We had spent the whole morning traveling in the heat and dust. We drove down long, bumpy crater filled roads. These roads haven’t seen a paving in years and the earthquake only made worse, Worst. There were areas where literally the hole in the road was so big, traffic had to drive all the way around almost on the “sidewalk” to get through. These obstacles make what should be a short trip in any metropolitan area a long and arduous journey. You really have to ask yourself…do I NEED to go to this place??? Before setting out. A 30 mile ride for example took us nearly 2 hours to complete. From the inside of the vehicle you could see that it was not a long distance. I can close my eyes and plot out all the landmarks to retrace my steps. But the traffic and the roads make it so difficult. On the way to our work site we saw many things. “Street kids” begging in the street. Marlene told us that even if she took them in; they would not stay. They have the street in them and they only know the ways of the streets. She says they are also very promiscuous. This was all explained at a stoplight. As we drove off, my eyes stayed on the children we had left behind. They could not be more than 10 years old. We were keeping track of the other two vehicles with us. One loaded with our valuable supplies the other with our precious cargo, our team mates. We stopped often to let a vehicle catch up with us or vice versa. There was a stop where our driver was getting antsy. He said, this is a bad area, I don’t want to be waiting here too long. We could get attacked. We need to get out of here. I looked around and honestly I couldn’t see the difference from one place to the other. We were up and down streets lined with market plaSome of the merchandise looked really familiar. Are they selling donated clothes? They weren’t new. Are those donated shoes? Food? All I could see was huge mounds of various categories of things lying on a bag or a sheet on the ground. Shirts, jeans, sneakers, you name it. None of if was new. There was an area selling just auto parts. Another area where you could get your engine power washed with filthy water and the service wasn’t for free. There was an overpass for what used to be a river going through a town. It was now dry and filled with garbage. On one side, they were burning the garbage. Paper or plastic? Both! Not a lovely smell at all. We come to what I like to call a beach road. It’s where you have land on one side and you can see the ocean in the distance behind houses and streets. The road goes in and out of towns but there is always the ocean winking at you on one side. I thought oh we must be getting close. The roads here were not as bad. We picked up some speed and were moving nicely through,taking in the sites. This didn’t last very long. There was a huge truck in the middle of the road, just sitting there. Typical Haiti. We go around the truck and there in the middle of the road is a dead man, face down under a sheet. Only his feet and part of his head were sticking out. We drove a little further and there was a large crowd at a bus stop all huddled together. A little farther and there was a tap tap bus in the middle of the road. Empty. No passengers. The top was almost completely dismantled and turned alllllllll the way left. We put two and two together and figured that the truck must have hit the tap tap and flung the poor man out to his death. And there was no ambulance in site. There would be none coming either.
WELCOME TO HAITI!
I thought to myself; this is worse than a black cat crossing in front of your car! This is a bad thing to witness on the day we arrive to Haiti. I couldn’t get the image out of my mind. But like many resilient Haitians we all had to move on because soon we would arrive at our final destination for the week. Like it or not this would be home for the next 5 days. We had a lot of work to do. First on the list was unloading those bags. By the time we arrived we were already spent. It was like an episode of survivor. Do we rest or set up camp? With only 5 days on our lease we had no time to spare. We met our Ohio Partners and we got to work setting up 4 tents.
From that moment all of our bodies were about to embark on a 5 day assault. I can honestly say I have never worked so hard in all my life. The “work” began the moment the gate closed behind us and didn’t stop until we got on that plane and arrived back home. The work, the loving, and the serving the helping the aiding…we did all of it. This trip trumped all others because we were among the people. We didnt show up, set up shop and leave on a daily basis to other towns. Though this type of aid brings much needed supplies, medical help and relief. We set up shop and we stayed. We stayed with the people, we ate amongst the people, we saw what they were going through up close. For some maybe too close. For others we can’t seem to get it out of our systems. The vast disparity between where we lived in Haiti for a week and no matter where we live in the United States is difficult to comprehend. It wakes up a part of your being that rarely gets stirred and leaves you stuck between two worlds.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Cover me...I'm going in
5, 4, 3 ,2, 1….Its Show time! Got no sleep. My daughters are fast asleep in their beds. My in-laws are in our bed. We are on the floor on an air mattress. Looking at 2 hours of sleep and then off to the airport. I barely slept. We got up and got ourselves ready. At the very last minute I couldn’t find two important things. My prescription Eye GLASSES and my pillow!!! We searched High and low at 4 in the morning…we even got my mother-in-law up to see if she had any clue but to no avail. Gotta call it…okay. Leave it. So out we go, TO HAITI, with my old broken glasses. The ones with one arm. Great! I am not going to let this get to me. We have way too much to accomplish in this one day. Of course we get to the airport and everyone is like…awwww your glasses.
We get to the airport 3 hours early and it seems we didn’t have enough time. The place is packed with travelers, other groups and the lovely customer service of JFK airport. We have to do a self check in first….THEN…we can check luggage…all twenty-eight bags! God please be with us. All of us are lined up, looking dapper with our nice blue Hope Worldwide Shirts, texting each other in the line, looking for updates and holes in this faulty system. We see a group of Asian volunteers with bright RED shirts that say “Jesus loves you” in Creole. Jezi Remin ou. They are all checking in together. Some quick thinking and fast talking and we are checking in together as well. We get an agent who seemed pretty nervous about having to check in 2 groups in a row. We were so meticulous about making sure each bag weighed exactly 50lbs. We even used inactive counters to re-weigh our luggage and negotiate some quick switch-a-roo to make them exact. The agent was so anxious about getting us on the plane on time he actually stood on the scale with the luggage. Every piece of luggage was coming in at 240lbs, 230lb…so we figured he was about 180 or so. We got a free pass on the luggage and God just ushered us on through. From there we had to run to our gate with only moments to spare. When we got to our gate the first thing we hear is an announcement looking for volunteers to give up their spots!!! And they were looking for 14 volunteers. $400 cash per person and a night in a hotel. A tempting offer any other day. But we had no time to spare. Did I mention we were a group of 14 by the way?! Oh no you don’t Satan! For those of us still waiting to get on, I urged everyone to conger up the NY in them and get pushy and make our way to the front of the line. We all got through and on the plane.
We have an uneventful flight and make it to Haiti. It had only been 5 months to the day that I had been in Haiti but 15 years since I had flown into the Toussaint L’overture airport in Port-au-prince. I had no idea what to expect. I was tipped off by good friend Andy on what the possibilities were but I wasn’t sure. We get off the plane and walk through a gate not the tarmac…hmmm…that’s new. Then there is a small local village band playing at the end of ….an escalator! Whoa…that’s new too! I was beaming with pride. I looked to my husband and said…Welcome to my country. Welcome to Haiti. We look down the escalator and there is an officially badged man with Katty Velez on a piece of paper. I didn’t see it, someone pointed it out to me. I know at that moment we all felt so relieved. We were off to such a great start. We make it outside and there is a nice bus waiting to take us to “baggage claim”. The gentleman escorts us through the next phase of getting our luggage and making our way to our vehicles.
We get off the non-air conditioned bus and we walk into what can only be described as a convection oven. It was a giant ware house type structure. Large and spacious. There were fans blowing everywhere but it was hot as ________. (You fill in the blank). It was the hottest place I have ever been to. I have NEVER sweat before like I did that moment. The sweat was dripping from my temples, down my face, pooling under my chin and then dripping on whoever and whatever…everyone was. This was the BAGGAGE CLAIM. So standing still you are sweating this bad. Now you want me to go and find 28 pieces of luggage at 50lbs each? Girls were not exempt. We were all at that turnstile pulling, dragging, swinging and grabbing luggage. We had to count the luggage every so often to know how many more we were looking for. How many!? 15. okay 13 more? Ugh… How many?! 20 okay…eight more….How many?! 23…5 more all the way to none more. Wouldn’t you know it…we found every piece of luggage in this luggage hell. That nervous agent didn’t do so bad after all.
Our dear Hostesses Marlene Berthelot and Pastor Jessie Pierre were both there to meet us. It would be our first times meeting face to face.
We get to our hired vehicles and there is no truck. We were expecting a big truck to take us and our luggage in one shot. INSTEAD, we had 2 vehicles. We had to hire a man on the spot to take the rest of us who didn’t fit. 3 vehicles, more than a ton of baggage, and 18ppl. If you ever saw an episode of the twilight zone (new or old version)…that very moment we were driving away would be the portal to the twilight zone. We were all in la la land. Snapping pictures. Ooing and aaaaing at everything…group pictures galore…We were on a head on collision course with something I dare say would change our lives forever. 5 days in Gressier, Haiti.
We get to the airport 3 hours early and it seems we didn’t have enough time. The place is packed with travelers, other groups and the lovely customer service of JFK airport. We have to do a self check in first….THEN…we can check luggage…all twenty-eight bags! God please be with us. All of us are lined up, looking dapper with our nice blue Hope Worldwide Shirts, texting each other in the line, looking for updates and holes in this faulty system. We see a group of Asian volunteers with bright RED shirts that say “Jesus loves you” in Creole. Jezi Remin ou. They are all checking in together. Some quick thinking and fast talking and we are checking in together as well. We get an agent who seemed pretty nervous about having to check in 2 groups in a row. We were so meticulous about making sure each bag weighed exactly 50lbs. We even used inactive counters to re-weigh our luggage and negotiate some quick switch-a-roo to make them exact. The agent was so anxious about getting us on the plane on time he actually stood on the scale with the luggage. Every piece of luggage was coming in at 240lbs, 230lb…so we figured he was about 180 or so. We got a free pass on the luggage and God just ushered us on through. From there we had to run to our gate with only moments to spare. When we got to our gate the first thing we hear is an announcement looking for volunteers to give up their spots!!! And they were looking for 14 volunteers. $400 cash per person and a night in a hotel. A tempting offer any other day. But we had no time to spare. Did I mention we were a group of 14 by the way?! Oh no you don’t Satan! For those of us still waiting to get on, I urged everyone to conger up the NY in them and get pushy and make our way to the front of the line. We all got through and on the plane.
We have an uneventful flight and make it to Haiti. It had only been 5 months to the day that I had been in Haiti but 15 years since I had flown into the Toussaint L’overture airport in Port-au-prince. I had no idea what to expect. I was tipped off by good friend Andy on what the possibilities were but I wasn’t sure. We get off the plane and walk through a gate not the tarmac…hmmm…that’s new. Then there is a small local village band playing at the end of ….an escalator! Whoa…that’s new too! I was beaming with pride. I looked to my husband and said…Welcome to my country. Welcome to Haiti. We look down the escalator and there is an officially badged man with Katty Velez on a piece of paper. I didn’t see it, someone pointed it out to me. I know at that moment we all felt so relieved. We were off to such a great start. We make it outside and there is a nice bus waiting to take us to “baggage claim”. The gentleman escorts us through the next phase of getting our luggage and making our way to our vehicles.
We get off the non-air conditioned bus and we walk into what can only be described as a convection oven. It was a giant ware house type structure. Large and spacious. There were fans blowing everywhere but it was hot as ________. (You fill in the blank). It was the hottest place I have ever been to. I have NEVER sweat before like I did that moment. The sweat was dripping from my temples, down my face, pooling under my chin and then dripping on whoever and whatever…everyone was. This was the BAGGAGE CLAIM. So standing still you are sweating this bad. Now you want me to go and find 28 pieces of luggage at 50lbs each? Girls were not exempt. We were all at that turnstile pulling, dragging, swinging and grabbing luggage. We had to count the luggage every so often to know how many more we were looking for. How many!? 15. okay 13 more? Ugh… How many?! 20 okay…eight more….How many?! 23…5 more all the way to none more. Wouldn’t you know it…we found every piece of luggage in this luggage hell. That nervous agent didn’t do so bad after all.
Our dear Hostesses Marlene Berthelot and Pastor Jessie Pierre were both there to meet us. It would be our first times meeting face to face.
We get to our hired vehicles and there is no truck. We were expecting a big truck to take us and our luggage in one shot. INSTEAD, we had 2 vehicles. We had to hire a man on the spot to take the rest of us who didn’t fit. 3 vehicles, more than a ton of baggage, and 18ppl. If you ever saw an episode of the twilight zone (new or old version)…that very moment we were driving away would be the portal to the twilight zone. We were all in la la land. Snapping pictures. Ooing and aaaaing at everything…group pictures galore…We were on a head on collision course with something I dare say would change our lives forever. 5 days in Gressier, Haiti.
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