But amid the misery Sarah Wilson (43) says that there have also been some minor miracles — like that of the woman she saw being pulled from the wreckage of a building and emerged not only alive, but singing.

Sarah, a former pupil of Bell Baxter High School in Cupar, is part of a Christian Aid team working with other organisations to provide round-the-clock help for the people affected by the disaster, which has left thousands dead and countless others homeless.

She arrived in Haiti less than a week after the earthquake struck, and has kept a diary of what she saw during the first few days.

Here are some extracts:

Tuesday, January 19
Arrived in Haiti yesterday and met Prospery Raymond, Christian Aid's country representative, who was trapped in our Port-au-Prince office for hours when it collapsed. He said the earthquake felt 'like you are on a big wave…you see the soil moving with you. It was really terrible.' Within hours, Prospery was trying to co-ordinate aid efforts among Christian Aid partner agencies, finding emergency relief items to distribute to more than 15,000 people in eight different locations. We're concentrating on buying food in local markets to distribute. Most people have no money to buy food and banks are closed. Local farmers have food to sell and if they do not sell it, it will rot.

Wednesday, January 20
Incredible afternoon — a woman was pulled to safety from the wreckage of a priest's residence at the Roman Catholic Cathedral. After a week! She was brought out on a stretcher but was singing when she emerged, put on a drip and taken to hospital. An amazing thing to witness, no-one could believe she was still alive. Went to bed later in the tent — woken in the middle of the night by a big tremor, the biggest I felt since I got here. Particularly scary for those who lived through the big quake. Turns out it was 6.1 magnitude.

Thursday, January 21
Aid's beginning to get distributed. One of Christian Aid's church partners from Europe, Diakonie, had been trying to land a plane from Belgium for days. Problems with air traffic control at Port-au-Prince airport since the tower was badly damaged made landing difficult. Finally, it's here, with four portable hospitals, large tents for schools and administration buildings, plus medical equipment.
Some of the cargo was transported by Argentinian United Nations troops to Leogane, where I met Clement Celis, homeless, no word from her husband since the earthquake. Today she received two five-gallon jerry cans, plastic sheeting for shelter and a blanket.

Friday, January 22
Met Sandra Saintilair, who used to earn a living for herself and her baby by selling milk in front of her house. Since her house collapsed, she's been living in an encampment in the Grand Rue section of Port-au-Prince, using what little money she had to buy food, but it's running out. Today, only a few small fruits were available. But, she bathed and washed her clothes for the first time today. Norwegian Church Aid, one of Christian Aid's partners, pumped clean water into the camp. The 10,000-gallon tank was drained in 20 minutes flat as dozens of people crowded around to fill their buckets.