I’ve spent the better part of the day at La Isabela International Airport—a small private airport in Santo Domingo as journalists and aid workers clamor, at times unsuccessfully, to hop a charter plane into the heart of the destruction—Port-au-Prince. There is no doubt the eyes of the world are on Haiti. But some of the assistance on it’s way to the country once known as the Pearl of the Antilles isn’t a world a way but right next door.
Also waiting all day at the airport were a very friendly yet serious group of men in green and navy military uniforms who call themselves “Bomberos para Christo” or Firefighters for Christ. But officially they’re known as Unidad de Rescate Nacional. They’re Evangelical Missionaries based here in the Dominican Republic where about forty of their one thousand volunteer members are preparing to help their Haitian “vecinos” or neighbors devastated by Tuesday’s earthquake. It’s clear they feel a sense of what I can only describe as family duty—especially their President, a middle-aged Dominican man named Virgilio Marquez Mejia. He left his wife (who he says was not shy about expressing her concern for his safety) and his three sons ages 20, 11 and three, to help in anyway he can. In a low but intense tone of voice, he said he’s ready for it all, from human rescue to rubble removal. But for Mejia this is nothing new. He travels to Haiti quite frequently and has many good friends there. He spent three months in Haiti seven years ago for a previous natural disaster. But he says he knows this one will be worse and he’s ready to stay and help his “good friends” as long as it takes—if only he can get there.