Earthquake scar

Souvenir shop

People in tap-tap

How to carry a watermelon

Meat shop

Message of hope

Colourful bus

Few pictures

The following are pictures taken of people of Port-au-Prince daily life. Being deployed in the Nort-East of the country within the next few days, I should be able to see another side of Haiti, more rural, closer to the people.

Haitian people

Everyday, while going through the city on those roads full of garbage and other debris, dust, smoke and also the heat, I'm wondering how these people can keep themselves so clean. It is true for most of the people, they keep themselves neat at all time and it is even more true for anyone wearing a uniform. Their shirts are spotless and ironed, so is their pants. The attention Haitian people put in the appearance is just incredible considering their surroundings. It may be related to the pride we can see in these people. They are the descendants of Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines and in their eyes you see that they are proud of their history and this is justified. Being the first slave nation to stand up to the colons and getting its independence (at an extremely high cost) is not just another page in a history book, it's History. Sadly, the subsequent price they had to pay for that infamy would keep the country in the misery since the beginning of its independence. Add some recurring natural disasters and few dictators on top of that and you have a nation who tries to stand by itself but is always too weak to do so. But still, despite all that the Haitian people walk with their heads up and pride in their eyes. I'm impressed.

First driving experience

Today we passed a driving test to ensure we were able to drive safely a UN 4X4 vehicle. Beside the fact that we had to wait hours prior to take the test everything went ok. We basically spent the whole day for a test that would have taken minutes to complete under normal conditions in Canada. However, the system in place allows you to pass the road test but also to walk out with your UN driver's licence in hand since they are directly printed on plastic card. Our instructor, Florence is from Namibia; She firmly ensured everyone was completing the test as required prior to grant the licence but at the same time she had a great sense of humour. The best part of it was on the road. You see trucks, cars, motorcycles, tap-tap (kind of taxi trucks) from all over the place passing you at high rate of speed (60 kms/hr) believe me in these conditions 60 kms/hr seem like 130 kms/hrs at home. At the same time you have to watch for the pedestrians who can cross the road anywhere and at the last moment, the stray dogs, kids and of course all the potholes everywhere. Just with the driving test I'm exhausted, I can't even imagine doing this everyday for a long period of time.

Traffic jam

Inside the bus

First impressions

My first impressions from PAP can't be really accurate since we are only going from the hotel to a base or from base to base by UN bus only while on duty and after duty we were strongly suggested not to walk outside; even in group it is not safe to do so. I'm adventurous but not reckless therefore I'll follow the advice. I could not see any real scars of the earthquake yet but garbage yes, lots of it all along the road. And also along the road among garbage and open sewers, many people with small stands selling bread, fruits, bottles of water, shoes...well pretty much anything. As soon as we are slowing down in traffic, many people approach the UN vehicles to propose things to sell or ask for money. The rule here is to drive with all windows rolled up or you expose yourself to trouble. Our UN bus has some kind of wire mesh on all windows including the windshield, it's makes me feel like a transfer of prisoners when we are on the road ;-) I added pictures of the bus in my next post. I hope to have the opportunity to work somewhere which will allow me to have contact with the population and get a better idea of their daily life. We should be getting our posting next week so we'll see.

Bathroom and shower

Corridor between containers...I mean rooms ;-)

My room 2

My room

The arrival

As soon as we past the door of the aircraft, we felt the heat and the humidity. As for the smell, it was not as bad as expected from what I was told by some people but I'm pretty sure in the city that will be another story. After all the formalities at the customs were taken care of, we were taken to our hotel. This hotel is interesting because it is made our containers stalked on each other. However, the room has a bed, a toilet, a shower, a dresser, a TV and even access to the Internet. The food is quite good at the restaurant and we were told that it is safe to eat even the salads. After 2 days no one has been sick so it is a good sign. My next post will be pictures of the room. As for work, so far we are not doing much beside administration. To only open a bank account here it took all day to process our group. The pace here is really slower to what we are used to. I believe it will take few days for most of us to adjust to that pace...but after a year here it might take way longer to get back to the Canadian one.

Port-Au-Prince (PAP) airport

Departure

Three weeks have past since the training began. All the police intervention tools and policies were reviewed to ensure all members of the contingent, which is made from different police forces, are on the same page. Then, we had a huge amount of information provided to us by people who actually been recently to Haiti themselves to get the most accurate picture possible of the situation there. Sunday 19th in the morning was the farewell to the family, a quick sleep in Montreal airport and departure the next day at 10:30am. We arrived in PAP (Port-Au-Prince) at approximately 3:00pm and were nicely greeted by members of the previous contingent.

Pre-deployment

There I am, in Ottawa slowly getting ready to go. A huge amount of information to process during the course as well as a ton of equipment. "Hey I said I want to go there for a year not to move there permanently" ;-) We are 28 guys with the same common goal; try to make someone's life better. At the end of the mission it will be interesting to see how many of us will consider to have successfully achieve that goal. I'll try to post pictures and comments on a regular basis but since I have no idea where I will be posted I don't know if I will have an Internet connection...I don't even know if I will have electricity. If I'm unable to post regularly new updates, I will try to do my daily/weekly reports on my computer and then post it as soon as I will have access to an Internet connection along with some pictures. I wish you a pleasant trip in Haiti through that blog and don't hesitate to make a comment or ask a question. Pj