When news of Haiti’s earth-shattering quake broke I got worried sick whether my friends and acquaintances had survived. At the end of a frustrating day of several dead-ended inquiries, I stopped by the home of my close friend and neighbor, Jerome Ewang, to share in the overwhelming burden of not knowing whether or not his brother was alive. Having met his brother a couple of times here in Illinois while on his vacation from Haiti, the tragedy for me was getting unmasked into faces that were familiar and personal. Of all the people that I know in Haiti, Charles Mengale was the one I had last seen, and scenes of his pensive demeanor and quiet presence seized over me. As the minutes crawled into an hour and conversations with Jerome and his wife - Miriam - went on, a visibly restless Jerome was now negotiating with God that “whatever happens, let him turn up alive.” It was our very own Julius that confirmed to me via Facebook that “when I saw Mengale he was alive but has suffered some serious injuries”. He is currently undergoing treatment in the neighboring Dominican Republic and our thoughts and prayers are with him, his family and the thousands of Haitians for whom the world may never be the same. The Chiareport now presents Part 1 of a survivor’s tale by Julius N. Fondong.
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