By Elias Isquith

As this BBC article makes clear, the road to building a viable state in Haiti is going to be a long one.

Before the earthquake, I didn't really know much about Haiti (I had read a bit about its war for independence for a class I took on the French Revolution, but that's about it), so I can't really offer anything worth more than 2 cents about Haiti's past, present, or future.

That said, a person at the organization I'm currently interning at (forgive me for the vagaries but I haven't asked this person's permission to retell her/his information, so...safety first) returned from Haiti on Monday, and on Tuesday s/he gave an informal speech to the staff about what s/he saw and the path ahead as s/he sees it. I considered her/his recollections and insights fascinating and elucidating - and they in essence echo what that BBC article says - so I thought I might share them here.

Perhaps it's best to start with the bad news: this source (who has been to Haiti, by her/his estimate at least twenty times) said that, worryingly, from what s/he had been told, the U.S. Government at this time has set aside around four-million dollars for aid and reconstruction efforts in Haiti. To help us understand just how inadequate that sum will be, s/he told us that, to this date, the government's expenditure towards rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina has been one-hundred million dollars. So, as of now, the United States of America has set aside roughly three to four percent of what it's spent already on the truly unfinished work in Louisiana, to rebuild a nation of roughly three million people. Clearly, this is not enough.

Further, we were told that although the world's donations have been - by any measure other than what will be necessary - enormous (around six-hundred million dollars), NGOs and the like are reporting that the money has stopped coming in at nearly the rate of, say, a week ago, despite the fact that so much more is desperately needed. This isn't a moral failure on the world's part - people gave and most of us can only give so much - but rather just a statement of how truly monumental the task before us is.

Now, there's more bad news but I figured I shouldn't go on forever and you're probably clamoring for something good. The good news is born from a certain irony - things were already so bad in Haiti, that the Haitians are responding to this catastrophe with a truly inspiring mix of faith and perseverance; as my source said, These are tough, tough people. And I don't know what the news channels like CNN, FOX, and MSNBC are reporting (don't have a T.V.), but if you're worried that Haiti has become or is about to become a lawless land riven by the many evils we imagine when we think of a post-apocalyptic scenario - don't. My source reports that the people of Haiti are looking out for one another; communities are attempting to establish kinds of make-shift town councils (for lack of a better term) to do what's possible and necessary in these circumstances, like setting up road-blocks (most people are living/sleeping in the streets) or organizing for religious services.

And that brings me to the part of my source's story that I found the most remarkable - s/he told me that, at night, the people of Port au Prince are congregating for boisterous hymns and dances and exaltations of a higher being, one that they believe has brought the earthquake upon them not as punishment (sorry, Pat Robertson) but rather to give them - and the world - an opportunity to build a new, better Haiti. There I was, at first listening to her/him describe all of this anguish and wondering how I was ever going to go about finishing my work for the day. But when I heard that the people actually living it - the people who actually saw their homes collapse before them, so often with loved ones inside - have not given up hope or the will to continue living rather than merely surviving, I knew that it wasn't my job (and it's not our job) to sit and sulk about how cruel life can be.

Instead, it's our job to keep reminding people that there's work to do - and lots of it.