Day 1

I met up with Dustin and Jenna this morning before we flew out to PaP from Miami. We arrived at the Port au Prince Airport around 11:00PM and took a shuttle bus a short distance to baggage claim. The original baggage claim area at the airport was damaged from the earthquake I'm guessing so they had a new one set up. It was extremely hot going through customs and in the baggage claim area. No AC just fans blowing around hot air in a crowded area full of people and luggage. All of my bags, thankfully, arrived safe and sound to baggage claim. After collecting our luggage we waited for the rest of group to arrive and then headed out to meet our driver. Its always the same story when leaving the PaP airport. Taxi drivers begging you to let them give you lift, trying to lie to you and say they are suppose to pick you up, or trying to help you carry your bags to your ride. No matter how many times you tell them to stop trying to help with your luggage they insist on helping anyway. "No mesi, souple no mesi" (No thank you, please no thank you) This doesn’t bother me as much as others, hey if they want to carry one of my bags go ahead just don’t run off with it, or expect me to give you any money after I repeatedly asked you to not carry my things. On the walk out of the airport along the chain link fence are kids begging for any money. While these kids are begging they don’t do it in timid fashion. It’s basically them screaming at you trying to get you to give them your attention. “Dread, Dread, ou remnen Ayiti?! Aye, Dread, Puss!!” That’s what one particular kid screamed at me the whole walk to met our driver Gaston.

After meeting Gaston we had the taxi drivers that insisted on helping us carry our bags despite our repeated attempts for them to not, load our bags in the van. It was a tight fit but everything made it in and we set off to run some errands in Port-au-Prince before we headed to Hinche. We extended our van rental, got gas, stopped at out drivers house, and ate at a restaurant in Petionville. Driving around Port-au-Prince you can still see the after math of the January quake. Ruins and half toppled buildings still littered the area. In Petionville we stopped and got gas across the street from where a three story hospital had collapsed. Tent cities were also another common sight. I recall seeing three or four of them as we drove around port. Evenually we left Port-au-Prince and made the long 3 hour drive to Hinche. After a long bumpy ride we arrived to out hotel location in Hinche and checked in for the night.


Earthquake clean up and Tent cities. Almost all the earthquake clean up is done by hand. Hundreds of thousands of people who lost their homes in the earthquake live in scattered tent cities throught Port-au-Prince.