As Tania mentioned, I made it safely to Haiti and am slowly figuring out how things work here. I was picked up from the airport and spent the whole ride staring out the window. But from the comfort of the air-conditioned new SUV, I was in fact staring into the window of the reality of Port-au-Prince. On the streets, the locals were bustling around street vendors selling fruits, water and clothing. On the roads there was an endless parade of horn-honking vehicles in grid-lock traffic. The new cars all bore decals of the international effort. UN, Red Cross, Care, UNICEF, World Food Program – you name it, they are all here. The other cars were old brightly coloured pickup trucks (“tap-taps”) which are the main local transport. At first, all the commotion hid the signs of the earthquake. But then, it began to reveal itself. From behind walls there spilled tree-sized piles of rubble. Some small buildings looked like they had been split down the middle by a giant axe. In cleared areas, a mosaic of tarps was the tell-tale signs of cramped camps. We kept moving towards the hills and away from the epicentre, where the wealthy neighbourhoods escaped the worst of the damage. Many of the NGOs and embassies are based there, where it is considered safer and more “foreigner friendly”. At one point we even passed the freshly painted yellow gate of the Scientology office (click here for an interesting firsthand account of the Volunteer Ministers). After almost an hour, we made it to a gated complex that will be my home until the end of the month. After that, Tania and I will be living in a studio in the suburb of Petion Ville.
*posted from Vancouver by Tania on behalf of Graham
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