Night shift...foot patrol

Yesterday night at 20:00 the national police initiated a foot patrol. Apparently the head of the police station in Ouanaminthe wants to have that kind of patrol at least once a week in order to be seen by the population and to conduct throughout checks on motorized vehicles. Since we live on the border with the Dominican Republic, weapons, drugs and other illegal goods are being trafficked in that zone. We were 2 UNPOLs on shift, since I needed the exercise I decided to go with the foot patrol while my partner followed us with the UN vehicle. For these patrols we always have a PNH (Police National de Haiti)vehicle, a UN police vehicle as well an UN army vehicle to ensure our protection in case things would go out of control. The commissaire (the head of the police station) was among his men and walked the whole 2 hours patrol with us. I had the opportunity to talk to him regarding his needs and expectations for his police station and from our conversation I learned that the Ouanaminthe police station currently has 30 men available but in order to be able to run the police station a minimum of 50 men is required. Also a motorbike squad is required if they want to be able to catch traffickers who usually use motorbikes and go through paths in which a car is not able to compete. Another greatly needed tool for drug detection is a dog squad. The commissaire has requested these long ago and still keep on sending requests but so far all of them were fruitless. I told him I would add his comments to my report and maybe at one point something will happen. The commissaire also told me that he received flashlights for his men a while ago which is a needed tool especially in the region where streets lights are luxury the problem he never got the batteries for them. The same thing goes with electricity for the police station. In case of electricity shortage which is a daily issue here, the PNH have a generator but unfortunately not the budget to buy gas. I suggested solar panels as a alternative to which the commissaire replied the solar panels are already on the roof but the batteries they are suppose to be charging are dead. When I look at the staff shortage and the equipment the PNH are working here I can only admire them to be able to provide the service they are still able to provide. Anyway, back to the foot patrol. The PNH members walk in a fennel pattern this way if someone tries to go through the first officers without being checked the officers in the back close to their patrol vehicle are usually able to stop them and check them out. And to what I've seen yesterday, it works. We went through streets which are rather dirt roads with garbage all along the way and the smell that goes with it. People who live in shacks made of plywood boards and rusty metal roof looked at us and even seemed to enjoy the "parade". I have seen little kids naked in these shacks looking at us with their big eyes opened wide and seeing them growing in that misery I could not stop thinking how lucky my kids are to be growing in a country like Canada in a real house, with plenty of nutritious food and schools to go to. I brought candies from Canada that I tried to give discreetly to the ones close to me. Giving something here could potentially become a nightmare for the one who receive the good so it should be done carefully. Often, older kids are watching and if you give something to a younger one, it is common to see a young kid being beaten for what he just received. So he got robbed and beaten on top of that, his lucky day turns out to be a nightmare. At one point we entered a brothel and as you can expect it, it was dark, smelly with long narrow corridors with small bedrooms on both side. Some of the girls there seemed to be barely in their 20's and their clients did not seem much older for the majority of them. I felt so sorry for these girls and the path life put them on. When we returned on the street a man in his 50's came running to the commissaire and was complaining about a young man but I could not quite understand what it was about. The young man was brought to the commissaire by the PNH but then was released and the people from the street who gathered around had a good laugh. I was quite puzzled and asked the commissaire what just happened. He explained to me that the older man is the father of the younger male. The young male asked some money to his mother to buy food but instead of buying food he went in the brothel and spent all the money. The money given to the son was probably worth a week of food so no wonder the father was such in despair. Upon the release of the son, the father gave him a slap across the face that he will probably remember for a very long time. During the patrol few motorbikes were observed turning around ahead of us when seeing us, unfortunately without a motorbike squad there was nothing we could do to try to intercept them. After 2 hours walking in dirt roads, smelling garbage, smelling the fumes of the traffic and hearing the noise of the streets I was glad to return to the office to write my report. I'll try to take some pictures next time and add them to the blog just to give you a basic idea of the mess we are walking through ;-)