Almost three months after doctors amputated Emmanuelle Lundy's left leg just below the knee, she is making birthday plans, posting upbeat status updates on Facebook, and looking forward to dancing at a big concert later this month.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — She cheered and danced to the welcoming sounds of quake-devastated Haitian children. She even painted a purple fish with them.
At first Haitians of all faiths turned inward, transforming their bedsheet camps into all-night religious revivals as they clung to faith and resilience, crying and praising Jezi.
It has survived 19 coups, military rule, hurricanes, and even a three-year embargo. <p/> But in the Jan. 12 earthquake, Haiti's best-known export and one of its oldest businesses, Rhum Barbancourt, suffered a $4 million setback. Amber bottles and white oak vats — some containing rum as old as 15 years — crashed to the distillery floor.
There was much to celebrate after last week's United Nations Donors' Conference on Haiti. Some 130 donors pledged almost $10 billion to help rebuild the poverty-stricken Caribbean nation, which was further devastated by a Jan. 12 earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people.
From pledges of $100,000 to amounts totaling $1.6 billion, Haiti walked away from a much-anticipated donors conference Wednesday with more than $5 billion in promised aid to help jump-start its post-earthquake rebuilding.