Mercy sister turns to Google

Sister De Lourdes Fahy is keeping a close eye on developments in Haiti.

She was in the country in July 2006. She was the coach of the Gort Community School debating team that won the Concern Debates that year.

“This is all so shocking and sad. I keep thinking of the fantastic people we met when I was there with the school debating team.
“I could not believe the heat when we landed in the capital Port-au-Prince and there were people everywhere.

“We were met at the airport by our ‘twins’ who would spend the week caring for us and making sure everything went as per plan.

“Everyone was so welcoming.” Sister De Lourdes recalls.

And now she is scared that some of those people she got to know might be dead or badly injured. She is keeping a close eye on TV and in the newspapers but is also going on to the internet and googling names.

“I discovered that an American man, who worked at a children’s home is alive and well. He works with Hearts with Haitians. They have three homes in Haiti and two of them have been destroyed.

“A friend of his jumped from a window and survived.

“It is all so terrible and I can understand the people looting. I’d be looting too if I had no food and water.
“I am worried about the war lords who had been rounded up and imprisoned. They had been terrorising the people and now they are all out of prison,” Sister De Lourdes tells me.

“Before going to Haiti I read Garham Greene’s The Comedians, which is set in Haiti under the rule of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his secret police
so I had done some background on the history of the country. And that was a great help.

“I really was greatly impressed with the work Concern does in the country.

“In Saut d’Eau when I was there Concern had put in a water purifying plant and it meant the people now had clean water. Before that was there, they were using water from where the cows were drinking.

“I really liked the way Concern works with local groups. They really are doing amazing work,” she tells me.

And then she is back to her computer to see what’s happening.

The 73-year-old Mercy Sister has taken to googling no bother.