12 February 2010

On Thursday I left Haiti and crossed through no-mans land again. That place always amazed me. I was also amazed at the change that occurred in Haiti between Friday when I went in to Thursday when I left. The long lines at food distribution locations were gone. People were still picking up food but there were short lines and it was very orderly. People were clearing rubble, cleaning the streets, digging foundations and building more permanent structures. Large tracts of land have been cleared by the US Army and people were being given the materials to build temporary structures. The line at the US Embassy which we passed everyday was very short, just a few dozen people compared to a line that stretched down the street on Monday. Banks are open. US AID has a program called work for cash. They hire groups to clear streets and rubble for $5 cash per day, payable at the end of the day. There is heavy equipment around the city moving rubble. It would be nice if they fixed up some of the roads while the equipment is around.

I was disappointed that the one man road crew was not working yet when we drove by Thursday morning. I was ready to make his day.

One of the biggest tragedies of the quake could be what happens to the young men in the picture. They are all returned missionaries and were in school. Now the schools have collapsed and they are worried that they will not have the opportunity to finish their schooling. The one on my left JP gets married on March 1st.

Thursday after arriving in Santo Domingo I went to the Area Office and worked until almost six. Friday morning there were a few more things to do at the Area Office before running off to the airport. I was able to order take out rice and beans con pollo which I ate while waiting in the check-in line at the airport. I am on the last notch on my belt, if I don’t get a good meal soon I will look as bad as I did the first time I returned from the Dominican Republic.
Apparently there is a place on the blog for comments and questions. I will try to find that and answer any questions, other than that this is it. I hope it wasn’t too wordy or preachy. Monday I will go back to being an American Trucker.

PS. On the emigration forms I completed yesterday when entering the country it was acceptable to put American as my nationality. Why can’t I put “American” as my nationality on the census form? You should try it. You will find they don’t like it.

10 February 2010

This will be my last night in Haiti. I feel a little sad at leaving but there is nothing left here for me to do. The members have been great. The warehouse is up and running drivers have been trained and are making deliveries. They are extremely capable and hard working.

I had a humbling experience this evening. I worked all day with 5 young men, all returned missionaries. At some time, I know it was well after noon I decided we should stop for lunch. I was pulling out the MRE's and the young men were looking a little rescind to another lousy meal. I asked if there was a place closeby where they could buy a lunch. They agreed there was so I asked how much it would cost to feed all five of them, as I pulled out a $5.00 bill. PJ said it would cost $15. I hesitated but gave them the $15 and they took off. We worked until dark. As we were driving back to the old mission home PJ asked if we could take a small detour and drop one of the young men off. Of course there was not a problem. We turned up a bumpy dirt road that dwindled to a single lane (not that strange for Haiti). We stopped along a group of tents that were surrounded by a two rail two by four fence. Robert got out. PJ said that he lives in one of the tents. An older gentleman came over and we shook hands. He introduced himself as the bishop of the local ward. PJ wispered that he also lives in the tent city with several other members of the ward.

It just so happens that PJ is getting married on the 1st of March. I couldn't ask where he was going to live.

On a brighter note, I have noticed an encouraging trend the last couple of days. People are beginning to cleanup and rebuild. There is a cash for work program the some government or group is sponsoring. There are groups of people in orange vest working to clear rubble and debris. There were more lights as we drove home tonight. Odney says that 40% of the city has power. I get the sense that Haiti will be better than before when it is rebuilt, assuming the government or some Hugo Chavez type doesn't get in the way.

I keep promising pictures. Last night I thought I would have to reneg on the promise because I lost my camera...again. But today as the young men were leaving for lunch I happened to look on the toilet box (a long and sordid story) and there was my camera. So there will be pictures. Don't worry, I use the toilet boxes for garbage cans. They work quite well.

Anyway, I think it has been two days since I showered so I am going to shower before going to sleep.

9 February 2010

Where to start. The days are starting to stream together, literally. The Americans are used to working during the day so we start around 7:00 am but the Haitians want to work in the evening, at least with the food distribution. So our days are long. But we are making good progress. The Bishops are accessing the needs of their members and making arrangements to either pick up the food or have it delivered. For the most part the deliveries are orderly. Saturday night we delivered to a Chapel that literally had tarps hung over the top of the whole parking lot, which was about 50' x 100'. They Bishop organized the men into a line and we passed the food down the line which snaked into a class room. The women stood around and made comments. Pretty soon we had a little chant going on, du ba du for heavy bags that required two men to lift or o ba o for light bags. I am sure I have the spelling and pronounciation wrong but the ladies would sure laugh when I would yell out du ba du.

Yesterday I went to the border again. No mans land was astonishing. There was a continuous flow of people carrying amazing quantities of food and liquid. There are boys with wheel barrows that get paid for carrying goods from no mans land to the Haitian side to be loaded on tap taps. You have to understand that there is nothing about it that would make it easy. It is not a paved road but a rocky dusty bare strip of land. The wheel barrows are not new but look like they have been rebuilt and patched together several times. The boys are not big and strong but look to be about twelve and slightly undernourished. And the traffic, I can't describe it in a sentence. And the noise, honking talking, banging, literally sensory overload.

There are many small miracles occuring, I think I am becoming desensitized to them. For example, the delivery truck went to Jacmel last night. They left here at 7:00 pm (it gets dark around 6:00 pm) and they returned about 5:00 am. Of course the house is all locked up, but one of the guys woke up with the thought that he should go open the door. So he went downstairs opened the door and the delivery truck pulled up. Doesn't seem like much to you and me but to Neal and Jean Philipe and Roberto it was a relieve to be able to walk right in and collapse.

Got to go the day is taking off. Sorry.

7 February 2010

Sunday morning in Haiti. There will not be any pictures today, not because I lost the camera, which I did but what was lost has been found. Actually Thursday was one of those days when you just want to sit down on curb and cry. By the time I started to drive for the border at 5:00 am on Friday I thought that I would never see the camera, the GPS or my sun glasses again. But through the day friday they just started appearing, so I do have a camera and I am taking pictures but I was just planning to post when I got back to the Dominican Republic.

Getting back to the Dominican Republic is another issue. Late Friday night, as we were evaluating the situation it was decided that I should stay here next week, rather than go back to the Dominican Republic on Monday morning. I not sure when or how I will get back over there, I am booked on a flight for Friday afternoon which may get changed to Saturday.

I left most of my stuff in the Temple housing in the Dominican Republic because I thought it would be a short trip so I am going to need to find someway to do some wash or they will not let me come into the mission home. Matthew and Kimberly would understand what the smell is like after sweating for two days in the same clothes.

I have seen the Hotel Montana, thats the one that had about 10 floors that just pancaked. There are other buildings here and there and even one or two areas where there are several buildings that have collosapsed. I have not been West of Port-a-Prince or even to the central or west side, just east side. I understand damage is worse to the west. For the most part it appears life is back to normal. The roadside stands have bread, fruits and vegetables. The streets are full of vehicles and people, the business of staying alive is open. Probably the most visible thing is the new shanty towns which are going up, not the normal wood pole and tin one room hut but a variety of tents.

We are learning that there is a cultural that need to be respected. We were thinking that we make food deliveries during the day, after all unemployment is over 80% there should not be a problem with labor. However, making food deliveries during the day leads to riots. So the "volunteers" come to the warehouse after dark, we load the trucks and make deliveries in the dark.

Another problem is we give out 125 lb bags of rice thinking it should last a small family for a couple of weeks. The problem is they have no way to keep 125 lbs secure. The whole culture is and has been for many years day to day. The concept of a two week supply is foreign and impracticle.

There is an open field next to the warehouse. Yesterday a wonderful humanitarian flew in with a helicopter touched down, threw out a quantity of food and took off. A riot ensued. The sureal thing is that along the street there is food for sale and people are usually able to rustle up enough to get something, but free is free. Look at what we Americans do the day after Thanksgiving because there are some great bargins. We are all the same basically.

Anyway, I did see Julee yesterday and delivered the care package of Pringles, Oreos, Jello Pudding, Corn Nuts etc. She was happy to see the supplies but had to be careful to stand up wind. The 82nd Airborne is on the other side of the soccer field so they are nice and secure. One of the cable companies has set it up to broadcast the Super Bowl on a large white sign. The US military is an impressive. Organized, diciplined, neat and large.

I ate an MRE last night which is actually pretty good except the rye crackers. They call Neal blan, which means white, but they don't call me white although it is a pronounce farmers tan.

I would answer your questions but I don't see any so I will close.

I did not get a chance to write yesterday, I am trying to get some equipment purchased and into Haiti by Friday, looks like it will happen I just need to remember to figure out how to get back on Monday. I tell everybody that I will just take a publico, they say “hay no Roberts es muy peligroso”. Anyway yesterday was busy.
Here are some pictures of the country that I took on Monday. It really is a beautiful country. Life for Dominicans that live in the country is different than the city, but I guess that is true just about anywhere. I know the people in Bicknell live differently than the people in Draper if just because they can’t shop at Costco every weekend. When I see the conditions that the country people live in with the almost complete lack of any modern conveniences I am tempted to feel sorry for them, but maybe I shouldn’t. I remember a gentleman that was called to the Salt Lake inner city mission telling me that he had to learn that walking into somebody’s house and saying “you need a new couch, we can get one for you” is rude. Instead he had to learn to focus on providing the help that was requested. Jared gave me a book about a doctor in Haiti who told about how in the 1960’s the United States had a program designed to send machine oil to Haiti. Most Haitian didn’t then nor do now have machines that need oil. They tried cooking with it but concluded it was of inferior quality to the cooking oil that they already had so they would just discard it.
Well, I should stop preaching. This is what happens when you spend too much time alone, although I am not really alone.
I moved out of the Hotel and into the patron housing today. There is a washing machine so hopefully I can do some wash tomorrow, my white shirts and dark pants are starting to look like missionary clothes.

Public transportation for the country folk. Notice the power pole. It is not to carry power from the city to the country, but to carry power generated in the country to the city. The country folk don’t have much electricity, they either can’t afford it or don’t have the appliances that would use it. Kind of makes you think that the wind and solar farms and coal and nuclear plants should be in the city where the people that benefit also deal with the generation. Oh well, preaching again, sorry.

2 February 2010

Sunday I had no free internet access and I am too tight to pay Mr. Marriot for the privilage. Yesterday evening as we were racing for the border in the dark I thought that it would be the second day that I hadn't posted and that maybe somebody would be concerned (you can ask around, hopefully somebody was concerned or noticed). Anyway I got up at 3:30 am yesterday to meet a plane load of cargo at the airport. The hour was not a problem since I was experiencing certain intestinal challenges, which I am happy to say were not much of a challenge during the day because I did not eat or drink anything until late in the afternoon.

The plane was an experience. First it sat on the tarmack for almost an hour before they let it park. Then rather than unloading it when there was not much going on they waited until everybody showed up for work then they unloaded the cargo staged it and loaded in the trucks in all the conjestion. The unloading, staging and reloading actually took 6 hours. We actually had the product cleared through the Dominican Customs and cleared to take it to Haiti before the product even left the plane. The pictures indicate what a mess it was.

We started for the border with Haiti just after 2:00 pm. I have explained the traffic here so you have a sense of what it is like to drive here. Well, the gentleman driving and acting as security is a captain in the police force so he didn't worry about speeding and after a time I didn't worry either since there are no hospitals en-route and no ambulance service I figured a quick sudden death would be better than laying in agony along some road in the Dominican with a bunch of people standing around watching. We made the border before dark and passed through no mans land which is literally no mans land. It is about 200 yards long and is not claimed by the Dominican Republic or Haiti. This first picture is taken from the Dominican side, notice the soldiers at the gate. The second is no mans land. Getting into Haiti was not a problem, there were a couple of officers but they didn't get out their seats, they just waved. No mans land and the road into Haiti is only two feet about the level of the lake, which is rising so they have to add fill regulary. That means the road is in bad shape even for a Haitian raod. The Dominican Colonel said the gate to get back into the Dominican would be locked at 8:00 pm which gave us just under two hours to get to the facility the Church is using deliver the product we had and return. Well, we didn't make it. It was a little disconcerting to be sitting in no mans land in the dark hoping you did not have to spend the night. Everybody checked their guns (I was not with members of the church and two of the guys had guns). The Captain got out and went up to the gate to see if there were soldiers around, which it turned out there were and after he talked a bit they agreed to let us pass.

Dominican towns and roads can be confusing at night. There are no lights and the main road never goes straight through town. Fortunately, Dominicans don't go to bed early. Even after midnight there are people milling around a Colmado or the central square. We asked many people how to get to the Capital. After missing one turn and going into "town" on a dirt road we were told how to get back on the main road without reversing our path. Fortunately we had four wheel drive which was needed to get through the mud hole in town. Anyway, I got back to the hotel around 2:30 am this morning.

A word about organizations that don't normally provide that then try to provide aid (like the Celebrities that sing songs for a Haitian Relieve Fund). Without an organization in place the aid doesn't reach the people that need the help. Donations would be better used if given to an organization that had operations in the country before the disaster. At the airport in the Dominican there were thousands of tents and a few vehicles donated by well meaning organizations that shipped the product but had nobody in place to actually receive and distribute the product. The donations are for all practicle purposes waisted.

Finally, if you have not fallen into a deep sleep yet I have included a picture of me taken on Saturday just in case you are worried that I have gained weight or something. All you northern climate dwellers note--no coat or jacket.