Assellia Exelant tosses a ball to a fellow amputee during physical therapy exercises aimed at improving balance.
Assellia Exelant lost her left leg in the earthquake, but even that wasn't the worst thing.
The 32-year-old Port-au-Prince woman also lost her husband, Pierre Agent, 41, who died amid falling debris. That left Assellia injured, grieving and responsible for the sole care of her two children, ages 7 and 14.
"It's like most of my life is gone," Exelant says through a translator. It's not a complaint; it's an explanation.
For Exelant, who was running a thriving soda-and-beer concession outside the prime minister's office, there is no choice but to start over. A new prosthetic leg will help, but she knows the rest is up to her.
"I have family who can help out," she says. "But in Haiti, everybody has their own problems."
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My prayers and well wishes go out to Mrs. Exelant.
God bless you all!!!!!!!!!!!!
And therein lies the problem. Any country can step in and help when there is a disaster, but at some point the country affected must take care of its own or all of the relief efforts are going to have been in vain....a bandaid stuck onto a severed aorta, as it were. No one seems to recognize the fact that the way these folks are living today is not much worse, and in fact may actually be better because of the relief effort, than the way they were living before the earthquake. We can't give them a work ethic, we can't give them education, and we can't carry them on our backs for the rest of their lives, which is what will be required if their circumstances are to be truly improved.
It amazes me that US citizens are ready and willig to give all to those in other countries while their own friends, neighbors, and even relatives are living in intolerable circumstances.
Retired;
You sound like a COMPASSIONATE conservative ( a contradiction in terms). Bet you watch the 700 Club and believe these people sold their souls to the devil also. Ignorance is bliss!
Retired,
You have a lot to learn in your advanced age.