Heading to Haiti

I will be heading to Gonaives, Haiti January 1 through January 13 to volunteer with Hands on Disaster Response (http://www.hodr.org/) to help locals recover from the devastating effects of 4 successive tropical storms and hurricanes. The city of Gonaives (pop 300,000) is awash with muck which streamed down from the hills which frame this fertile valley. The river actually flowed through town and although most of the water is now gone from the city center, what remains is an almost incomprehensible amount of mud.

Haiti has long been the poorest country in the western hemisphere and the recent storms seriously damaged an already weak infrastructure. Food insecurity issues may be compacted by the damaged harvest and generally poor living conditions.

I hope to edit this blog daily from Haiti.