That’s when everything started to shake. Violently.
While Kethura was able to run out, unscarred, she lost her uncle and her house was destroyed. Kencia was injured when falling debris struck and broke her hip. Luckily, everyone else in her family survived unhurt.
It’s been five years since a January afternoon in Haiti was interrupted by a devastating earthquake that instantly changed millions of lives and everyone still remembers the day vividly. It is estimated that the earthquake took the lives of more than 230,000 people.
Five years after the quake: Haiti at a crossroads
But since 2012, these two women — along with 20 others — have also shared a different experience.
In the outskirts of South Bend, Indiana, a town where sports usually means Notre Dame football, 22 Haitian and Haitian-American women live in two small apartments and work hard to achieve one big dream: They strive to win soccer glory wearing the colors of the Haiti National Women’s Soccer Team under the guide of Polish-born coach Shek Borkowski.
To open their doors is to enter another world where Creole mixes with English and French in the hallway of an apartment kept at tropical warmth. Fragrant rice, beans and bananes cook on the stove top. Socks, shorts and jerseys are in the washing machine; bright cleats are strewn in room corners.
They come from Port-au-Prince, the capital, as well as Leogane, Cap Haitien and Petit Goave. Some played with local teams, with unclear prospects for a future in the sport. Their stories are those of struggle and of love for a game they played despite mothers’ warnings, admonitions or disapproval.
‘I had to hide to play’
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“His team arrived in Dallas with 500 dollars and no transportation from the airport. Randy Waldrum is a former coach for the University of Notre Dame; he’s helped us in terms of development and so when this happened to his team, it was just a natural reaction that we have to help as well,” Borkowski said.
Their gesture went viral in the Twittersphere, many pledged support to the Haitian team. Among them, TOMS shoes donated sports gear, and the Clinton Foundation reached out to inquire about the team’s needs. Borkowski says substantive aid still needs to materialize.
But after a very exciting season of matches against Caribbean countries and bigger teams such as USA, Mexico and Costa Rica, Haiti was unable to win the three matches needed to secure a spot to the World Cup.
For Borkowski, it’s back to the drawing board. “We are at a crossroad,” he says. “We don’t know how we’re going to approach preparation this year.”
For some players, this was the end of the road.
Captain Kencia Marseille and other players return to Haiti, to go on with the lives they paused in the name of the sport. Roughly half of the players that came from Haiti will remain in the team and a new crop will join the national squad as well as the U-17 and U-20 teams, all coached by Borkowski.
Qualifying matches for the two spots available to the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football Associations for the 2016 Olympics starts this coming fall.
The players’ dreams live on.
