Carrfour Aiti's Heroine Grants a Rare Interview

Talking to Alynne Solway is a little intimidating for a first responder like me. It's just a little bit like meeting someone you try to be, and then again, you know you can never be. On my very first humanitarian mission to Malaysia I was shaky and frightened. I worked with a hardened team of international relief workers who taught me so much but also chided me mercilessly. I was "green" and as such I had no experience in the "field" and the field that we worked in was devastatingly poor. My heart did butterfly jumps every moment or so and my colleagues did not do a lot to assuage my increasing anxiety.

A few missions later I am better at this and so, on one Sunday in July, when I mustered up the courage to interview Alynne Solway, I was not only excited but comforted by her calm, that mixed with a great deal of passion, manages, not only to save lives, but to improve the quality of lives for a nation. Alynne comes from a background in education. A mother of four beautiful children, Alynne knew very early on, that her life, was a life in service to others. She began her career as a Special Education Teacher. Her early life and career was spent between the US and her native Canada. She did not, as many of us do, choose the easiest road to humanitarian efforts. The majority of those working in the field, come from a medical background, be it medicine or nursing or even counseling. Our trainings could not be more different.

Alynne wound up in Aiti by accident. She was sitting in Texas awaiting her departure to Chile, two days before the quake struck Aiti and as luck would have it, (and things often do go this way for independent humanitarians), she met a woman who convinced her that Haiti was her real destination.

If you know Alynne, you know that she is a dynamic and independent woman who lives "in the moment". Her ability to think outside of the box is what makes her a treasure to Aiti and an inspiration to other rescuers like me. Changing on a dime, she found herself flying into Port Au Prince airport at sunset.

Now for those of you who have never seen Paradise on Earth, the Island of Hispaniola is one of the sweetest and most beautiful spots on the planet. As the sun was setting Alynne's plane landed and she felt a warm breeze rush through her heart. She was not sure exactly what that meant, until she saw the faces of the native Aitans who met her at the gate. Then she knew.

Much like modern day Viet Nam, Haiti is a place of grace and faith and most especially the most deep and sincere humanity. Aiti has what has been lost in our Western world and that is an unconditional appreciation for the fellow human and a sheer delight in our presence. Make no mistake, when you are greeted by a native Aitian you are in the presence of a dear and devoted friend and someone who well...............cherishes just the fact that you breathe.

Alynne knew she was in the right place and proceeded onto her mission. Four days after this devastating quake, she was met with a warm bath, clean cot, and dinner. Pastor Ernst Joseph, her patron in Aiti, introduced her to the congregation and simply said:
"Here is Alynne . Alynne will start our first English school." And that is exactly what Alynne did.

Four weeks after devastation, death, panic and fear, Alynne was hard at work setting up an English speaking school to heal Aiti. Alynne understands something that very few around the world do understand about this beautiful country with these magnificent people. She understands that the people of Haiti want to heal themselves. They are appreciative and thankful for the efforts of those around the world, but they want to heal themselves. Therefore where better to start the school with the children of this devastated country. After the devastating quake, these children are Aiti's future. They embraced learning English!

Alynne's answer to this tragedy is not a band-aid. Alynne works for generations of healing and growth. Her vision is for the long term. She is confident that the engineers and medics can heal the immediate wounds and re-figure Aiti, but her wisdom dictates that someone has the vision to anticipate a future for Aiti and she is certainly the woman for the job.We talked a lot about how Alynne can continue her work recreating a school system in Aiti. If she can educate all these children well enough to meet the US and Canadian standards of education for a high school graduate there might be a possibility that each US state may be willing to educate, house and feed an Aitian child. Imagine the possibilities?

Alynne and I talked a lot about what struck us most about the beauty of the Aitian people and for me it was the magnitude and the volume of the voices singing in the dark in the hours after the quake struck. There were singers dancing and dancers singing and the streets were filled with Aitians praising God for saving them and their Island. All of those in the singing, dancing throng had lost loved ones, homes and all else, yet their response was to give grace for the sparing of their lives. I was choking when I heard the strains of their hymns. I live in a country with running water and electricity and I have an old clunker car but it takes me place to place and I have a job I like in a safe building...... and the supermarket where I shop always has diet cokes and peanut butter for me. I do pray a lot and I give thanks all day for what I have but I do not know if the strength of my faith even approaches that of the Aitians who sang that night in the streets.

Alynne worked hard to establish a safe place for the people she served but was continually frustrated by the lack of resources and a continued corrupt Aitian government. Again, working out of the box, Alynne began to search elsewhere for help. She told me several times that she was indebted to Mexico who was quick to respond to her needs supplying permits to feed 4,000 people. She obtained heaters, cots, tarpaulins , and cleaning materials to help her create a safe place for those she found in need. Ya know we just never saw that here on American TV and I wondered about this a lot as we watched night after, night Arizona's immigration issues.

Her frustrations grew when she learned that as a non governmental official she was not given the time of day by the many consulates she approached for help.

In a four day period, Alynne, an educator and a woman who works entirely in the services of others for literacy and the obliteration of ignorance, witnessed two incredible and horrific medical accidents. On the fourth day after her second visit to Aiti, she witnessed a young man electrocuted by the remaining poor wiring in Carrfour. He was hungry and climbing a tree to obtain a mango when his foot hit the third wire and killed him instantly. On the last day she wrote me from Haiti, she sent me a photograph of a man with occipital cancer that had outgrown his skull. Alynne told me that there is only one CT Scan machine in Port Au Prince and so were she to remain in Carrfour she would be forced to watch this 26 year old man die. He was about to become a first time dad in just a few months and Alynne was devastated. She had tirelessly and desperately approached all embassies including her Canadian embassy and my US embassy without good effect.

Without good effect, for those of you who do not know, is a medical term. It means we cannot help.

Alynne is a woman who works, all the time, with good effect. Regrouping and getting back to Aiti are her priorities now. The television cameras have left. Alynne's mission is not a front burner news story, but ya just know this is not going to be the last you have heard of her. Not if I have anything to say about it.
Bless you Alynne and Godspeed.