right above. It must be true.

I walked straight up to rescuer Christophe Renoud and he told me that there was a 17 year-old girl trapped under the rubble. His rescue team had talked to her and started to rehydrate her as they could see the top of her head in the hole she is trapped in.

Neighbors had heard her calls and called the Haitian police, who called in the rescue team. Fifteen days after being buried, is this possible? A week ago, I had heard of rescue teams giving up on people being alive.

This would be the 16th person the French have pulled out alive. It took the team less than two hours to come out of the hole with Darlene Etienne.

The crowd started to clap and thank god, while the journalists went crazy walking on each other. I’m sorry not to get better footage but this was about a human being between life and death, and I was not going to jump on her with my lens.

The French men where very happy, talking amongst themselves they were wondering how they would celebrate this properly. They would pause as a group for photographs.

A “miracle” has just happened. This is about a teenager who spent 16 days under the rubble; will she live? And when she does, who will she have become? These questions are bigger than my lens.

I moved on to meet Simon and Stefan at my original destination. It was as if the whole town was flooded with the good news. I found myself in the middle of a group of people clapping and dancing with passion. The more misery, the more intensely joy can be felt when it does come, and filming these kids dancing with smiles as wide as my 28mm lens, I couldn’t help it but feel good for 5 minutes and take it in.

Of course, as rescue teams 50 people strong spend days saving a few individuals, you have 50 people dying in understaffed hospitals down the block. Still this story proves rational thinking wrong, gives one the right to hope for the impossible (and also gave great PR to the humanitarian agencies who fight for the lime light).

On our way back we stopped at a road side market. We found ourselves in front of food stalls serving all kinds of delicious Haitian specialties. This normalcy seemed unreal in the middle millions of hungry people.

For the record, I myself only ate a can of tuna tonight

Tags: Crew Featured Humanitarian aid Miracle Nicolas Jolliet Rescue Web Video