February 17 - Day 4 in Haiti

Today was a much better day overall.  We got out to the factories earlier than usual, and so we were back at the hotel before rush hour.  It was a total relief for me to be able to avoid the street chaos.  It’s more difficult for me than my travel partners, who seem to view the experience more like an adventure.  For me, adventure means skiing, roller coaster riding, hiking, etc., not harrowing trips through the belly of Hell.  But they are much more well-traveled than me, especially among third world countries, although Haiti is the worst they’ve ever seen.  They are going to dinner outside the hotel compound but I’ve opted to stay back.  I’d rather eat alone or not eat at all before making a non-essential trip away from the hotel…too much adventure for one day!  I can only manage one roundtrip through traffic a day.  I have to admit that I will miss having a driver to chauffeur me around, but I definitely won’t miss the actual driving part. 

For the first time in four days I saw a pair of white people walking in the street.  They must have not gotten the UN memo.  It was such an odd sight that I tried to take a photo before I realized that my battery was plugged in back at the hotel.  Another odd thing that happened today was that I saw Haitian money for the first time.  Odd mostly because I’ve been here four days now.  I tried to change money in the US at the Bank of America and was denied, then tried again at the Miami Airport – denied again.  Apparently, the Haitian currency is so low and volatile that no one carries it. 

One bit of unusual excitement today…I was out on the hotel patio eating lunch when a string of journalist appeared following one of the Haitian presidential candidates.  You might have heard a bit about the election fiasco and run-off election…anyway, there is a two-way run-off about to occur between a 70 year old woman and a rock star.  I saw the woman – Mirlande Manigat.  Apparently our hotel is a hotspot for political press conferences.  We asked our Haitian waitress who she planned to vote for, to which she responded ‘oh, I don’t vote’.  She was totally nonchalant about it.  Apparently, the elections and government are so corrupt that she doesn’t even bother.   

One more day of factory visits before heading back home to the US on Saturday morning…

Day 4 - Feb 16

It was HOT here today…maybe not the best day to wear my heaviest long sleeve shirt.  Whatever temperature it is outside, add about 10-15 degrees inside of the factories.

So my strategy today was to focus on the positive, and for me that was the faces.   At first I felt like I needed to watch and absorb everything, but it was completely overwhelming for me.  I brought so many medications with me on the trip, but apparently the one I needed the most (and didn’t bring) was anti-anxiety meds.  Oh well…lesson learned.    My ‘positive’ strategy worked well until we hit Port Au Prince rush hour.  We were repeatedly stuck in areas where trucks were blocking the roads, and at one point I was relieved to see a police officer come out of nowhere to direct traffic after about 30 minutes of idling.  It seems amazing to me that the UN and other organizations bar their workers from walking on the street, while there’s an assumption of safety in an essentially parked car along the road.  The windows aren’t tinted, and so you feel more like a target in this big SUV than you would walking among the people.  I have yet to see one white person walking on the street, despite the fact that about three-quarters of the airplane to Haiti were white.   I have no idea where all of the relief workers are…maybe in the countryside?  Certainly not in Port Au Prince.

But it hasn’t been all bad.  One factory I went to is providing health care to workers onsite.  They have a full staff of nurses, and a doctor that comes in once a week.  They provide medications, sanitary items, prenatal vitamins, and other simple things that the workers would otherwise have to do without.  They provide a place for them to eat and subsidized food, clean water, and fans.  So in some cases (the good ones), the factories provide a place of respite for workers, and is a total contrast to life outside the factory walls.   

Thanks to everyone for all of the well wishes and messages of support.  They really helped me focus on the positive today so keep them coming.  My sister sent me off with a prayer and two angels (it was two, right Sarah?).  Maybe I’ve just imagined it was two because I don’t think one would do it at this point.  I have two days of factory visits left and then I’m off to the airport on Saturday morning.  The project I’m working on is supposed to potentially bring me back to Haiti again next year, so we'll have to see how it goes.  I also might do the same thing in Nicaragua in August, which I think would be a big step up from Haiti based on what I’ve seen here.

I have been taking lots of pictures and short videos, but forgot to bring the cord to download them to the computer.  I will post them to the blog after I get back to the US.

Day 3 - Feb 15

I got an early start to the day, which began with the same yummy hotel breakfast.  The plumbing was not working in my room, and they were able to transfer me to a different room by the end of the day.  It was frustrating but could have been much worse.  I skipped lunch again, and settled for a can of soup for dinner.  I could have gone to the hotel restaurant for dinner, but am feeling totally worn out and the need to rest beat out hunger in the end.  My mind is totally turned upside down right now trying to process everything I’m seeing.  I was lucky that Judge Judy was on the TV when I got back to my room…nothing like a little JJ to help me decompress. 

Although I’m physically in Haiti, I’m totally disconnected from all things Haitian.  I’m driven around in a car like all of the other white people, and we don’t even so much as open the car windows.  It’s too dangerous to walk anywhere, so it’s almost like I’m watching the whole thing on TV.  It’s not that people look so unhappy, in fact, it’s much the opposite.  Everyone seems to be going along on their business as if everything is normal.  It’s anything but normal to me.  The trash and the stench of burning trash is everywhere.  People wash and go to the bathroom right in the street, and it’s totally normal to them because the tent city is too cramped to do these things.  The most surprising thing is that the children look generally very happy, contrary to what I would have thought.  Around mid-day they are all out in their school uniforms walking in packs on their way home from school, smiling and laughing.  The babies and little children are a bit of a different story.  I have seen a few of them looking pretty miserable and potbellied, running around without diapers and sometimes completely naked.  I always thought of diapers as a necessity, but I’m discovering that it’s all relative to your starting point.   

Another thing that struck me today was the total lack of heavy machinery around.  I know that this might seem like a strange thing to notice in such a chaotic situation, but there is construction going on all over the place and they are supposedly ‘rebuilding’ from the earthquake.  The factory I visited to today is still missing a number of walls and the manager said they lost 30 workers in the earthquake.  The entire economic system here is based on the concept of a cheap labor, which places an extremely low value on human life.  The concept of efficiency doesn’t exist, because there is a limitless supply of cheap labor.  Ten Haitian men will work all day moving rubble, which would have taken a machine less than half an hour to accomplish.  The ‘rebuilding’ effort is moving at a snail’s pace, and the people seem to have adapted the tent city rubble version of Haiti as the ‘new normal’.  Unfortunately, one average sized hurricane will inevitably wipe this ‘new normal’ off the map.

Based on what I’ve seen so far, I have absolutely no suggestions for what we can do to help Haiti.  I’m not sure where the money is going, and most of the donated items are being sold on the street.   It’s completely overwhelming.

Valentine's Day in Haiti

The day started with breakfast on the hotel’s outdoor terrace.  The food is a blend of Cuban and New Orleans Cajun – pretty yummy if you don’t think about cholera and everything else floating around.  I’ve already eaten all of the things that are on my ‘don’t eat’ list, because that’s all that there is to eat.  So far no indigestion…but certainly keeping my fingers crossed.  Just as a precaution, I skipped lunch altogether. 

After breakfast we went to the work program’s headquarters, and spent a few hours preparing before going to the factory.  The drive to the factory made yesterday’s ride from the airport seem like a leisurely stroll.  The thing that most struck me was the total lack of infrastructure in some areas of town.  Street lights are extremely rare, and it took us over an hour to go about 5 miles.  The streets are packed with vendors and people, and nothing seems to be sold inside an actual store.  I even saw a walking pharmacist (not sure he was licensed) selling drugs by the pill.  Pretty much anything you want you can find on the street.  I have yet to see any actual store where you can buy something indoors, and there’s no tourist area where you can buy souvenirs.  The potholes still left over from the earthquake would swallow entire cars, and there are many broken down vehicles left all along the roadside.  I saw a lot of animals picking thru the trash on the side of the road – dogs, pigs, goats, chickens, but strangely no cats.  If I come again I will definitely be packing dog treats.

We had dinner in our usual place on the hotel patio.  Besides a Domino’s Pizza, I have not seen any other restaurant in all my travels thru town.  Food is cooked and sold on the street by vendors, and I would never leave the hotel after dark anyway, even with an escort.  In the middle of my somewhat unconventional Valentine’s Day dinner outdoors with the skyline of Haiti in the background, it started pouring down rain.  It was reminiscent of a FL summer-time downpour, except that it lasted longer and I was in the process of eating dinner.  We ran for cover to the one non-open areas of the restaurant until the rain ended, because the walk back to the room was all open air.  I packed all kinds of supplies for the trip – medicine, food, water, flashlight - pretty much everything that you could ever need, EXCEPT for an umbrella…go figure.  Although the rain was annoying, I had a true appreciation for the fact that I wasn’t down the hill in a tent, which is what 99% of Haitians seem to be still living in over a year after the earthquake. 

Day 1 - Feb 13

It only took less than 2 hours to get from Miami to Haiti, and I could see Cuba out the window.  The flight was pretty uneventful other than being completely packed, probably 300 or so people on board.  On our taxi to the one gate at the airport, which apparently has been completely rebuilt since the earthquake, there was a crashed plane on the side of the runway.  I’m not sure how long it’s been there, but it was a little unnerving to say the least.  Once we were out of the plane, it was complete chaos getting thru customs and immigration, and I was lucky to find my bag in the absolute mess that 300 people arriving into Haiti at the same time seemed to have created.  Good thing I got rainbow colored straps at the Miami airport to hold my luggage together because I’m not sure I would have been able to find it otherwise.  The UN driver met us outside the airport – thank goodness – because it was an even bigger madhouse outside the airport.  We were mobbed by people trying to taxi us from the airport and boys catcalling asking for money.  I was completely overwhelmed.  As we left the airport, it was hard to even process what I was seeing.  All around the airport are tent cities, kind of what you would imagine a refugee camp in Africa looking like, except that it’s less than 2 hours from Miami.  There was a latrine area that looked like it had been constructed with cholera in mind.  Driving thru the streets of Haiti was one of the most intimidating experiences I have ever had.  People were everywhere, and traffic was crazy.  Tent cities were everywhere, and there doesn’t appear to be any kind of trash pickup because it is all in the streets.  Vendors were out along the full length of the sidewalks, so people were mostly walking in the streets.  The woman I’m traveling with that has been here since the earthquake said that things were much improved, but that was hard for me to imagine. 

Our hotel is just outside of Port Au Prince up the mountain.  Apparently, the farther up the mountain from PAP the better.  Our hotel was completely obliterated during the earthquake, which has its positive and negatives.  Positives – all new everything; negatives – on the earthquake fault line.  The old hotel is actually lying on the ground beside the new one.  I have a small kitchen and bathroom, along with a little patio area.  Based on what I saw on my way up the hill, this is quite luxurious.  I would prefer to have a lock on my door, but otherwise feel somewhat safe.  I’ll try to take pictures and attach them on my next blog. 

After I settled into the hotel, I met the other two women I’m traveling with for dinner.  It was dark when I went outside to meet them.  You could see the lights dotting the mountainside, and there was the sound of singing in the background.  You couldn’t see where it was coming from, but music seems to be everywhere.  Very happy Caribbean-gospel style music…kind of a strange contrast to unbelievable poverty.  The hotel is so close but at the same time it feels so removed from it.

The hotel dining facilities are all outdoors.  I would have worn bug spray if I’d known, but good thing I’m on my second week of malaria pills.  I tried Haitian beer, which tasted just like Bud Lite.  A friend of mine told me that it’s impossible to make beer using bad water, because the process requires a lot of heat.  So here’s hoping that the beer, and the hotel buffet that I ate, were good choices.   

Work starts tomorrow at 8am…