Haiti

I recently returned from a mission trip to Haiti with friends from J-10 Church. It was quite an experience to say the least. We accomplished our primary goal by simply arriving in the Dominican Republic with over 800 pounds of relief supplies. Six of us from departed from Dulles on Monday afternoon with a dozen 50-pound shipping containers and another half dozen carry-on bags filled with baby formula, powdered Pedialyte, diapers, and various over-the-counter medications. For our personal needs we were each allowed to bring along one bag that would fit beneath the seat in front of us.

Needless to say, air travel isn't run with the precision of a fine Swiss watch, and our trip was no exception. Our flight out of Miami to Santo Domingo was delayed by a more than two hours. After loading our supplies and making the arduous trip to the Christian Dominican Medical Mission (CDMM) compound it was almost 2:30 a.m. While our original plan had been to head out for Haiti almost immediately, it was decided that we would wait another day.

After a few hours sleep we awoke to a great breakfast prepared by the wife of the Mission Director. After a leisurely morning around the compound we made our way to the Dominican coastline and had lunch at a seafood restaurant on the beach. It was a beautiful day and the beach was sparsely populated. It would have been the perfect spot to relax at after going to Haiti but I guess I'll have to take my guilty pleasures wherever I can get them.

We spent Tuesday night breaking down the containers we had brought with us and repacking them. They had been packed to even out the weight to keep them under 50 pounds but it made more sense to repack the items functionally. After a few hours sleep we loaded up the truck and prepared for an 8-hour drove the Port au Prince. Though we had planned to leave by two, the engine on the Land Rover was finally fired up at 4:00 a.m. While the engine turned over effortlessly, the clutch was completely inoperative. Fortunately, one of the guys that made the trip from Virginia is a full-time auto mechanic. He assessed the situation pretty quickly and found that a hydraulic line had a slow leak in it. He was able to add break fluid to the reservoir and we were soon on our way. We had to stop at regular intervals to add more break fluid but at least we were moving in the right direction.

I must say that I have a whole new respect for Land Rovers. My previous experience had been with a friend's low-end SUV which he was constantly having problems with. The Land Rover Defender we rode in certainly earned its keep. While the truck performed well, we were packed in pretty tightly. There were nine of us in the vehicle – the six of us from Virginia, the Mission Director and his son, and a local originally from Haiti who spoke Creole. I now know what the stress position of being required to sit in one position for hours on end feels like. My knees were killing me.

After about six hours of mostly unpaved roads, we finally had to pull into a garage and get the clutch situation sorted out. They said it would be a 15-minute fix but it took two hours. That was fine with me since I needed the sleep. It was almost impossible to sleep in the truck. After we got on the road again we drove a couple more hours to get to Port au Prince. Unfortunately, my camera was in my bag on top of the truck so I didn't get any pictures going in but I kept the camera with me on the return trip. Upon arriving at our destination in Port au Prince we met with some local community organizers to let them know what we had come to do, and with their assistance, to scout out a couple of sites for the field medical clinic we were going to run the next day.

Up until my trip to Haiti, the most poverty-stricken place I had ever seen was Cairo, Egypt. Much of what I had seen in Cairo I saw again in Haiti so I can't say anything shocked me, but the scale of the devastation was much wider than anything I'd seen before. There are hundreds of thousands of people living in the streets in Port au Prince – if you can call it living. The lucky few have tents. Most are under make-shift shelters built from sticks and tarps.

There's a reason Carnival Cruises don't take you to Haiti on vacation. It sucked before the earthquake. It sucks on a grander scale now. These people have almost nothing. You'd think they'd be bitter. But everywhere we went the people were so friendly and polite. More than anything else, it was the children that made my trip worthwhile for me. The kids were adorable. As you may recall, there was a picture going around the wire services depicting a rescue operation that was being done jointly by a team from New York and Fairfax, VA in which they pulled a kid out of a collapsed building eight days after the earthquake. In the picture a young boy was being handed up to his mother and the kid has his arms spread out wide and a great big smile on his face. I saw that same smile everywhere I went.

At one moment while walking down an alley way, a couple of little girls about five or six years old came out of their tent and in what was probably the only English they knew giggled and shouted "I love you. I love you." They were so cute.

While in Port au Prince, we stayed inside the secured compound of a cinder-block brick factory. We slept in tents on the rocky ground but the food was good and the people who lived within the compound couldn't have been nicer. In fact, I'd have to say that the best night of sleep I got during my whole trip was that night in Haiti.

After breakfast the next morning our community organizer friends met us at the compound and we piled back in the truck and drove through the deeply rutted dirt paths to where we would set up our clinic for the day. Our location for the day gives a whole new meaning to road-side assistance. We packed the truck on level ground, pulled out an awning mounted on the side, put up some addition tarps for shade and some ropes as a barrier and we were open for business.

The community organizers had already put the word out that we would be seeing mothers with small children and pregnant women, and a large crowd soon gathered. When they first lined up it was apparent that they would be standing out in the hot sun. They tried to move the line without disrupting it too much to get them into some shade, but as the line was moved some people lost their place in line and they were not happy about it. There was some screaming and yelling, shoving and jockeying for position, and at one point an out-right fist-fight broke out. This only served to underscore just how desperate these people are.

On the whole, the crowd was respectful of the rope barrier we set up. Some kids wanted a closer look, but kids will be kids. They saw we were giving our little patients some stuffed animals, lollipops, and kid-sized sunglasses – who wouldn't want that? While standing just inside the rope barrier with my hands at my side I looked down at a little girl who took my smile a queue that it would be all right to hold my hand. She didn't want to let go.

One of the women who came along from Virginia is a nurse and the Mission Director is a Nurse-Practitioner. Together they saw about two hundred patients in a four-hour period. When it came time to go, there was still a long line and the remaining mothers and babies left naturally disappointed. I'm pretty sure we could have stayed there all day and the line would never have subsided, but by now it's Thursday afternoon and we have to get back to the Dominican Republic for our Friday morning flight back home. After a quick lunch we headed back with a brief excursion through downtown Port au Prince. From the safety of a moving vehicle one can grow numb to the destruction. It's everywhere. And that's just what you can see from the roadway.

Getting into Haiti was a lot quicker than getting out. I believe the return trip took about nine and half hours. It was no less painful than the trip out. You just don't get used to sitting in one position for hours. Although he has a heart of gold, the Mission Director is one of the most aggressive drivers I've ever seen. He took chances that I never would have, but it had to be done. My hat's off to him. He got us in and out of Haiti safe and sound.

After a late dinner, my only shower on the trip, and a few more hours sleep we departed for the Santo Domingo airport on Friday morning. Our return flight was through San Juan, Puerto Rico so we got to go through customs in a place where we had to wait for a connecting flight anyhow. When we got back to Virginia it was just off the plane, into the car, and home.

On the whole, it was a very rewarding experience. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I only wish we'd have gotten to spend more time on the ground in Haiti. There are a lot of suffering people in this world. I feel it’s my responsibility to do what I can to help in some small way.

Although six of us got on the plane at Dulles, we each went with the support of our family, friends and co-workers. I’m blown away by your generosity. You very well may have helped saved lives. May God continue to bless you all, and if you don’t already know it, may to come to realize how truly blessed you really are.

Herb

Here’s a link to some photos.