April 22, 2010

Happy Earth Day and greetings from Haiti. I arrived here safe and sound yesterday. My flights went well with no issues. I even met up with the 4 individuals with the ACCP that were coming to visit the project. The ACCP is a member organization that helps the development of contribution professionals. The people that came down here represent firms such as Sun Country, Expedia and Johnson and Johnson.

Flying into PAP I was able to see the level of destruction from the plane. Its one thing to see it on TV but another to see it for your own eyes.

Upon arriving we were shuttled to the warehouse where immigration, luggage and customs were. The airport building itself was damaged in the earthquake and has not yet been fixed. The first thing I noticed that was different (aside from not going in to the airport) was the presence of military helicopters, large tents and supplies. The warehouse was hot and crowded, but not as chaotic as I thought it would be. After gathering my luggage we stepped outside the door, where choas ensued. Outside the PAP airport was chaotic last time I was there so I was prepared for it, but it was more chaotic than before the earthquake. There were a lot of people there to "help" you. They want to carry your bags, but then get paid for it and they don't ask they just try to take them from you. I was prepared for it but they pretty much left our small group alone. We met up with Andrew and our drivers and started our journey to Leogane. The drive here, was almost as crazy as I remember the drive to Gonaives. No lanes, passing whenever, speed up, then slow down (quickly) then swerve...repeat. Mind you there are no seatbelts or traffic signs and very few street signs! I have no idea how people know where they are around here.

We arrived here at base at dinner. We ate dinner, had the evening meeting, got a tour of the facility and got sleeping quarters setup. The evening meetings are always fun. I enjoy hearing about what everyone did during the day. Yesterday there were teams out removing rubble from collapsed houses, a structural engineering team that has been traveling out to area schools to inspect them, a team of folks that serve as volunteers at the hospital, a crew that is working on beautification of the base, a welding/tool repair team, an architecture team that is designing schools and school furniture and even a two person crew that is working on "greening" up our operation by getting composting setup and eventually rolling that out into the community. I am sure I am forgetting some of the other work that is being done. For the most part I just hung out and talked with people for about another hour and then headed off to sleep. After getting up at 3:45 that morning I was tired.

Oh did I mention it is HOT here and my friends the mosquitos are here?

I am looking to digging in tomorrow and getting stuff figured out. I will update again soon!