Thursday, January 19, 2012

MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2012

Santiago, Dominican Republic.
Home sweet home for a night...apparently folks in the DR travel in large groups...Each of our rooms had three beds.
...and included breakfast.
The view of downtown Santiago from our balcony...
Hotel, casino and the bus that would take us to Haiti.
Lots of luggage loaded through a window.
Lots of luggage loaded more casually in Pere Bruno's truck.
Our first view of the border.  We arrived early and waited almost 90 minutes for Pere Bruno to come take us across the border. Evidently, you don't even think about trying this on your own.  Now that I've done it, I endorse this method. That said, at some point a pit stop was needed and the building that provided relief on other trips was locked this day.  Stan and I went on a scouting mission and a Haitian man quickly recognized our dilemma.  He proposed a solution in perfect english..."Pee pee" he said holding open a chain link fence and pointing us behind a building.  Oh well, when in Rome...He expected a tip for his good sumaritanism and was duly rewarded.
Several people tried to describe the border crossing to me and none really succeeded.  Now I know why. Afterwards, we agreed that we all lacked sufficient vocabulary to describe the crowds, the trash, the mud, the tents, the busses, the trucks, the scooters, etc.  It was complete chaos.  It was an "open" border day which multiplied the craziness by a factor of ten...John Connolly called it "dramatic" and I likened it to a scene out of a movie. 
The back of Pere Bruno's flat bed truck was the perfect spot to take it all in...






I'm not entirely sure why all these people were there or what they were doing...




The UN is everywhere in Haiti and it's abundantly unclear why or what they are meant to be doing...this was my first UN sighting.  As my friend Rob Flikeid told me in an text, stay away from the guys in the blue helmets (a UN trademark) they are the first to get it!
On the way in I called Quanaminthe a "wild west town" on the way out it seemed rather tame...
A little way into our road trip to Terrier Rouge, it started to rain.  Asiaha was clever enough to bring a poncho while the rest of us sought shelter under a hastily installed tarp.


John toughed it out. He got wet.  Really, really wet.
This is Tony, Jim and my dorm room at the St. Barthelemy school...power, water, a great ceiling fan and...drum roll, please...WiFi.  Hardly roughing it!
Where we ate each day in one of the school's kitchens.
Me and Asiaha and some of the school kids...
John and some students...some happier to see the camera than others...
One of many delicious meals we were served. If you don't like rice, beans and hot sauce, you will have a long week.  However, if you do, with a side of beef, pork, chicken and maybe even goat, you will eat well.  I enjoyed all of the food save the oatmeal which I never liked anyway...


Somewhere during the week I was reminded that I like cold drinks. I didn't miss soft drinks, I missed COLD drinks.  On one day, our lunch included lemonade with ice in it. It was made from frozen packets of purified water and on a hot Haitian day is was perfect.  On another day I took a Coke left over from the night before's beer and soft drink happy hour and put it in the freezer in the kitchen. I pulled it out at lunch and everybody who wanted some got a few fingers worth of cold Coca-Cola...it disappeared rather quickly.


Cold. Cold is good.
There is an opening ceremony each day at school complete with songs, prayers and raising the flag while the school band played.
School attendance was off a bit on the days leading up to the anniversary of the big earthquake. Pere Bruno told us over breakfast that a local woman had taken to the radio and urged everyone to fast for three days prior to the anniversary and to keep their kids out of school lest some curse or some other evil thing befall them...She clearly had an impact as many children were absent...Pere Bruno was not amused.
One of the three dogs that guard the school compound at night. The other two are kept up during the day and out at night. I made friends with all three. I'm guessing they know a "dog person" when they smell one...

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