The trip from Canada to Haiti started,
for me, at about 2:30am in the morning of November 16th. Dave picked me
up a little before 3:00am, and we headed to Belleville for Emily and
Scott. The drive to Montreal took several hours, most of it in
darkness... but we eventually reached "Pierre Trudeau" airport without
incident.
We checked our luggage, passed through several security cordons, and settled in to wait for our flight (AC950).
Photo of Air Canada Flight 950, photo by Stephen Hermer
Once our plane arrived, we had only a short wait before boarding
and taking off. I was lucky enough to have a window seat just forward of
the wing. I watched the move "Salt" during the first two hours of the
flight, as there was nothing to see out the window... just featureless
clouds. Once we reached the Caribbean, the cloud cover cleared up enough
for me to actually see the sea and islands!
Photo of Caribbean island, photo by Stephen Hermer
I am unsure of the above island, but according to
our flight-path it must be one of the Turks and Caicos islands. The
next photo shows the same island as we passed over it.
Photo of Caribbean island, photo by Stephen Hermer
Less than an hour after passing over the above island
(as well as circling a bit over Hispaniola Island), we came in for an
exciting landing at "Toussaint Louverture" Airport in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti. Much of the landing was over water, with touchdown on a rather
short and rough landing strip. We taxied to the main arrivals terminal
(which is closed, due to extensive earthquake damage) and offloaded.
Photo of Toussaint Louverture airport, photo by Stephen Hermer
We loaded into a bus and were transported to an undamaged hanger for
customs and immigration processing. Air Canada had given us the wrong
customs forms during the flight, which caused a bit of confusion and
delay, but eventually we made it through to pick up our luggage. The
heat was was not too bad, with temperatures around 30C, but there was an
unpleasant smell of unwashed bodies and garbage. After a 30 minute
delay, our luggage arrived and we left the temporary terminal to find
our ride to the Mission Possible compound.
We made our way through several gates and past groups of baggage
handlers that really, really wanted to help us carry our luggage. As I
was the only one with two checked bags (I carried our food), and I had
dealt with these tactics on trips to Russia, we had no problems with
them. Outside, in the sun, the heat and smells were magnified. We walked
along a fence towards the main gate, and tried to take it all in.
We made it, to Haiti!!
The odd person, perhaps curious, perhaps begging, stood on the far side
of the fence, with heavy but slow traffic just beyond. On our side of
the fence, we had a wide road to follow, with small groups of people
wandering about.
Once we made it to the main gate (the gate we were warned not to pass
without our escort) we waited. A large number of people were waiting as
well, most just outside the gate, as were a couple of stern looking UN
troops. Lindsay and Pastor Herve were there, but we did not recognize
them until Jackson the one-armed baggage handler (seriously) found us.
We had been told to look for him, and were very happy to see him.
Photo of people in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, photo by Stephen Hermer
We loaded into the back of a covered/caged-in truck, and set off to pick
up Rod (a member of the construction team) at Eko Depot... a Home Depot
clone. He had been left behind to finalize purchase of some
construction supplies. We picked him up, and (braving the
traffic/noise/smells/heat/dust/pollution of Port-au-Prince) we made our
way north to Lanzac and the Mission Possible compound.
The ninety minute ride was eye-opening, as we drove at break-neck speeds along the highway (National Road 1).
I took a considerable amount of video and ate an incredible amount
of dust and diesel fumes on the drive, but I also managed to snap a
couple photographs that turned out.
Photo of National Road 1, north of Port-au-Prince, photo by Stephen Hermer
Eventually, we made it to the Mission Possible compound in Lanzac,
Haiti. We arrived well after dark and needed to help the registration
team organize for the next day, so I did not take any more photos. We
settled into our dorm, already filled with the construction team, joined
the group for a meal, then set to work organizing birth certificates
and name tags for M.P.C.A, the largest school run by Mission Possible.
Photo of Stephen Hermer (and others) working, photo courtesy of Scott Cantelo
The work was difficult and tedious, partially because of the French
names and partially because the bad photocopies of handwritten birth
certificates made matching them very difficult. We worked at this until
11:00pm, at which point we went to bed (it having been a LONG day since
2:30am, with all the traffic and us needing to get used to the heat and
humidity). The rest of the team finished around midnight.
More about the compound, our extended team, and the schools to come!