Safe Arrival to an Emerging Haiti

Its amazing how much hassle it is flying these days.  Besides the indignities of undressing and re-dressing at security, trying not to lose the pants halfway through, a choice of a pat-down or a full-body scan, marginal food, too few bin compartments in the planes, flying is for the birds!  Although it transports you almost magically from the depth of winter's darkness to bright tropical heat and humidity, it definitely is a grind.  We flew down with Haiti Arise's founders, Marc and Lisa Honorat and their 4 kids, who actually were very well behaved, helping each other and pulling their own suitcases throughout long terminals.


Cathy & I were still under the weather but did fine too,  though a day and a half of airports, waiting around and sitting stuffed into too-small seats, knees crushed and hunch-over with no food, a quick drink and no entertainment for hours at a time is enough for anyone.   We arrived safely in Port Au Prince midday Saturday and after a melee at the baggage claim to find the requisite bags, we made it out into bright Caribbean sun and 33 degrees Celsius.

Perhaps it was sitting 2 1/2 hours stretched out in the sweat box of the rear of the mini-pickup in the blazing sun, but call me crazy, Haiti has definitely improved since my visit last January, the anniversary of the January 12, 2010 earthquake that devastated the city.  No longer visible, except back from the highway if you really looked,  were the broken and crumpled buildings laying where they fell, nor the mounds of cracked cinder blocks and mountains of garbage blowing everywhere.  In its place was a bustling port city as people shopped at market and sidewalk stalls, strolled the sidewalks, washed cars, gathered water and the many other activities of a developing tropical city.  If you looked really closely you could still see areas of destruction, but added rows of cement blocks evened off broken walls, concrete roofs and patios and many coats of new paint definitely spruced up the city.  Even the garbage was piled into neat heaps, picked up and moved to burning piles and the sidewalks swept clean.

The only telltale sign of the quake's destruction were the numerous refuge camps in every park and open field in the region.  These have replaced the emergency tent camps, adding miscellaneous boards, pieces of tin for roofs and flimsy doors wired to small openings to solidify the homes and haphazard alleyways running among the camps still housing millions of still homeless people.  Although there is still a long ways to go, it was nice seeing improvement.