Haiti bound

24 hours ago I was cramming forks, spoons, a tent, soccer jerseys, sundry shoes, art supplies, as well as juggling gear and our personal stuff, (read shirts and shorts) into our 6 allowed bags. Oh , also my son’s old laptop that I snagged in a last minute thought.

Returning is bittersweet. Great to see familiar faces, places, the balck sugar cane, the tire repair shops, the rebar reclamation shops, the wonder4ful faces everywhere.

Yet harder to see how little has been accomplished at first glance. I thought the National Palace had been razed to make way for the new improved version, but her crumbling figure still looms over the palace lawn. The roads oot of Port au Prince were so much worse than I remember them from before. Huge craters filled with rain water challenge every driver to drive through. A pickup loaded with cement bags sits in the middle of one lake, tires spinning, inches of progress as busses, trucks, bikes and vans slalom, past his obstacle. We had to retrace our path at one point for a van had driven into a hole that would not release its latest victim.

And the rubble continues to dominate the landscape. Seeming little has been moved, though I could see some steps have been taken. One thing I noticed is that in several places, the rubble is being taken over by vines and vegetation. That’s one way to make it go away , but hopefully it will not become the new landscape.

Landing at the airport in PAP was quite an adventure. The arrival terminal is a temporary setup in what appeared to be a large metal shed, tin roofed, bare bones. It had two luggage carousels that swirled the mountain of bags of every sort around. Ours made it, no problem. We had carried a tent here for a friend of ours family who is in a tent city called Aviation. His sister was to meet us at the airport As we came out of the terminal with our bags on a cart, there was a throng of people, many holding signs, I scanned them, looking for something familiar but was distracted when we were found by the two young men sent to retrieve us. It was difficult, many were offering their help, but we really only needed one or two. I deputized one as my man, and off we went through the gates into the waiting crowd outside, Thankfully I had a phone number for out tent contact, and she was found quickly. What a happy face when she received the heavy bag, full of the tent plus an assortment of clothes that we had added to bring the bag up to the 50 pound allowance.