Today is the first sunny day in about a week, which Is awesome.
The past few days have been interesting. The Pichinat displacement camp had some serious problems this week. In addition to about 5 inches of standing water, the manager of the camp found a few things out. Apparently, there have been adults within the camp involved in child prostitution. Imagine this: you are in tent city with nearly 8 thousand others, it is rain season and kids a dying frequently of disease, and you find out that people around you are taking advantage of these kids and making money off of them. This has to be an absolutely new low. So, the manager of the camp, as pissed off as she must have been when she found out, made an anouncement about these events. In turn, she was arrested and jailed for speaking out about it! If you cannot believe this I assure you I didn't either and hoped it wasn't true. Unfortunately that is the reality here.
This past wednesday there was some protests in town. I'm not sure what these people were protesting but they were burning the american and venezuelan flags. Aren't they here helping?
The camera crew left. One of them got really sick but they got some great footage. I found out one of the guys did a music video for the jonas brothers and worked on snakes on a plane and other movies. Pretty impressive for being 22 years old.
Ill update more when I can get on a real computer. Sorry about the spelling I'm on my blackberry. 27 new volunteers coming in tomorrow, should be fun.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Rain
It has been shitstorming regularly here for the past 3 days. This is extremely bad news for the people living here. The standing water allows the mass reproduction of 'skeeters and in turn spreads disease.
We've began to work on one of the orphenages that we frequently assist. We are planning on building them an outside structure with a tarp over it so the kids dont have to worry about the rain. The children are all amazing. All they want to do is hold your hand, climb on your shoulders and teach you Creole while you're there. For having so little they really are some of the happiest people i have met. One of the kids, a 1 year old baby, died yesterday morning after being sick for only a few days.
Our sister GVN camp in Port au Prince is shutting down. They have been getting threats there and a lot of hostility. Couple that with the horrible conditions of the capital and all the volunteers have called it quits. Quite a few of them will be joining us here in Jacmel early next week.
On a sidenote, a camera crew from San Francisco came in yesterday to shoot a documentary on our work. They are working on the pilot to pitch it to the Discovery channel. Maybe i'll get famous.
We've began to work on one of the orphenages that we frequently assist. We are planning on building them an outside structure with a tarp over it so the kids dont have to worry about the rain. The children are all amazing. All they want to do is hold your hand, climb on your shoulders and teach you Creole while you're there. For having so little they really are some of the happiest people i have met. One of the kids, a 1 year old baby, died yesterday morning after being sick for only a few days.
Our sister GVN camp in Port au Prince is shutting down. They have been getting threats there and a lot of hostility. Couple that with the horrible conditions of the capital and all the volunteers have called it quits. Quite a few of them will be joining us here in Jacmel early next week.
On a sidenote, a camera crew from San Francisco came in yesterday to shoot a documentary on our work. They are working on the pilot to pitch it to the Discovery channel. Maybe i'll get famous.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
UN Convoy, GVN comm. center opening
I haven't been able to find internet for a while (big surprise there!), but ill try to recap the past few days.
We went to one of Haitis largest tent camps for displaced people on Thursday. There are 7.5 thuosand people living in a closed off place the size of a football field. They live in rows in makshift tents and are patrolled by the Venezuelan Army. Thank you, Chavez. It's pretty hard to explain the conditions at this camp, but they are beyond brutal. When it rains in Haiti, it pours. This turns the entire compund into a big pool of mud that begins to flood more often than not. The water in turn helps the spread of fun diseases like typhoid, malaria and dengue fever. This only adds on to the high rate of HIV already here- somewhere in between 4 and 12% is the "governments" estimate. We entered the compound on UN trucks along with the IOM and Venezuelan military nearby. On this specific entry, we were assigned to go from tent to tent collecting information on the people living there. We were attempting to find out who was moving out of th camps, where to, and when. Very few of the thousands are willing to leave, as they are given free food and water in these camps. This information gathering took about 3 hours in 12 teams of 4.
The following morning we went to visit one of the many childrens homes. It is unreal the amount of kids that were left behind without parents or any family after the quake. The children are endlessly happy to see us, climb on us, and learn the english we teach them.
We have also been "rubbling". This consists of picking up all the rubble from the collapsed buildings and removing them from the sites in order to rebuild. We work with the Salvation Army on one of the sites. They claim to have removed all the bodies from the shattered buildings, but i've heard some horror stories from past volunteers.
Friday night, about 15 of the volunteers finished their rotation and headed home. They flew private to Jamaica for their GVN debrief and a nice stay in Montego Bay. These were all great people- 2 UBC-O students, a yoga instructor, 2 old ladies from my rotation that made it a grand total of 4 days in Haiti, a San Diego zoo animal taming person, a few Kiwis, and a few others with blander descriptions.
What's left is 6 of us. A Belgian girl with an Oxford degree, a nice Texan who likes his cerveza, a Singapore Air pilot with some of the scariest stories, a GVN rep fron New Zealand, and the Most Interesting Man from the UK called Rodd. Seriously, he is the guy in the Dos Equis commercials.
Our compound is pretty empty, but we are making good use of the extra tents. Texas has acquired one as his "vestiere", Singapore and I have moved into doubles, and we are considering getting a pow-wow tent, a Blegian consulate tent, and a Zen tent where all we do is read Larry's book (what a dick!)
We are all in good spirits. More later. Hi pav.
We went to one of Haitis largest tent camps for displaced people on Thursday. There are 7.5 thuosand people living in a closed off place the size of a football field. They live in rows in makshift tents and are patrolled by the Venezuelan Army. Thank you, Chavez. It's pretty hard to explain the conditions at this camp, but they are beyond brutal. When it rains in Haiti, it pours. This turns the entire compund into a big pool of mud that begins to flood more often than not. The water in turn helps the spread of fun diseases like typhoid, malaria and dengue fever. This only adds on to the high rate of HIV already here- somewhere in between 4 and 12% is the "governments" estimate. We entered the compound on UN trucks along with the IOM and Venezuelan military nearby. On this specific entry, we were assigned to go from tent to tent collecting information on the people living there. We were attempting to find out who was moving out of th camps, where to, and when. Very few of the thousands are willing to leave, as they are given free food and water in these camps. This information gathering took about 3 hours in 12 teams of 4.
The following morning we went to visit one of the many childrens homes. It is unreal the amount of kids that were left behind without parents or any family after the quake. The children are endlessly happy to see us, climb on us, and learn the english we teach them.
We have also been "rubbling". This consists of picking up all the rubble from the collapsed buildings and removing them from the sites in order to rebuild. We work with the Salvation Army on one of the sites. They claim to have removed all the bodies from the shattered buildings, but i've heard some horror stories from past volunteers.
Friday night, about 15 of the volunteers finished their rotation and headed home. They flew private to Jamaica for their GVN debrief and a nice stay in Montego Bay. These were all great people- 2 UBC-O students, a yoga instructor, 2 old ladies from my rotation that made it a grand total of 4 days in Haiti, a San Diego zoo animal taming person, a few Kiwis, and a few others with blander descriptions.
What's left is 6 of us. A Belgian girl with an Oxford degree, a nice Texan who likes his cerveza, a Singapore Air pilot with some of the scariest stories, a GVN rep fron New Zealand, and the Most Interesting Man from the UK called Rodd. Seriously, he is the guy in the Dos Equis commercials.
Our compound is pretty empty, but we are making good use of the extra tents. Texas has acquired one as his "vestiere", Singapore and I have moved into doubles, and we are considering getting a pow-wow tent, a Blegian consulate tent, and a Zen tent where all we do is read Larry's book (what a dick!)
We are all in good spirits. More later. Hi pav.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
on site
Arrived in Port-au-Prince yesterday early in the morning. There were a bunch of DEA agents at the entrance of my flight boarding i Ft. Lauderadale, which was pretty comical.
Paurt-au-Prince is hard to describe. There are hundreds of thousands of displaced people living in tents or on the streets. Some of these tent camps have had aid while most have not. The "lucky" ones that have get to live in actual tents that have the donor country printed on them. The others are left to fare with hurrican season in home made cloth and wooden tents.
We drove around a little bit to try and change some money. In order to do this, you have to go to a known street where people come up to your car and ask you what currency and how much you would like changed. This is all very confusing as Haiti uses the Haitian Dollar as well as the Gourde.
Eventually we began the drive to Jacmel. It took us 3 hours to get outside of Port-au-Prince. There are no real roads, and most dirt paths are flooded. We drove past huge camps of thousands of people living in these tents. The drive took us over some mountains and eventually arrived to Jacmel in the early afternoon.
Jacmel is one of the largest cities in Haiti. It has been extremely hard hit by the earthquake, as the only main road leading to it was blocked off for weeks after. This is where our coumpound is. We are fenced in by some walls, and we have a tarp over us to try and keep the rain out.
To those of you familiar with the UBC steam room, that is what Haiti feels like at all times. We had a really awesome rainstorm last night. Im not sure what people in the tent camps do when it rains, but they seem to live through it. Some of the people living in tents do own homes, but are too scared to return to them and live there in fear of another quake.
I am at UNICEF right now. Tomorrow we plan on going into one of the bigger displacement camps in a UN convoy. There are constantly killings and rape at these camps, so we have to go in with the UN and Venezuelan army. As i speak french, ill be going from tent to tent doing a sort of a census on the people.
More soon.
Paurt-au-Prince is hard to describe. There are hundreds of thousands of displaced people living in tents or on the streets. Some of these tent camps have had aid while most have not. The "lucky" ones that have get to live in actual tents that have the donor country printed on them. The others are left to fare with hurrican season in home made cloth and wooden tents.
We drove around a little bit to try and change some money. In order to do this, you have to go to a known street where people come up to your car and ask you what currency and how much you would like changed. This is all very confusing as Haiti uses the Haitian Dollar as well as the Gourde.
Eventually we began the drive to Jacmel. It took us 3 hours to get outside of Port-au-Prince. There are no real roads, and most dirt paths are flooded. We drove past huge camps of thousands of people living in these tents. The drive took us over some mountains and eventually arrived to Jacmel in the early afternoon.
Jacmel is one of the largest cities in Haiti. It has been extremely hard hit by the earthquake, as the only main road leading to it was blocked off for weeks after. This is where our coumpound is. We are fenced in by some walls, and we have a tarp over us to try and keep the rain out.
To those of you familiar with the UBC steam room, that is what Haiti feels like at all times. We had a really awesome rainstorm last night. Im not sure what people in the tent camps do when it rains, but they seem to live through it. Some of the people living in tents do own homes, but are too scared to return to them and live there in fear of another quake.
I am at UNICEF right now. Tomorrow we plan on going into one of the bigger displacement camps in a UN convoy. There are constantly killings and rape at these camps, so we have to go in with the UN and Venezuelan army. As i speak french, ill be going from tent to tent doing a sort of a census on the people.
More soon.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Ft. Lodi is a great place. Its a real shame Jimmy Buffett was involved.
I look forward to learning more about this place upon my return to FLA after Haiti.
I bought a pretty gnarly visor with golf items displayed on the front of it. Tom's mother purchased me a t-shirt that reads "it is all my fault" on the front. How fitting for Haiti!
Regardless, i am off to the airport with a good Vancouver buddy after a night in Florida. It is only an hour flight but im sure the contrast between here and there will be immense.
I look forward to learning more about this place upon my return to FLA after Haiti.
I bought a pretty gnarly visor with golf items displayed on the front of it. Tom's mother purchased me a t-shirt that reads "it is all my fault" on the front. How fitting for Haiti!
Regardless, i am off to the airport with a good Vancouver buddy after a night in Florida. It is only an hour flight but im sure the contrast between here and there will be immense.
Monday, May 17, 2010
depart
Off to Haiti in a few hours. Pav and i have been moving all of my belongings down to storage for the past 5 hours. I think Sturdy is still awake watching trailer park boys.
Ill be shown the city of Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow by T. jonston prior to my flight into Paurt au Prince on the morning of the 18th.
im going to call coquitlam cabs soon and see if they come pick me up from this far away
Ill be shown the city of Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow by T. jonston prior to my flight into Paurt au Prince on the morning of the 18th.
im going to call coquitlam cabs soon and see if they come pick me up from this far away
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