Eyes Open Descending Into Haiti

Your first impression as the island of Haiti comes into view below the airliner, is ‘brown and dry.’ A few minutes later the 757 does a wide arc over Port au Prince harbor, and you descend in approach to the Port au Prince airport. You begin to see tents and squatter camps everywhere, thousands of them, far from Port au Prince. People have traveled over the broken landscape for miles to find someplace to squat, someplace to live. There are splashes of blue and tan and purple -- tarps dotting the landscape as far as the eye can see.
The plane descended over miles of destruction. I said “Holy shit” under my breath as I looked out the window.

The news can’t prepare you for the scale. I think the human mind has trouble getting around something like this. There was an older meaning of the word ‘sublime’: something so big you can’t encompass it in your mind, like, say, gazing out over the Grand Canyon. You see it. You can try to describe it. But it’s impossible to fully grasp the extent and scale. That’s how I felt flying in to Port au Prince. You have to see it to believe it, and even then you don’t believe it.

Joseph Teaches Brian Useful Creole Phrases

On the plane from Miami to Port au Prince, I sat next to a nice fellow named Joseph Reynaud. He’s Haitian and speaks english. He was wearing a straw hat, a Hawaiian shirt, and gold chains around his neck. He is exactly ten years older than me. (I know because he asked me to help fill out his customs and immigration forms. I think perhaps he couldn’t read or write. “My eyes,” he said. )

“I live Port au Prince with my wife and kids,” he said. “I have 19-year-old girlfriend in Miami.” He started teaching me how to pick up Haitian girls. He told me Bel fi means beautiful girl.
Mwen me on means I like you.
fam douce = sweet girl
Ou vle mange avec moi?  Do you want to eat with me?
Subtitute bwe for mange to say Do you want to drink with me?
On vle pa se jolie avec moi? Do you want to spend time with me?

Airline Food

I would have liked to take a picture of my AmericanAirlines “meal”. The whole package was like a toy – everything in miniature. A teeny tiny box of raisins, two little crackers wrapped in celophane, and a little miniature Toblerone chocolate bar. Ever since the airline took out that famous olive years ago, the airlines seem to be trying outdo each other in how little food they can give passengers and still pretend they are feeding you.

Leaving US Soil

I settled in to my seat, leaving Miami, traveling to Port au Prince, Haiti. The plane was filled with black people. The in-flight announcements were in French.

I wrote in my journal after I got settled on the flight from Miami to Port au Prince, Haiti, “Well, well, well. I’m on my way. I’m on my way to foreign country. A foreign country where there was an earthquake that killed 230,000 people. My, my, my… Crime, kidnapping, washing out of a bucket for two months. What am I getting myself into?”

"Now twitchy has become the new normal...."

There is a troika of articles in the New York Times that acknowledge the 3 month anniversary of the January 12 earthquake in Haiti.

Here we have a graffiti artist with the gift of sight.

In this article,  the author talks about a post-earthquake return to his home in Carrefour, after an absence of 24 years.

[I'll stop in Carrefour Friday after I arrive in Haiti, on my way to Leogane, to see what help I can offer to a friend of a friend. His name is Douglas, and his father is a community leader, pastor, and schoolmaster in Carrefour. They've had trouble getting any real help from NGOs.]

And here is an article about the gradual return to life -- far from normal, but life nonetheless. "...flashes of light in a landscape that reminds us of life’s brevity."

Laduceur Family Home Devastated in January Earthquake

This video shows work HODR is doing in Leogane, Haiti



Project Leogane Web Page

T-minus Three Days and Counting...

I leave Thursday afternoon for Haiti. I have a 3-1/2 page list of things I need to do before I leave -- I've been in 'frantic' mode for a couple of days. Yesterday I crossed off only five of seventeen tasks I had scheduled for Sunday. I haven't quite entered 'panic' yet. But I did wake with a start at 4:30 this morning, and literally said "Oh sh*t."

Sunday afternoon I met with Cristie, who will house-sit for me while I'm gone. If I entered my ideal criteria into the Housesitter Machine, it would spit out an exact copy of Cristie.  She's kind, responsible, well-recommended, available the exact dates I'm gone, likes cats, is a talented gardener, and likes to clean. And she's excited for the chance to stay here!

Yesterday was a very nice birthday-and-going-away party with my family. I got some cool gear, like a solar charger for my cell phone, an LED lantern, and a new North Face raincoat. Not to mention a come-along (ratcheted pully for moving heavy items) to be donated to the HODR base camp. I have a good family.

 

I expect I'll need the raincoat. In Haiti, it's now moving into the rainy season. From web sites and blogs, I've learned that it's wet in April/May, and "hot, hot, hot" in June. I suppose the heat will give me a chance to dry out.... The base manger in Leogane said it's a good idea to pack along rubber boots.

 

[photo: The growing pile in a corner of my living room -- items that I may take with me. Everything from chocolate to a shovel. The colored chalk is for tagging buildings that have been searched and/or inspected.]

 

In general, I'm very excited. I've been telling friends that this is Brian's Next Big Adventure. I'm a little overwhelmed with details -- finish the almost-complete kitchen remodel, make a list for the housesitter, return library books, get insurance squared away, automate bill-paying, do some fundraising, get the house ready for someone else to live here, notify everyone, stop the newspaper --  but there will come a point on Thursday when I leave for the airport, and there's nothing more I can do.

 

And when I get off the plane in Port au Prince, I'll be hit with heat and devastation and achingly poor people and a new job and the mysteries of a third world county. The feeling I have now is anticipation and excitement. I'm quite certain I'll be consumed with the experience -- how could you fail to be? And all these little details that overwhelm me now will fade and seem inconsequential.

 

Unless... I forget to buy travel insurance, let's say, and need to get airlifted to a hopital in Miami next month because I have a chunk of rebar pinning my fibula to my clavicle. Then that particular detail will rise up again as a pretty critical one that I really should have taken care of...

 

__________________________________________

 

Your thoughts on the blog, please. When I set up the format, I hit Google's 'Monetize' button -- Google inserts advertisements. I find it a bit distracting (no offense Google), so I might get rid of it. On the other hand, in the few days this has been up, I've already made a blistering one dollar thirty six! In other words, I guess it's no way to get rich... Let me know in the comments section if I should get rid of the ads.

Rebuilding Haitian Lives

I'm taking a risk to go off to Haiti. So I'm asking for help to offset some of my expenses -- travel, insurance, supplies, mortgage. I've never requested many donations from friends and family for runs, or climbs, or walks, or bicycle rides to raise money for charity.

But with this adventure, I'm going where I can do some good with my own two hands, to try and make a difference in the lives of some desperate people. So throw in a few bucks. Think of it as your pesonal donation toward "Rebuilding Haitian Lives."

If you donate, I will send personal email updates to you from the field. For the right price, I'll bring you a Panama hat! I'll provide a full accounting of my fundraising and expenses here on the blog.





Thank you!!! From me. And from the families in Haiti. :-)
Wish me luck!

If you don't have PayPal, I will gladly give you an address to send the checks!