Haiti Emerges From Its Shock, and Tears Roll

From the article:

"Many victims were not accepted as dead until the search missions were over, and many bodies were never recovered or were dumped in mass graves. But belatedly, funerals and memorial services are taking place daily, and the traditional word-of-mouth network known as telediol has reawakened, delivering death notices."

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Missionaries in Haiti Skeptical of Newcomers’ Motives and Methods

From the article:

"'You had missionary doctors parachuting in here doing amputations rather than setting or treating wounds because they knew their charter jet was leaving in two days and they would not be able to oversee follow-up,' said Dr. Scott Nelson, an American orthopedic surgeon and Adventist missionary, as he lifted a moaning man onto a soiled stretcher.

...

Dr. Nelson and other veteran missionaries faulted the new arrivals for frequently acting on their own instead of collaborating with more established missionary groups that plan on staying in Haiti for the long haul. It is a tension, some experts say, that can arise from the differing reasons missions have for being here.

'The new or short-term groups see themselves as being there to save souls first and lives second,' said Jonathan J. Bonk, director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven. 'The older less conservative missions often see it the other way around.'

But the new arrivals say they have a legitimate role to play as well.

'Right now, with the situation being a disaster, we mostly focus on food and water and supporting the doctors; that’s our mission,' said Pat Harney, a spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology, which has several hundred health professionals and volunteer ministers in Haiti.

Some of them arrived on John Travolta’s Boeing 707, which he flew down loaded with tons of relief supplies, and when not doing relief work they sang classic rock songs at a crowded bar full of aid workers inside the United Nations compound. At the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, where Scientologists in bright yellow T-shirts have assisted as volunteers, some have carried out what they call touch therapy, in which they say they realign patients’ nervous systems by touching them through their clothes.

The hospital director, Dr. Alix Lassegne, said he told the group’s doctors to stick to traditional medicine and other volunteers to stay away from trying to convert anyone."