We just around that mountain and you will see Port Au Prince
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Tuesday morning Joe had us all awake around 6am.. It was too early! We all felt that way... LOL!! We had arrived in Santa Domingo late and didn't make it to the guest houses and into bed until after 1am.. So after spending the entire day yesterday traveling through airports and being cramped into little airplane seats a few of us were just a tad cranky to start the day Tuesday morning.. Mind you, it would only be a few more hours before we would suddenly learn rather quickly in humility that we had nothing at all to be cranky about.. We were in for a real eye opener and even in our own struggles I think we all pretty much knew this in our own hearts.. It was just a matter of seeing it first hand that would make all the difference...
After breakfast at the nice outdoor cafe as I posted in the previous post, we returned to our rooms and gathered our belongings together. We rushed to make sure we were ready as Joe had asked us to and then we waited for about an hour before the mini-vans would finally arrive to take us to the Main Bus Terminal.. At the Bus Terminal we would board a Greyhound style bus to make our almost 10 hour non-stop journey to just outside Port Au Prince, Haiti where we would be staying for the night...
10 hours is a very long time to be couped up on a bus non-stop... It really is! It was actually about 8+ hours non-stop until we got to the Haiti border where we would pull in, stop and be able to all get out and stretch our legs.. But still, 8 hours without stopping is a very long time to be situated in a seat unable to really move. But that's how it's done there. No pit stops along the way. I slept on and off but not very well. None of us did. I found it difficult sleeping in a sitting up position. Even as I would doze off from moment to moment any sudden movement, a bump, a voice, conversations, sunlight suddenly upon the face, all of it would just wake me up again, and with the lack of sleep the night before I think most of us were experiencing the same thing... So by the time we reached the Haiti border several hours later and pulled in to finally stop and be able to stretch our legs most of us felt extremely lethargic...
I sat in my chair dozing in and out half listening to the various conversations going on around me. it's interesting when you have your eyes closed just sitting there listening to other people converse sometimes.. I could hear Amy telling I think Ryan how proud of her daughter she was, Steve McDougall in the seats ahead of us telling stories about previous trips to Haiti he had been on, and Dr. Denis explaining the benefits of naturalistic medicine to another in our group.. I just sat there with my eyes closed listening..
Jo-dee was sitting next to me dozing in and out as well.. Behind us were a young Haitian couple returning to Haiti. I think it was young Steve sitting further behind that first got chatting a bit with them.. Not sure if I mentioned, we had two Steves on the trip.. Steve McDougall was our organizer.. He is the Chairman of Hearts Togther for Haiti.. And then there was the younger Steve who is a Windsor Transit employee.. So to distinguish between the two I'll continue to refer to Steve McDougall either by his full name or 'the elder Steve' and Steve the Windsor Transit employee as the 'younger Steve' .. :)
When I realized this young Haitian couple were returning home I sat up and turned around to face them, "Are you returning home for the first time since the quake?" I asked.
"Yes" Said the Haitian man. "We had left a week before the quake to visit her family" He explained motioning to his wife. "We have not seen our home or even our country yet since the quake"
This young couple, like so many, lost their home, their personal possessions apart from what they had with them on their trip and saddest of all, like almost all Haitians they lost loved ones.. Every Haitian we met had a story to tell that included losing a loved one or several loved ones....
I sat back in my chair not wanting to further ask questions of this young Haitian couple hesitant I may ask an awkward or sensitive question. I sat back and just returned to listening to the conversations around me as I gazed out the window of the bus at the beautiful Dominican countryside. Rolling hills filled with banana trees stretching along for miles in all directions until they reached the mountains in the near distances all around us.. The skies were clear and it was a hot and humid but beautiful sunny day.. We had seemed to drive for hours seeing nothing but countryside except the odd little village here and there we would pass ever so often.
Suddenly, it was as if the narrow highway we were on had reached it's end and within an instant we were slowing down and maneuvering over gravel filled with lot's of pot holes as the bus driver began to shift gears down and bring the bus to a crawl.. Then the bus came to a complete stop and began to back up.. People walking all around everywhere. A few old buildings that looked to be small warehouses, a few U.N. security personnel gathered off to the left, a group of young Haitians unloading trucks, and barb and razor wire fencing everywhere you looked.. "Where are we?" I turned to the young Haitian man sitting behind me and asked.. "We are at the border now." He replied.. "We are in my country, Haiti."
This is where it began to hit me the most... "What will I see?" For the very first time I was beginning to see it before my very eyes.. Not so much the devastation.. But the signs of pain.. of struggle.. of strife.. The devastation was yet to come.. That lurked just around the corner, literally! But the scrambling to get food to the poor, to get aid shipments into the country as quick as possible, to get volunteers like ourselves in to devastated areas to get them working was what we first saw as we entered Haiti for the first time.. It was here at the D.R./ Haiti border that we were beginning to see the tell tale signs of everything horrifying and heart wrenching we had come to learn about through the news only a month earlier.. Everything that made out hearts ache and our eyes weep over the past month..
The bus parked, the doors opened and as we had all really hoped the bus driver informed us that we could step outside the bus and stretch our legs. "Thank God!' Was what went through all of our minds instantaneously! And so we did.. One by one we began to depart from the bus to stretch our legs.. To find relief.. Of course the heat and humidity hit us immediately as we stepped off the bus but that was okay.. It was just such a relief after 8 straight hours of being couped up in little seats to just get out and be able to stretch..
But the sight around us... We were immediately approached by local Haitians vending gum, candy bars, beer & pop.. "1 dollar" The young Haitian girl of about 12 years old said as she came up to me and the younger Steve.. and again she said the moment we made eye contact, "1 dollar, please.." Some of us bought a beer or a pop.. Something to snack on.. We were continually followed around everywhere we walked and everywhere we stood. in buying something they didn't necessarily walk away after wards but only for a moment and they were back wanting you to buy more.. They were persistent.. For these Haitians, it was their only hope to make a living.. And in many ways they were the lucky ones because at least they had a means to make some money.. Most Haitians didn't... Most Haitians don't..
After about an hour, we all boarded the bus again. We were told that we were cleared and could continue on now... So we all got back on the bus and took our seats anticipating yet another few hours before reaching Port Au Prince.. At least we thought.. As we took our seats I asked the young Haitian man who had been sitting behind me all along just how far are we from Port Au Prince.. "About 20 minutes" He replied, and I said, "Huh! I thought we still had about two hours!"
"Oh no," He replied.. "You'll see.. We just around that mountain and you will see Port Au Prince"
I sat back in my seat and continued to watch out the window of the bus as we slowly made our way out of the customs compound to begin our trek towards the capital city.. The road we took was long and winding and literally hugged the outer edge of a rather large mountain on our left with a shallow valley running along the right side of the road overlooking a low plateau.. As we looked out our windows we began to see these huge sections of the mountain had as if large chunks in many places were completely missing out of it's side.. I mean huge as in spanning 100 feet high or more and just as wide across.. Even the young Haitian fellow and his wife sitting behind us were amazed and spoke up saying, "That was never like that before!" It was the first signs of what an earthquake can actually do to the geographics of the earth... Whole sections of a mountain completely gives way and crumbles to the ground below within an instant.. nothing to stop it.. Nothing to prevent nature from taking it's course... It just does it's thing..
Minutes later as we began to move away from the mountain and into open plateau everything seemed fine looking out the window of the bus.. We were passing homes here and there along the road and saw no damage.. nothing out of the ordinary.. Various conversations on the bus continued.. Jo-dee sitting next to me took out her camera and began to take pictures.. Then, suddenly just as if leaving one room and entering into another it was as if we were in an entirely altogether different world! A world of utter chaos and destruction! We just passed a whole slew of homes standing and unaffected.. Now we were looking out our window at home after home, building after building made of concrete and totally collapsed upon itself.. and tent cities! Tucked in between all this mess anywhere it seemed there had been available vacant land were now tent cities.. Some quickly put together by the locals, tents basically made out of bed sheets and sticks.. and others, more organized and put together by the United Nations..
The conversations all suddenly stopped.. Everything went deathly quiet! Except for the periodic gasps of several you could have heard a pin drop on that bus.. The mood among all quickly became somber.. The bus continued along the road, everyone looking out the windows at the destruction.. no one saying a word.. I held my Rosary between my fingers and silently prayed, not really focusing so much on the decades but just praying one Hail Mary after another as I watched from inside the air conditioned bus the masses of Haitians walking around and along the streets yet as if no where to go.. Haitians sitting outside their collapsed homes watching us as we slowly drove by.. No one waving.. Just us looking out the bus window at them and they sitting by their demolished homes staring up at us as we drove by.. Somber is an understatement..
Soon, within minutes just as the young Haitian man said our bus pulled up to our final destination.. The guest house we would be staying at tonight.. We were now in Petionville, a suburb just up the hill over looking the city of Port Au Prince...
