Saturday, February 27, 2010

Rob, Phil, and TJ's update

Map of Haiti with Port-au-Prince shownImage via Wikipedia

From Rob, Phil, and TJ (in Haiti)

...woke up at 6 to get to jfk and got through security with no problem...we enjoyed mcdonalds breakfast, phill ordered the wrong thing: mcgrittle with only sausage no egg big mistake...orange juice is a hit but no chocolate syrup :(

....flight was good, little turbulent at the end, we saw the USS Comfort! got off the plane, last...and was crowded by all the Haitians from planes, about 200 ppl, saw the 82nd at the airport, was really cool...

went down the stairs to lobby that it had many cracked windows and was greeted by a band of Haitians with an accordion, guitar, macros, a box, and a bongo. got on a bus further down to luggage pick up, biggest [mess] ever, no baggage claim belt, just a pile of bags in crowed hot huge room,

oh ya and Phil ripped his customs claim form in half, the Haiti customs woman was not happy...right away met Abner who also is volunteering, noticed TJ's HODR shirt.

Then we walked outside, we were in a gated area where many Haitians men were trying to get money from ppl and offer rides, found a guy with paper that had our names on it, singled to him we were the ppl, and he got our bags, we then made our way through crazy crowd and were followed by about a dozen guys talking to us about how they can drive us or carry bags. They were repeatedly saying "good service", eventually got in the back of a blazer and tried to pull out, but guys surrounded the truck, everyone screaming at each other: "good service" and "we share". They all wanted money, our guy drove away as fast as possible but only could go about 10mph and got rid of about half, got up to about 30mph where two guys jumped onto the truck hanging onto the front windows!

While us three are in the back and two guys in front driving, drove about 400 meters trying to get him off the car, and swirving traffic and other debris in the road, finally we threw him a twenty dollar bill and he jumped off.

We made the way through the city and through traffic with no road signs or lanes. 1 hour drive people running in front and cars basically hitting each other everywhere.

Stuff on fire everywhere--people just burning everything. Recycle club would not be happy. Wild goats , pigs, dogs and cows and chickens just walk around everywhere. Got to Leogane and got to our camp. Giant castle like fort with high walls, gated windows and such.

We had beans and rice and chicken for dinner. Camp right near canadian army camp. Hatian guards on at all times, eathquake plan in effect. TSunami warning? Till tomorrow- Rob , TJ, Phil

P.S. little Haitian kid played with giant knife on dirt pile while creepy smile on his face. This is why we have guards.


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