T-5: Back to Haiti

It was back to Haiti for me today.  The flight took me from Tampa to Miami and then on to Port-au-Prince in the afternoon.  I will be spending the next two weeks here in Haiti, mainly working to host a construction team.

The Port-au-Prince airport continues to get up and running.  This was the first time I flew into Port-au-Prince on a regular airline since the earthquake.  From the airside of the terminal you could clearly see the damage to the main building.  There are a lot of big cracks.  Seems wise not to use it.

So we get off the airplane, make our way up the airbridge and then down the escalator where we would usually go through to customs.  But instead they had buses waiting that took us over to the American Airlines Cargo hangar, just 3-400 yards away.  We got off the buses and inside they had immigration set up.  Only three lanes open, but it actually went pretty quick.  Then the disorder.  The bags came on the trucks but there is no belt.  They  brought them in by hand and stacked them for people to sort through.  As you can see from the picture everyone was crowding toward the front and the guys had no room to bring the bags out.  I did eventually get reunited with my bag.

Once out side there were tons of people out on the road.  Pesial had parked our truck not too far away.  We had to walk through the puddles, along the road, traffic right next to us.  Lots of people just hanging around the airport.  Things do continue to change around the city.  The tent cities right near the airport have grown larger.  Locals say it is because more tents have been donated so more people are using them.  As we drove out Route Neuf we saw a tent city that has grown significantly in two weeks.  It is right up against the hills in the picture, next to the garbage dumps north of the city.  Not the place I would choose to put my tent.  One wonders where they get water.

Everything at the house is fine.  I will try and update the blog daily for the next bit so you can get a picture of what is takes to prep for a team and what the experience might be like if you come on the team over the next few months.  Thanks for continuing to remember to pray for the family back in Florida.  Heather, Ethan, Emma, Elijah and baby are doing well.