On the Haiti Transition

I left Papua New Guinea without having the time or inclination to contemplate where I was moving to.  I focused on my holiday to visit Angkor Wat and enjoying some solitary indulgence in a fancy resort in Khao Lak.  I then flew to my parents' home in Vegas (via an Italian/Bavarian themed hotel in Seoul which is reason alone to visit Korea) to take care of business, run errands, remind my parents and Argus-the-dog of my existence, and take advantage of unemployment to wake up daily at 4:30 to catch all the World Cup matches that I could.  

Getting information on post-earthquake Haiti was difficult.  My attitude, for better or worse, was that whatever awaited me, I would have to deal with when I arrived, so I didn't let the massive void in my knowledge bother me too much.  I couldn’t tell if my lack of excitement was because I knew so little of where I was headed or I was becoming blasé about adventures.  Or both?  It worried me a little.

I got on a red eye flight to Miami and then boarded the plane to Port-au-Prince along with fellow passengers who I divided into five categories:

• 1.     Haitian business people
• 2.     Missionaries
• 3.     NGO workers
• 4.     Contractors and military folk
• 5.     Very young missionaries on summer break

The flight was an hour and 40 minutes, which is shorter than most Virginia residents’ commute into DC.  That and the fact that Haiti is on US central time are a bit disconcerting, especially compared to PNG which, takes three days to get to and is several time zones from the US.

As we approached the island, I saw reefs, cliffs diving into the sea, mountains, lowlands, and then dwellings: gray cinderblock homes clustered on the mountainsides and spilling down to the sea.  As we descended towards the airport, I started seeing different sorts of structures.  It was the blue tarps that made me realize that I was seeing a displaced persons’ camp from 5,000 ft.  Then my eyes were drawn to the rows upon rows of neatly pitched identical tents of UN’s Camp Charlie. 

That’s when it hit me that I was arriving in Haiti. I got excited.