Personal Experiences

We were awakened at 6:00am, as the construction team preferred getting off to an early start. Dave, Scott and I had lower bunks in the mens dorm, while Emily was housed in the ladies dorm (which I never saw). Dave and Scott elected to remain in bed, while I got up to explore.

Normally, a team would get an orientation tour when they arrive, but we arrived two days after the rest of our team and missed this. So, being inquisitive, I wandered around the compound while the construction team made and ate their breakfast.

The compound is right on the ocean, with perhaps 150m of frontage. Separating the compound from the ocean is a wrought-iron fence, beyond which is perhaps six or eight metres of rocky beach.

Most mornings, and this one was no exception, groups of Haitian fishermen could be seen. Several local rowboats as well as some 15-20m Lateen sailboats would make their way past. Occasionally, a group of fishermen would congregate on a broken concrete pier to pull in a drift net (carried out by a row boat). Other Haitians, sometimes with goats, would pass the compound on their way back and forth between a nearby river and their homes.

The water varied in colour between blue and turquoise depending on the time of day. 

Bethany, a member of my team from Ohio, let me know that our breakfast was ready (I had cereal and a glass of juice), so I sat in the outdoor eating area and got to know the others a little better. Emily, Scott, and eventually Dave came down for breakfast as well. Once we had finished, we filled out water bottles for the day and loaded into an old truck (perhaps an old cattle truck) for the drive to M.P.C.A.

Once we reached National Road 1, the smells and oppressive heat assailed me again. I had not noticed either at the compound, right on the ocean with a permanent breeze... but back on the highway and riding through Lanzac, both were back. Even while passing the squalor of Lanzac, I couldn't help but be struck by the beauty of the country, with the ocean always to the right and mountains to the left.

M.P.C.A. is the largest school operated by Mission Possible. With almost 1300 students and a dozen buildings, plus property all the way to the ocean, it was a huge school! The Ohio members of our team had registered students at two schools before we arrived, so they had a good strategy for tackling this one. We setup in a nice shady area and divided into two photography teams. I was paired with Stephanie, as was Emily. Scott and Dave were paired with Theresa.

The process was pretty simple, as follows:

1. Lindsay was organizing each class and handing out nametags, one per child.
2. When a class was ready, a "runner" would bring the entire class down to our photography area.
3. We would take each child's nametag, attach it to a lanyard, then place the lanyard and nametag around the child's neck. For older children, we often gave them the lanyard to put on themselves.
   
4. The child, now wearing a nametag, stays in line until it is his or her turn to be photographed.
5. When the time comes, the child is positioned to be photographed. Generally, this meant having an attractive background and no other children in frame. It also meant careful positioning to avoid sunlight, as sunlight often spoiled the photos. It also often meant adjusting the nametag, as the lanyard needed to be under the collar and even.
   
6. After the photograph, the child is led off to the side, stripped on the lanyard and nametag, and sent either to wait in a group or back to class (depending on the teacher).

The photographs are used for the Mission Possible sponsorship system, as sponsoring the children pays for the school and their healthy meal every day.


At the beginning, my job was to help Stephanie get the child into position and then guide them away after the photo was taken. I also gathered up lanyards and name tags.The lanyards were reused for the children, as we only had twenty or so. Nametags were used for a couple of purposes... but mainly as a confirmation that the child was indeed photographed. Some were reused, with the names of new children (or ones without birth certificates) written on the blank side. Mission Possible does not turn children away, and neither did we.

Half way through the day, we switched jobs and I started taking photographs.

With Stephanie helping, I took the photos of perhaps 300 children before switching back with her... as I was starting to feel a little ill. Bethany and the nurse were quite concerned, treating me as if I might have cholera (better safe than sorry), and soon everyone was aware of my cholera scare. Still, I managed to stay in action and worked until we finished. Lindsay, our team leader, also had a scare. She was twelve weeks pregnant and suffered heat exhaustion... but by the end of the day she was feeling better as well.
Resting and waiting for transport back to the Mission Possible compound, photo courtesy of Scott Cantelo

We rode back to the compound in the cattle truck after a long, hot, humid day. I was exhausted, sweaty and dirty, and still feeling ill. Once we got back to the compound, I took a quick shower and changed into cooler clothing to relax for the evening. Pastor Herve had the beach gate unlocked and Lindsay had no work planned, so we had our first chance to stroll the beach and relax.

Because I was feeling ill and exhausted from the long, hot day, I only spent five minutes on the beach before heading back into the compound. Still, I managed to find a handful of interesting shells and take some video/photos, first.


You cannot go to a caribbean island and not take some photos of palm trees... and the next photograph is the required "sunset on the ocean through a palm leaf". Cliché? Maybe, but it was beautiful.


We ate a filling dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening. I filled my water bottle and went to bed around 10:30pm, feeling quite ill. It was a good day, though, the Ohio team could not have gotten through all the children today without our help... and those children were fantastic.

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).
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!
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.


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!