Now that the big basic aid is arriving in Haiti and unfortunately bottlenecked all over with uncleared roads, one damaged airport... all the unimaginable problems - the little aid agencies are starting to come into their own and getting organised - HCS founder Mathilde Aurielen Wilson only just reached Port au Prince but is already setting up a base with a second plane load of medical supplies tomorrow - follow this on FaceBook - Haiti Community Support page.

Poem for Port au Prince

I thought I knew before

How it is to feel heartsick and so far away and unable to help…

Now I see that I was only dreaming.

All the world sees

the few pictures are the same on every news-site,

the woman up to her waist in rubble, dust covering her like ash,

the naked dead piled on truck beds,

the crushed and bleeding limbs

the shock in every eye.

And no-one knows

there are no phones, no power, no internet connections.

The hospitals are fallen, missions full, no building safe to re-enter.

If you are there

and not buried yourself - what must your eyes accept?

Standing on the street corner or helping drag survivors from the rubble

Every way you turn your head there must be a thousand such images…

How long until you find your loved ones?

How many will be safe?

How many will be left amid the ruins?

Now I do know heartsickness and uselessness.

Earthquake Tuesday 12th Jan

Just this evening came the news of the 7.3 mag. earthquake right next to Haiti's capital and 3 million people who live mostly in illegal concrete block shacks with no seismic re-inforcing, even schools and hospitals are collapsing, houses falling in ravines... The phone services are out and there will probably be no word for a few days - we can only wait and hope for the best. Why does it seem Haiti has more bad luck than almost anywhere else on earth? And fewer resources or even time between emergencies to cope with them?