Reporter's notebook: 'How will my country put up with this?'

Reporter's notebook: 'How will my country put up with this?'

Karl Alexis just shakes his head when asked if he ever imagined an earthquake could strike his native Haiti. "Now, I'm just wondering how my country will put up with this, we're already very devastated," he said. Alexis is 17 and in his second year at Collège Jean De Brébeuf in Montreal. He was on break from school and busy playing Playstation 3 when his home in Laboele started shaking. After a brief pause he ran straight out of his front door. "[The ground] only shook for like a minute but I had to get out," he said. "And now the airport [in Port-au-Prince] is crumbling and help can't get there." Alexis expects that to change in the next few days and is confident more resources will land in Port-au-Prince. His father is Jacques Edouard Alexis, who served two terms as Haiti's prime minister from 1999-2001 and 2006-2008. Both of Karl's parents were unharmed, though he says his mother's office building collapsed. And now, he says, the world is watching his country.

"The [American] media always show the bad side of Haiti and I hate that," Karl said. "There are very poor people in a lot of countries, not just Haiti." Alexis arrived in the Dominican Republic Thursday afternoon. He is headed back to school in Montreal, where he was born and currently majoring in medical science. One memory still stands out from that dreadful Tuesday afternoon. "I remember looking out from my house and seeing white...smoke fill the sky," he said. "It was from the rubble and I could see nothing but white in the sky when I looked out into the city." Alexis was able to get out of Port-au-Prince. But for many of the media assembled here at La Isabela International, Port au Prince is the next stop. So we wait. From catching charter planes to driving several vehicles to booking hotels for an extra night--blackberry's are getting all they can handle. The airport isn't as crowded anymore. But the anticipation is greater now.