A plain black bow adorns the coat of arms on the door of the Haitian Embassy in Tokyo, a poignant reminder to visitors of the hundreds of thousands who have died in the country since the devastating earthquake of Jan 12. It is a small gesture that belies the scale of the destruction wrought by the quake: the mountains of rubble, the mass burials, the hunger and loss.
The disaster has touched the lives of every Haitian on the planet, including Acting Ambassador Jean-Claude Bordes, who was safely ensconced 13,000 km away at the embassy in the upmarket neighborhood of Nishi-Azabu when the quake struck.
One of Bordes¡¯ close friends lived to tell of the moment when the earth shook, almost swallowing the country whole. That Tuesday evening, his friend was at home in the capital, Port-au-Prince, working in the garage as his wife read on the balcony, the ambassador explains.
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