LEWISTON — Wilson Louis, mayor of the Haitian district of Cité Soleil was at Bates College on Thursday night and he had plenty to say. But Louis speaks only French and relies on translators to convey his remarks while in the United States.

That’s not much of a problem in Lewiston.

A half-dozen local people — including Lewiston’s mayor and several Bates students — were able to bridge the gap between Louis’ native tongue and the non-French in the audience.

For an hour, Louis described horrendous conditions in his earthquake-battered country.

In Cité Soleil, a city of a half-million people, many have lost their homes and are living on the streets, he said. There are children who have lost fingers and toes. Many don’t have access to medical care, in spite of a massive global effort to help them.

“The situation is really terrible,” Louis said. “Those people need food. They need water; they need medical supplies.”

Nearly 250,000 people have died since the quake rolled through Haiti on Jan. 12. Cité Soleil, one of the poorest communities in the country, has been slow to recover. The district did not receive significant food aid for nearly two weeks after the earthquake.

There are food shortages, Louis said. There is gang violence and there are horrors around every corner.

“Everyone in the world knows about Haiti,” the mayor said. “Cité Soleil is the worst.”

The lecture, sponsored by the Bates College Multicultural Affairs Office and the Multifaith Chaplaincy, was well-attended. At least 100 people filed into the Olin Arts Center to hear Louis speak.

“We get all of our information from the TV news,” said the Rev. Doug Taylor, who lives in Lewiston. “I thought this way, we could hear it from the horse’s mouth. I’m definitely interested in what’s happening down there.”

Students and others wanted to know how they could best make donations toward relief efforts. They wanted to know how shipments of food are distributed and when the children of Cité Soleil would be able to go back to school.

Of the schools, Louis explained that there are two of them in Cité Soleil. Before the kids can return to classrooms, they need things like books and chairs, desks and food for the students and teachers.

Mara Barr, a Bates senior from Chicago, asked her own question in fluent French. She studied in Paris and delivered her question well. It was this: With tensions between the United States and Haiti pre-dating the earthquake, how were residents feeling about help from Americans in the wake of the disaster?

“We received it with open arms,” Louis said. “Without such a response and without that help, Haiti would not be able to start reconstructing and move forward.”

Near the end of the lecture, Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert was handed the microphone. In French, he asked Louis a long question. A long answer came back. Then the two mayors bantered a bit.

“That’s good news,” Gilbert said when they were done.

He had been asking about the condition of someone in Haiti whom he had been unable to reach. Louis had provided information and the two planned to speak privately at the end of the lecture.

Louis said the people of Cité Soleil had asked him to pass along greetings and gratitude to the people of Lewiston. In return, he planned to carry a message back when he returns to Haiti.

“When he gets back to Cité Soleil,” a translator said, “he will explain to everybody how much you love them. How much you are trying to help and how you are praying for them.”

Before the crowd filed out of the concert hall, several baskets were passed. More donations to be sent with Louis back to Haiti.

Outside the hall, Barr said she was “extremely intrigued” by what Louis had to tell them. She was surprised that he was able to take the time to speak to them at all.

“I was really impressed that we were able to get him right now,” she said.

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Wilson Louis, mayor of Cité Soleil, a district of the Haitian capital city of Port-au-Prince, responds to questions Thursday after he spoke at Bates College about the aftermath of a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated parts of the island nation.