LA Times Article: Local 1775 Firefighters in Haiti
From the Los Angeles Times, February 20, 2010 - Two men from the Larkspur Fire Department in California's Marin County feel drawn to go on their own to help in quake-devastated Haiti. Their acts of kindness are random and delivered first person.
Reporting from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti — It was early morning in Port-au-Prince, about three weeks after the massive earthquake that laid waste to much of Haiti's capital, and Jim Clark and Matt Cobb -- a pair of blond-haired, easygoing firefighters from the Bay Area -- were ready to start their day. Dressed in cargo pants and T-shirts, they could have belonged to any one of the emergency aid organizations or news media groups humming around the courtyard of their hotel. Clark and Cobb, however, belonged to nothing. And that was just fine with them.
The two walked over to the hotel's tall metal gate and motioned to the armed guard that they needed to get out. In one pocket, Clark had stuffed a wad of $10 bills and, in another, he carried a fold of $20s. Cobb, trained as a medic, wore a small pack around his waist stuffed with a stethoscope and basic medical supplies.
The guard, eyeing them with a look that was part curiosity, part concern, swung open the huge, creaking gate and watched as they set out on foot down the dirt road pitted with small craters and strewn with jagged rocks.
The pair crested a small hill and came across one of the hundreds of makeshift tent encampments that have popped up across the city since the Jan. 12 earthquake. They found a woman sitting on a plastic bucket and holding her left leg aloft. Her ankle, swarming with flies, was badly swollen.
Speaking through an interpreter, the woman said concrete cinder blocks had fallen on her leg as the walls of her house collapsed during the magnitude 7.0 temblor. Cobb told her the bone was almost certainly broken and that she needed to see a doctor. If she wanted, he said, they would return with transportation to a hospital several miles away. The woman, named Islande, agreed with a nod.
Cobb punched the coordinates of the camp into a hand-held GPS mapping device and, dropping the "e," marked it as "Island camp," so they would be able to find the woman later. Clark, meanwhile, stood off to the side. He had beckoned several other women in the camp. One by one, he clasped each of their hands in a gentle shake, slipping $20 to them as he did.
"Map tan-ou," Islande said softly in Creole as the two departed. I will be waiting for you.
An estimated 600 international humanitarian groups descended on Haiti in the weeks after the earthquake. Port-au-Prince and surrounding communities are overflowing with thousands of aid workers seeking to provide food, water, medical treatment and shelter to hundreds of thousands of people. The mammoth operation has been funded with more than $4 billion in donations.