Wow! After the Cuban travel fiasco I actually flew on an international flight that wasn’t a total horror show. Arrived, boarded, flew and landed on time. The Port-Au-Prince (PAP) airport was chaotic but very civilized compared to Kinshasa. Maybe there is hope for Haiti.
Despite the chaos and the disorganization I made it through immigration and customs and met my contacts. We inched our way out of the airport. Upon leaving the immediate airport it was apparent that all is not well in Haiti after the earthquake. A lot of people are still living in tents. The tents are oftentimes just tarps that have the USAID logo on them. The are side by side on any available spot of land. I can’t imagine what life is like in that condition with no space, no furniture and no sanitation.
Here is a photo of a tent encampment taken from the road.
We didn’t spend time in PAP or travel around to see the devastation. However, it was apparent that there is a lot of work to do going on two years after the earthquake. The roads are in horrible condition, there remains a lot of rubble and there is a lot of dust.
We traveled up to the location where the Williamson orphanage is located. Because we were staying outside PAP we had rooms at the Kaliko beach resort on the ocean. The resort was nice. It is clean and save but there are few amenities.
After getting checked in we went up to the Williamson orphanage. It was amazing to tour the place, see the children and observe what has been accomplished. When I was last in Haiti the orphanage was still under construction. Now it is up and operating and the orphans from PAP have been moved there. I recognized a lot of them. One in particular is my little friend Enok. He is an abandoned child who got pulled from the junk heap of humanity and is now a lively, smiling little boy who runs around and has a lot of friends.
This is the same kid that is at the top of my blog. At that time he couldn’t walk, talk and was malnourished. Now he is a very normal little boy.
We toured the facility and then went back to the resort for some food and rest. It was a long but satisfying day.