Volleyball Hero Byron Shewman
Founder of Starlings Volleyball Clubs, USA

from an email Byron sent 7/28/2010: Last night I quietly watched Edeline in deep thought, adding a few more names to the dozen she already had on her list. Next to each friend, and occasional relative, she jotted down an amount: $20, $30...or $40 for those most in need. She commented on a few recipients: "this $40 is for a woman in my church who has nothing. I gave her little girl a dress once since she didn't have one. She was so happy."

Recently Edeline was asked to come and speak to a group of people in San Diego, assembled to hear her story and make donations to the Haitian people (see next story below). About $2,000 was raised and all of that will be wired this week to Haiti from Edeline, to be distributed between her church, needy friends, and much of it to buy water and food for the Haitians living in tents or under tarps: some 1.5 million.

The enormity of the need next to the smallness of the dollar amounts sent my mind into a sad rumination: what $20 means to most people in the world, admiration of the generosity of Edeline, the recall of other stories she had told me, such as drinking sugar with water on some days to provide enough energy for her daily schedule. The hours on the crawling tap-taps with 30 people standing up in the back of a pickup, teaching elementary school for pennies, taking classes during the afternoons to better herself, and devoting weekends to church worship, choir and social service. All this before the world came crashing down on her neck and the universe of Port au Prince rattled and crushed underneath hundreds of thousands of its own people.

This morning Edeline and her sister are getting ready for their morning English class as I set the small table for a quick breakfast. Edeline looks tired. She didn't sleep well last night. "Why?" I ask.

"Thinking," she gently taps her head. I assume it was the difficulty of her list: to whom and how much to give. "No," she says. "Thinking about all Haitian people."

I understand, as does anyone who has ever been to Haiti — particularly since January 12 — but I have nothing to reply. The concentration of human need and suffering has been taken to new limits. Unfortunately, it is worsening and appears that it will stay on that awful track for a long time. I'm going back again next week, with the same apprehension of facing the rawest of emotions and horrible realities rarely seen. On the good side, I'll see Edeline's extended family and attend to their needs, push our jewelry/craft program to a higher level, and look after the orphans we are supporting. Lily Richardson of PSA is planning to go with me which will be a nice boost as she is more and more committed to these projects.

Haiti today tests one's deepest convictions, most tightly held ontology. This morning I'm finding my own unsteady once again. I look over and see a piece of notebook paper on the dresser in the bedroom. It's a rough draft; the bottom half a list of names: Rose Lourde, Carla, Stefane. Most of them have $20 written next to them.

from an email Byron sent 6/29/2010: Photos show guests of the Volleyball Festival in Phoenix, Arizona. About an hour prior to the featured "We Are the World" to be sung by Edeline and 40 Starlings girls from Oceanside and Phoenix, Edeline began to feel ill — likely effects of the 110-degree heat. As in the photos, she was lying down right before going out to the stage and I wasn't sure she could, or should, perform. She assured me she was OK and insisted on singing. Put into a chair, she was carried onto the stage.

Still in her chair, with her story being shown on the huge screen in centerfield, the beginning lyrics of her first solo part suddenly brought some 5,000 people to their feet in applause. Many were in tears.

When the second solo part came a minute later, she slowly got to her feet, rather than sit, to sing which galvanized the crowd even more. The song finished, she was carried back into the stadium locker room where she again lay on the floor for a half hour or so. Paramedics came but she slowly got better and was wheelchaired out with the help of Lily Richardson and her brother, Alex.

Certainly, stress was a factor as the day before we had called Haiti and after speaking to her sister, I saw Edeline was unusually sullen. I coaxed her into telling me what was wrong and she finally said, "There's famine now in Haiti." Elaborating, her sister and husband with two beautiful daughters, who live in a small room, were out of food and had no money. Further, their father, a frail man who has worked the torrid fields of Haiti all his life, was also without food and worse, had just come down with cholera — a dreadful disease caused from unsanitary water and feared as a devastating epidemic since the earthquake. The father had no money to get to a hospital,see a doctor, or buy any medicine.

Within hours, our wire transfer through Western Union arrived and this morning Edeline's brother-in-law will get the father (some four hours into the country) to a clinic in the city of Cap Haitien. I will let you know what happens.

Edeline, only 31, has lived a life of severe trials. She keeps coming out on top. Let us hope the people of Haiti will find the same fortitude.