March 3, 2010 – Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico…[Raul Lozano/IAD]
Alberto Aguilar, a member of Region 95 Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico, is an enthusiastic young man who has been a master guide in his Pathfinders Club for 15 years. He also belongs to Topos de Tlatelolco a rescue team which deployed to Haiti just two days after an earthquake devastated the capital city of Port-au-Prince in January.
Topos de Tlatelolco was organized in 1985 after a disastrous earthquake hit Mexico City.
“To travel to Haiti as a rescuer is something that has left a deep impression in my personal life,” says Aguilar. He says the conditions he found there were highly shocking to him. “It was sad to see the faces of the people affected by tragedy, pain, disbelief, and the uncertainty of how to face the situation,” he adds.
What follows is a short description of what Aguilar experienced in that country.
What happened when you arrived in Haiti and after your participation with the “Topos”?
“In this organization, I was a paramedic. I was assigned to give assistance to a group of injured people. With the help of a group of physicians, two nuns, and one priest, we set up a make-shift hospital tent right over the debris of a park, in the surroundings of Port-au-Prince’s cathedral. On the first day, we helped some 1,500 people, most of them in the early stages of gangrene, tetanus, and other infections which result from exposed injuries. That same day, one of the physicians from Cuba led about sixty amputations, and I performed some twenty of those amputations on limbs and fingers.”
What feelings did you experience during your time there?
“I have many experiences, and all of them pile up in my mind because just by recalling them, these memories flow. But I have to admit, in the face of such tragedy and human pain. I had no time to cry at all. What is more, hunger slipped away from us, let alone finding a place to rest. This feeling deepened, especially when we thought about the enormous amount of medical supplies that we needed in order to provide a complete service, knowing that the international help was stuck in the airport. We had to operate only with what we had: a liter of ethyl alcohol, a few liters of peroxide, and two kilograms of Gauze bandages.”
How do you relate your experiences in Haiti with your faith?
“Lots of things are going on in the world and, being in Haiti, I could notice how fragile and feeble human beings are. But what strikes me the most is seeing how we can succumb when we forget that there is a God who gives hope and courage in the midst of tragedy. I know that the Lord gave us the opportunity of rescuing lives, and through our hands perform miracles that gave people hope, not to our glory, but to God’s glory.”
