January 14, 2010
By Pat McCaughan

In some ways, the waiting and watching for two missing members of a mission trip to Haiti was over for Mary Alice Eschweiler, a board member of the Haiti Project of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee.

In other ways, not so much.

On Jan. 14 she said she'd received word that James Tamlin and Andrew Lee, part of a group of seven current and former University of Wisconsin-Madison students on the trip, were alive. But she didn't know where they were, or if reports they were being evacuated to the Dominican Republic were true. Nor did she know the fate of some 2,000 villagers with whom the Haiti Project has shared a long-time partnership.

Like thousands of others frustrated about the lack of phone calls into Haiti – and scant news coming out – there was little to do but wait and hope for good news.

The Rev. Nathaniel Saint-Pierre, bishop's vicar at the Haitian congregation of the Church of the Good Samaritan in the Bronx, New York, said he is doing what he can to meet the basic needs of his parishioners, many of whom are still trying to reach family and friends in Haiti.

"Mostly people need to get in touch with people in Haiti, which is difficult because there are no phones and no way to charge (cellular) phones," Saint-Pierre said, adding that he has made contact with a few priests in Haiti and is relaying information as he can.

His church is also collecting food and medicine to ship to Haiti later, he added. Some who awaited news of friends and family turned to social messaging networks like Facebook, or sending text messages via cellular phones.

"There is very little news today," according to Serena Beeks, the executive director of the Commission on Schools for the Diocese of Los Angeles, in an email.

"But there is one bright spot. St. Vincent's School for the Handicapped in Port-au-Prince miraculously remained standing during the earthquake and everyone there escaped without major injury."

She said the National Association for Episcopal Schools was tracking information on its website about some 250 Episcopal schools in Haiti.

"It may seem strange to be concerned about schools when there would seem to be so many other pressing needs," added Beeks. "But our 250 schools, particularly the remote ones, also serve as community centers, emergency clinics, food distribution centers, churches and temporary shelters, often in places where there is no other communal structure of any kind for many miles around."

Jan Byrd, coordinator for Milwaukee's Haiti project, said that even though Haiti's telecommunication system was disabled by the earthquake, the diocese was able to get word about the fate of Tamlin and Lee via Facebook.

"Someone got a message on Facebook that they had been on the roof of Wall's Guest House when the earthquake hit," she said Jan. 14. "The building did collapse but they were on top of it, as opposed to under it, and were all right.

"Unfortunately we're not able to contact them back … and we haven't ascertained where they are and how to get them out of Haiti."

The two young men, both engineers, had decided to remain in Port-au-Prince a day after the diocesan mission trip ended Jan. 11. They were part of a group of seven current and former University of Wisconsin-Madison students who were doing electrical work and trying to establish an Internet connection.

On Jan. 14 Eschweiler said she was inundated with phone calls expressing concern for the young men's whereabouts and for the residents of Jeannette, a village of about 2,000 on the southern peninsula of Haiti, with whom the diocese has partnered as part of its Haiti Project.

"We grab onto little bits of pieces of information we hear and hold them near and dear to our hearts," she said.

The Haiti project, begun in 1986, has been a partnership to support and help build a complex that includes St. Marc's Episcopal Church, rectory, school, preschool and clinic, and done agricultural and water development, she said. A trade school was under construction, she added.

The complex serves a population of about 20,000 overall, "because some of our children walk two hours to school and two hours home again. It's like hundreds of other villages that need help."

She said she is hoping to hear from the Rev. Kesner Gracia, the priest who serves St. Marc's and three other parishes.

Meanwhile, she continued to field calls from frustrated well-wishers wondering how they could help. "I say, prayers first, and then that will always bring us to good stewardship, whether that means body or money. Haiti will be so much in need of anything we can do to help."

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Pat McCaughan is Episcopal Life Media correspondent for Provinces V, VI, VII and VIII and the House of Bishops. She is based in Los Angeles. Lynnette Wilson, a reporter and editor for the Episcopal News Service, contributed to this report.