Pitching in to help their homeland

Jean Pierre and Jean Saint Marc are accustomed to preparing the loading dock for deliveries at the Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, but never had a single task hit home as hard as one did on Jan. 15.

Last Friday, Pierre, 62, and Saint Marc, 41, helped their NUMC colleagues load food, water and clothing into a truck, to be shipped to their devastated homeland of Haiti.

“They need money, they need medicine because they have nothing,” Saint Marc said. “Some have nothing to wear — no shoes, no nothing.”

Though Pierre and Saint Marc settled in Uniondale years ago and started families there, they still have loved ones back in Haiti, which remains chaotic in the wake of the Jan. 12 earthquake. Saint Marc said that he has friends and extended family spread out across the country. Three days after the earthquake, he still had not spoken to at least half of them, especially those living within minutes of the ravaged capital, Port-au-Prince.

“Some of them are OK,” he said. “We talked to some, but some we still didn’t talk to.”

Pierre said he has an aunt, brother, sister and cousin among his family members in Haiti. He made contact with those closest to him, most of whom live in Cap Haitien, on the island’s north coast. While his hometown was not hit nearly as hard as the capital, he said, residents feared flooding and the possibility of a tidal wave.

Pierre said he is baffled by the misfortunes suffered by many Haitians, who lived in squalor even before the disaster. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he said. “Only God knows what’s going on. When this country had independence, it was a good beginning, and for so long nothing good happened.”