It is worth for a moment to think about the meaning of breath.
From the Judeo-Christian belief, a human person is clay formed by God's hand, and brought to life by God's breath.
Breath so strongly represents spirit and soul, that when someone breaths their last, it is often referred to as giving up the spirit.
At Pentecost, through the the descent of the strong breath of the Holy Spirit upon them, and later by the Risen Jesus breathing over them, that the power of God is shared with believers, fuel for the great work given to each of us to do: to rise far above what we could ever be on our own, and to also raise up our families, our nations, our world to the noblest kind of living.
By now, around the world, we are all very used to the dreadful coronavirus that attacks breath, and leaves in its wake wide trails of suffocation and death.
Jesus saw sickness as evil because it threatens or destroys life.
It has been easy for all of us caring for the COVID sick, to see how cruel and crushing of life is this pandemic.
In Christianity, breath is the life force, and the Truth of God is what we breathe.
The work of God is life and truth. But truth without heart is cruel, and we all know what is like to have truth "held against us".
To the total contrary, when truth is wielded with mercy and compassion, truth "sets us free".
The scriptures say, when kindness and truth meet, justice and peace embrace.
In Haiti, for the second time in a year, we are struggling against this fierce breathlessness.
A year ago we received some 1,500 people over three months, and now, just over the past 5 weeks, we have already received 518 people confirmed or suspected with COVID.
We do not yet see a plateau.
Those dead on arrival are not a few, and those who died in our care are not a few.
We can evaluate our averages when all is said and done, and qualified.
The averages are useful statistics that help us evaluate what happened and how effective we were in the face of pandemic, in order to improve.
But of course, those who are sick, or die, are all our brothers and sisters and not digits, and we are all the poorer for their loss.
In this message, we do not speak of the general experience in Haiti, only of our own St Luke COVID center.
The illness includes the young and old, it includes priests and nuns and brothers, doctors and nurses and public servants, and aunts and fathers, mothers and best friends.
Many of these are now hallowing the cemetery with the bodies that mark their heroic life stories, like parchment with the final etchings.
But most of our afflicted friends get up again, and happily head home.
This makes us happy, too.
One year after the initial onset of COVID, the world has created vaccines, but they are not here in Haiti. The world has created antivirals, but they are not here in Haiti. The world has created monoclonal antibodies, but they are not here in Haiti.
Maybe they are here in some small quantity for the lucky or privileged.
We have for this new wave of COVID what we had last year- things like dexamethasone and heparin, azithromycin and ceftriaxone, the important vitamins, and medicines for symptoms and for co-morbid conditions.
But we have much less this year of what we had in abundance last year- the most essential medicine, which is oxygen.
We do not enjoy the free (sponsored) oxygen of last year, and so we are paying cash for oxygen.
This is quite limiting.
We are averaging 90 beds, 80 of whom need oxygen by tank as opposed to small bedside concentrator, and each person needs on average 4 tanks per day at $19/refill.
You can do the math to understand our stress.
Even worse, the insecurity in the country interferes with oxygen being imported as liquid, then being converted to gas at the factory, and then being delivered.
It is hard and dangerous work to refill 320 tanks per day, in the red zones of Port au Prince.
We have a long list of our own nightmares related to this, as recently as today.
Red is, in fact, the dominating color throughout Port au Prince.
The sick cannot breath, and ironically we are also holding our own breaths very often, wondering if the day will come when we will be deprived of oxygen altogether, and the fear we may face many tragic deaths because of the lack of oxygen, and this within hours.
It almost happened a few times already, because of the violence on the streets, most memorably on the feast of Corpus Christi, - a story too long a story to tell here.
Yet, we have been and continue to be blessed and strengthened.
We have been strengthened with Haitian Government donations of a massive generator and an oxygen producing system (making 50 of our needed 320 tanks per day).
These combined are valued at US $250,000.
We have had many local cash donations nearing $200,000, and many local donations of clorox, protective equipment, sheets, soaps and shampoos,
It is amazing and wonderful.
From friends old and new abroad, we have been blessed with donations and pledges of an additional $700,000 from multiple sources.
We are at about 75% of our projected budget for three to four months of this new COVID wave. The lion's share of this budget is for breath. It is for oxygen.
We are also involved in good dialogues to try to get vaccines, antivirals, and even monoclonal antibodies to be part of our arsenal against COVID and for restored health.
All to be shared with other centers, as possible, in alignment with the Ministry of Health and other colleagues in this battle.
We are also involved in important dialogues to help us achieve more ability to produce oxygen onsite - our goal is at least 200 tanks/day of our own production.
Thank you so much for your generous help.
Please help us reach our budgeted goal, to get us through this new wave and beyond.
Thank you also for your well wishes and prayers. They are powerful.
From wherever you read this message, and catch up in a small way on our daily work, may you be peaceful and healthy and greatly blessed by God.
Fr Richard Frechette CP, DO Port au Prince June 18, 2021