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| From Haiti - Day 2 |
We arrived in Haiti today. We got to the airport in Miami where we spend a few hours before getting on the plane to and it was interesting observing some of the people going down there. Some Haitians, some teams of workers and others that looked to be going on vacation. Maybe not the time to be vacationing in Haiti :) The flight was quick and when landing it didnt look a lot different from the sky than somewhere like Jamaica or Hawaii. At the airport we got a taste of Haiti. There was a lot of military setup at the airport still helping with relief efforts. We got to customs and didn't have any trouble, then we got to baggage claim. It wasn't quite like the typical baggage claim experience. They basically pitched luggage into a pile through a door where 200 some people started digging through to find their stuff.
We had 16 checked bags (2 a piece), because we had all loaded as much as we could to bring down with us to Heartline, and it took probably close to an hour to track them all down. We had one person watching the bags as we found and piled them and the rest of us hunted through the piles of bags to find the ones that belonged to us. Not really the most efficient system :) We finally got them all and then ventured out to try to find John and our ride from the airport. There was a fence that separated the airport from the people outside. They would open the gate long enough to let people out into the crowd of hungry baggage carriers who would basically jump on you to carry your bags to make a couple bucks.
Fortunately there were a couple guys there to help us (who John had sent for us) and they took our bags. We had all 16 bags loaded onto 2 of those little airport luggage carts. We walked out of the gates through the mob of people and proceeded into the street to get down to where John had the truck parked. The streets are busy and crazy so it was interesting trying to get these two overloaded carts down the street between all the cars. Twice all the bags on the carts fell off all over the place in the street and there was a scramble to get them back on the carts before the 'other' baggage guys grabbed them. It was pretty intense for a few minutes.
The ride through town was crazy. Kids coming up to the truck asking for money, people lining the streets trying to sell things...As we went through town we could see some of the damage from the earthquake...some collapsed, or leaning, buildings and walls and people living in tents right off the side of the road.
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| From Haiti - Day 2 |
We got to the house we were going to be staying at and could see some of the outer protective walls were still damaged and some completely down in a pile of broken bricks. Each of the houses has an armed guard at the gate for protection. We went over to the makeshift hospital where they have cots lined up under a tent made from PVC and tarps.
It actually is a pretty ingenious design considering what is available to them. It was pretty large, probably about 40 feet in length and 20 feet wide. There were probably about 30-40 people in the hospital being treated. Some are still in after-care or recovery from earthquake related injuries, while others are just there for more recent sickness or injuries. Some had pins in their legs, others IVs hanging from a pole that was cemented into a large bucket with an eye-hooked zip-tied to the top. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Right after the earthquake occurred there were a lot of people requiring amputations due to being stuck under a building, etc and most of these were done with no pain-killers or anesthesia. It just isn't available to them there. There were a lot of mothers who were either about to have a baby or just had one and were sitting in the tent nursing their newborns among the crowd of people. This field hospital had significantly better conditions than most of the local hospitals from what the doctors who were volunteering had to say after visiting a few of them. It's all perspective I guess. We handed out some dumdums to the patients and then were all very excited, especially the kids. Following the time at the hospital we went over to Byron and Shelly's house and had a great meal of ham, beans, salad and some great Mango. We headed back over to the hospital after for the evening church service and it was awesome to watch the injured who were so excited to have the service. Things are different here in many ways. Time is relative, work is optional. Most people don't have any sort of plan for their day and everyone seems to enjoy spending time together at the hospital or anywhere we see them...in the streets, the market...Once again makes me think about how American culture is so different and a lot times so rushed.
4 of us decided to sleep outside on the balcony because it is SO hot and since the city power shuts off towards evening time all the houses have a battery / charging system that runs the lights and fans and stuff at night. As a result about 2 in the morning the fans shut off because the batteries die. So, at least sleeping outside it was a little cooler. Because of the mosquito problem and the possibility of Malaria we each had our own mosquito net tent that we slept under. It definitely was cooler to sleep outside.
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