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Miami Little Refuge For Haiti's Earthquake Survivors

LIANE HANSEN, Host:

Today, we're going to check in with some of those refugees through State of the Reunion. The program by NPR and PRX investigates issues that unite and divide communities. Al Letson is the host of the show and he has this report from Miami.

(SOUNDBITE OF KIDS TALKING)

AL LETSON: Classes are done for the day at the handsome campus of North Miami High School. Students dressed in uniforms of navy polo shirts and khaki pants and skirts make their way to school buses. But we've waylaid a few of them and wrangled them around a conference table in the principal's office.

GREGORY AZOR: I'm Gregory Azor, 17 years old.

SERGE COMEAU: I'm Serge Comeau. I'm 17 years old.

MODELINE MARCELUS: My name is Modeline Marcelus. I'm 16, too.

LETSON: Gregory, Serge and Modeline are among 79 quake survivors enrolled here. What was surprising to me was that these teenagers were middle class in Haiti. Now, my view of Haiti before talking to them was that there were just very poor people and a few well to do. But these kids set me straight, that there was definitely a middle class, and in their opinion, the schools they went to in Haiti were superior to American schools. This is Serge Comeau.

COMEAU: I was expecting, like, real tough stuff but then I got kindergarten stuff.

LETSON: There are other complaints - that people tend to lump all Haitians together, most thought they were all poor; that sounded familiar. But these students also said they felt safe here. And Modeline Marcelus praised the welcome she received in the U.S.

MARCELUS: They use to say that when you coming in America, they going to judge you, they going to talk back to you, they're going to beat you up - sorry. But when we came here, they was like, hi, my name is Zelda. I would like to help you. How you feel? Are you OK? It was OK. I like that. It feel like home.

LETSON: All the students, who are juniors and seniors, said they have plans to go to college, and then, when they're trained as engineers and teachers, to return to their homeland. Gregory Azor hopes to become a psychologist so he can help his people.

AZOR: Because they are my blood. After the earthquake, I think a lot of Haitians now they are very sick mentally. So, they need someone to talk with them. So, it's my mission. I give myself this mission to help them.

LETSON: Can you explain to us what you went through?

MIRLENE FELIX CADET: (foreign language spoken)

MARIE DENIE: It's going to be difficult for her. I know her. She lost her child during the earthquake and it's going be difficult for her to talk about it.

LETSON: Dr. Marie Denie-Gervais translates for us as we talk to Mirlene Felix Cadet in a meeting room at the clinic.

FELIX CADET: (foreign language spoken)

LETSON: Once Mirlene gets started, she doesn't stop - she can't stop. It seems this is something she must get out. She says she was home alone when the quake hit. Her two daughters were in school.

FELIX CADET: (through translator) At that point, I still didn't realize what was going on. But I have a cousin who works in L'Hopital General, the main hospital in Port-au-Prince, and she was running home screaming, saying, my God everything is destroyed. The hospital is destroyed, the bank is destroyed, everything is destroyed. But I'm still convinced that my husband is coming back with the two kids.

LETSON: But she never saw her eldest Chwee Na again. Her body was never positively identified. Prior to the earthquake, Mirlene says Chwee Na became adamant about going to church very early every morning.

FELIX CADET: (through translator) So when I saw all the spectacle of the school collapsed, you know, I'm saying to myself, Jesus, please remember that Chwee Na, she did everything that you wanted her to do. But now I realize that if God allowed her to go to church every morning, it was to prepare her spiritual self for what happened.

LETSON: As Mirlene struggles with the difficulties in her past, the outlook for her present and future is challenging as well. Like so many of the refugees we met - most of them women - Mirlene is here without her husband, who's back in Haiti working. In her homeland, she was a successful small business owner and an independent woman. But here in the States, until now, her visa status did not permit her to work and she has next to nothing.

FELIX CADET: (through translator) It's very difficult. I come from a country where I know that I'm supposed to work and take care of my children and I find it very difficult that I don't have the means to take care of them. I was a working woman all my life and now I have to ask everybody for something and it's very difficult.

LETSON: Marleine Bastien, the executive director of Center for Haitian Women of Miami, says working is the key for the refugees and their host families.

MARLEINE BASTIEN: So, it is really creating a situation where people are so, so, so, so, so, so pressed because they cannot work and then they cannot contribute. So, we see an increase in frustrations, increase in domestic violence, an increase in problems not only with the family members but also with the host families and also with the children.

LETSON: These children, especially, have a lot to deal with but even with a new life to adapt to, what stuck with me was their resiliency. And that leaves us with one more earthquake survivor we'd like to introduce you to.

(SOUNDBITE OF BANGING)

LETSON: Did you learn English when you got here from Haiti or did you already know English?

PETERSON JEAN: I didn't know English in Haiti.

LETSON: Wow. So, you just picked it up at school?

JEAN: Because I go to school. She help me learn English. And sometime I say I don't know something, she give me a dictionary. I find it.

LETSON: Why you want to be doctor?

JEAN: Unidentified Man (Translator): He want to help that doctor too. He want to be a doctor like him because he help him. That's very nice. You know, when you're very grateful. That's very nice.

LETSON: The Little Mayor seems happy go lucky as jumps back on his scooter, but it's in the eyes of his mother where you can see the ghosts of lost loved ones. And while the physical scars on her son's body have healed, it'll take a lot longer for the collective wounds of Haitians at home and abroad to recover.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HANSEN: Al Letson is the host of the program State of the Reunion from NPR and PRX. You can hear their full hour on Miami on many of these NPR stations. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Host, Executive Producer, Idea Man, and Top Dog of State of the Re:Union, Al Letson has received national recognition and built a devoted fan base with soul-stirring, interdisciplinary work. He established himself early in his career as a heavyweight in the Poetry Slam Movement, which garnered artistic credibility and renown. Performing on a number of national, regional and local stages including HBO's Def Poetry Jam, CBS's Final Four PreGame Showand commercial projects for Sony, the Florida Times Union, Adobe Software, and the Doorpost Film Project, Al has honed his professional voice and artistic sensibilities into a unique brand that is all his own. After winning the Public Radio Talent Quest, Al received a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to create three episodes of his public radio show concept State of the Re:Union. His company finished their first grant in August of 2009 and has just been awarded one of the largest public radio grants every given to a single project to produce a full season of shows.