CNN 2010-07-15

Milong Esting has been stuck in a makeshift camp for the last six months. From the moment I came here, she says, I don't know anything. They keep saying we're going to get this, we're going to get that, but I haven't seen anything.

 

Her son Wably broke his legs in the earthquake. He was in a body cast for month. He can walk now, but that's about the only good thing that has happened to Milong's family since the quake.

 

When the earthquake happened, did you think that six months, you would, later, you would still be living in a structure like this?

 

No, we didn't think that, says Milong's neighbor Marie Solis, but we don't have anywhere else to go. All of this makes you crazy.

 

Some 55,000 people now occupy Milong's camp. They live crammed¹ together under plastic tarps.

 

Four people live inside Milong's structure. She has a bed, a single bed, but, which is frankly² more than most people have. In this side over here, there's room for some clothing, some toiletries over here. There's cooking supplies, pots and pans, a few plates, and then a small little charcoal³ stove, which she uses to cook food for her family.

 

The structure is made out of plastic. There're heavy sheets which are stretched across wooden support. So, it's actually pretty sturdy. What you don't see on the, on video is just how incredibly hot it is in here. You're in here for literally⁴ a few seconds, you just are drenched⁵ in sweat. So, most people can't spend much time during the day inside these structures.

 

There are more than 1,300 makeshift camps throughout Port-au-Prince housing more than a million and a half people.

 

You see, with all these tents, they're right on top of each other. I think one match on a breezy day could pretty much run this whole place down.

 

Sean Penn and his organization, JPHRO, is in charge of this camp. They provide water and food, doctors and medicine. They have even built a school.

 

Penn would like to get these people back into their old neighborhoods, but many of the neighborhoods are still buried in rubble⁶.

 

So, in terms of getting people out of a camp like this, I mean, there's multiple problems. There's the problem of the rubble that is still in all these neighborhoods, and getting that trucked out, so people can go back. There's the problem of figuring out who owns the land that, that people might move on to. And then there's actually rebuilding structures.

 

A lot of these areas have no grid⁷. They have got no water, all of those things that you would need in a camp, clinics, lighting⁸, those, you know, most of these neighborhoods are living in the pitch dark in rubble twice as high as our heads.

 

Much of the money donated and spent so far has gone to meet immediate⁹ humanitarian¹⁰ needs of the population. Many lives were saved, and there's been no outbreak of disease and no major civil unrest.

 

But the rebuilding has been plagued by lack of organization and leadership. There's still no master plan for removing the rubble, which prevents many from returning home, and only a small percentage of the billions in reconstruction¹¹ money pledged by governments around the world has actually been sent.

 

There are a lot of NGOs who we're told are not coordinating¹² with each other. President Clinton himself has said that they're not coordinating with his commission. Why is that?

 

I think that's as, I think that's as basic as people want to be the first, or they don't want to see it done at all. I think that they want to be the lead, but they don't have the courage in most cases to take it. There are, there are some NGOs that are working very directly and doing it, but it, it's like dropping grains of salt on the beach.

 

Penn's group has just begun using heavy equipment to clear a neighborhood, so some of the people in this camp can return to their old homes. He’d also like to see other funding used for new communities to be built outside Port-au-Prince.

 

Critically important, you're saying, is removing the rubble here with heavy equipment, but also getting people places that they can live outside of Port-au-Prince?

 

Yes, yes, both, because there's, there's whatever it is, 1.8 million. There are camps that are on hillsides like this that still have no lighting, have no drainage mitigations, where their whole neighborhood is in rubble.

 

And so to people in the States who say, well, look, I, I gave money six months ago, and, look, it's all still the same, and I shouldn't give any more money?

 

Well, I say, I say, no, that's not true, because if you gave money because you care, and you have anything to scrap¹³ up, if you don't trust an NGO, find a family to adopt. Get in touch with our NGO. You don't have to give us the money. I will find you a family to adopt. I will give you their number. You can talk to them and find out what it is. But don't stop, don't stop giving. We, we need it

1 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

2 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

3 charcoal   

n.炭，木炭，生物炭

参考例句：

• We need to get some more charcoal for the barbecue.我们烧烤需要更多的碳。
• Charcoal is used to filter water.木炭是用来过滤水的。

4 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

5 drenched   

adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体）

参考例句：

• We were caught in the storm and got drenched to the skin. 我们遇上了暴雨，淋得浑身透湿。
• The rain drenched us. 雨把我们淋得湿透。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

7 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

8 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

9 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

10 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

11 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。

12 coordinating   

v.使协调，使调和( coordinate的现在分词 )；协调；协同；成为同等

参考例句：

• He abolished the Operations Coordinating Board and the Planning Board. 他废除了行动协调委员会和计划委员会。 来自辞典例句
• He's coordinating the wedding, and then we're not going to invite him? 他是来协调婚礼的，难道我们不去请他？ 来自电影对白

13 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。