Hello Family and Friends:
I left Seattle shortly after noon on Monday, March 22nd. I was a little anxious about getting on the luggage, including my cool lounge chair for sleeping and all the items I was "muleing" into Haiti, mostly clothes for Elias, the World Concern Emergency Program Director, whose luggage was lost on his arrival here last week from Kenya. In my anxiousness, I left my cell phone at home, which I had thought about doing anyway, since I could only use it on Day 1 and Day 35. It made Day 1 harder and will make Day 35 harder, too.
Check in was a breeze. I was aghast to find myself at the gate over an hour before departure. I'm turning into Robbie Robertson!!!! It was a long trip to Chicago in the middle seat between 2 larger, frittering men. Oooph. I was able to snag an aisle seat on the leg to Fort Lauderdale, FL. Landed at 11:00 pm EDT, had a 7:20 am flight to Haiti so I had to catch a 5:30 am shuttle after arriving at the hotel at 11:45 pm. My shuttle driver was Haitian! A short night!
My itinerary said the flight to Port au Prince was 55 minutes, it was really 1hour and 55 minutes. Haiti is in the eastern time zone but does not celebrate daylight savings time, so we are like CDT. Flying in, it was hard to see from the aisle, but the destruction was hard to make out. There was some. There were several military (US?) units visible on the airport grounds. We landed at a normal gate, traversed a section of the terminal and were directed to a shuttle bus that took us to baggage claim in a warehouse style building where we went through immigration. As we passed the terminal, the damage from the earthquake was quite obvious. All my bags arrived! They move all the bags into this warehouse by hand - almost everyone rents a cart and there is no conveyor and no organization - crazy for a full 737.
I was being met by a driver and he and I were wearing a Turquoise colored World Concern (WC) shirt. After passing customs who asked about my chair, a Haitian man became my escort (for a tip - of course.) He took me by surprise, helped point out my driver behind a fence and escorted me and my cart to the car. Several children came up begging for a dollar and my escort would slap them and chase them away. I asked the driver, Compare, how much I should tip and he said $2. I already showed the escort $5. He refused and asked for $20 and he would "share it with the children, 'them'". He finally took the $5 and we were off. Compare then says, "I do not speak English."
There are no traffic lights, stop signs or yield signs in Haiti. They drive by their horn. The damage was hard to see at first. Many houses are damaged but not destroyed - many are destroyed. Most of the streets we traversed were cleared of rubble but two were not, including the road the office is on. We passed several "camps" where Haitians have gathered on limited empty ground and Compare commented, "Camps!" I noticed a Hospital, one of many in the city. There were hundreds of people on the street. But I saw no children Even in a playground that was empty and not used as a camp. Compare then pointed out some men working among some houses. This was a "Cash for Work" project sponsored by WC (more on that later.)
We pulled up to a solid gate and honked again and again. A Haitian armed with a small caliber shot gun opened the gate and let us in. I was escorted to the second floor. I met a woman named Jillian. It was her first day, too. She is an American from Connecticut and she and her husband have lived in Haiti for 5 years. Her husband works for NBC. They lived in a house in a suburb of Port au Prince that was destroyed in the Earthquake. Jillian was home alone and was buried in rubble for 10 hours. She was able to text her husband, and even though he was in Northern Haiti, he was able to alert rescuers and was there an hour before she was rescued. She had some cuts and scratches and was otherwise, unhurt.
Other staff called her Gigi. This was confusing. Did i get it wrong? Later i asked her and she said her name is unfamiliar to the Haitians and so the Haitians she worked with at her last job called her Gigi.
Elias Kaman, the Emergency Coordinator, introduced himself, gave us a briefing and a tour of the WC Country director from Somalia. He is bright, kind, gentle and funny. He will be my boss, more or less. He speaks English, Swahili, a Kenyan dialect and some Somali. Jillian speaks Creole and was a real help for Elias even on her first day. (Most of the Haitians speak both French and Creole; some speak English as well. Creole uses several common French words, Bon Jour, oui, tres bien, mercy, all of which i have nailed already!)
I found out that Nelson, who is in charge of logistics, procurement, and security is leaving for two weeks, on Friday. He is also a Kenyan (should be an NBA basketball player), speaks English but no Creole or French. WC owns 7 vehicles and has 7 drivers. One of my jobs will be to assign drivers to written requests for transport. Compare, my driver, is the head driver and speaks no English. Bunet, who does procurement and speaks English will be my go to guy. This should be interesting. I should have brought Patty along. She could help with the french.
After my tour, we had our big meal of the day - it will be the same everyday - a chicken leg or thigh and beans and rice. We were offered soda: Coke, Sprite and 7-up in 1.2 liter refillable bottles. There is no Coka Light in Haiti or at least it is rare. The food was pretty good.
I spent the afternoon reading 3 proposals for funding special projects and just watching what was going on until i moved into my room - a tent on the roof of the building. i will have pictures tomorrow.
The three proposals are: partial funding damaged local business for repairs and inventory (this is for some businesses started by micro-loans from WC.) A national "Cash for Work" program to pay Haitians to clear the rubble from their lot or a neighbor's and help build some semi-permanent housing before the hurricanes. Finally, a program to help fund repairs to local churches. The first two proposals were approved by US government and UN organizations. WC is working in their neighborhood in Port au Prince and with the Mayor and the local "ward" leadership so that the locals are driving the focus as much as possible.
Because it was my first day and the last day for Nick, CRISTA's International disaster response director, we went to a local restaurant for dinner. Elias, Nelson, Nick, Susanna, a Bolivian Ex-pat who is the CFO,our driver, Compare and myself. The drive was eerie, beginning with, "are all the doors locked?" There is very little city power during the day, much less at night. People on the street everywhere in the dark. We went to a restaurant at a hotel that was undamaged in the quake, even the pool. The choices were more limited than usual and I ( and two others ) had lasagna. I passed on the Conch, the Brit, Nick had. The Bolivian and Haitian had spaghetti and pizza respectively. Compare was disappointed they were out of pepperoni.
Patty and I struggled for an hour with Skype. We got video but no audio. We gave up and i went to bed. I slept well in my REI recliner, in the tent! TTFN
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