And I’m Back in Haiti

     Sunday morning, 3:30. Pierre and I are in the car headed for Washington National Airport for my flight back to Haiti. It was almost like a similar trip back in October when Pierre drove me to BWI Airport as I left to begin my sabbatical. Back then, I had waited until Cecile had gone back to UVA and Odile had started her first year at Cornell. It was just Pierre and I and I left Pierre alone, on his own in Silver Spring and got on a plane for Miami and Port-au-Prince. This time, I was saying goodbye and leaving all three kids at home. Pierre and I got three hours sleep. Cecile and Odile stayed up all night so that they could say goodbye. In October, the weather was mild. Sunday morning, the air was cold, temperature of 39F, and there was snow on the ground. My flight from BWI to Miami was on time. I met Meer and Bernard (a malaria investigator from UF) in the Miami airport. Our flight to Port-au-Prince was on time. American Airlines flight 1665 took off from Miami at 10:30 and we got off the plane in PAP at 12:10 pm. The temperature was in the high 80s and it was humid.  I’m back.

     John, one of the Christianville drivers, picked up Meer and I in the Ford Everest (Bernard was staying in PauP). We went to the Visa Lodge for lunch. It is becoming a custom. This time the buffet had ham, fish stew, rice, potatoes, salad, and a cake called “Better than sex”. It wasn’t.

     We stopped in Pétion-ville (a nice section of PauP) to visit a friend of Meer’s and drop off some items that Meer had brought them from the U.S. We ate again. I’m not even back in Haiti four hours and this is my second meal. But it was real Bangladeshi food, nice and spicy.

     The ride back to Christianville was long. There was a huge traffic jam getting through Mariani. We finally arrived at 5:30 pm, just in time for dinner. It was good to see Marsha, Ken and Kirk again. We had hot dogs for dinner and homemade glazed doughnuts. Dale was back and we saw Solomon also. The good news is that Ken and Kirk did a chlorine shock treatment of the well and water distribution system over the holidays. Now the water coming out of the faucets in Christianville is drinkable (Meer will check samples later this week to verify that the shock treatment worked). We brought our stuff in to the house. The lizards were there to greet me, scurrying across the bathroom floor and hiding behind the curtain in my bedroom. A mouse had also taken up residence. It ran across the floor and disappeared (the mouse showed up the next day on my shelf in the bathroom; why? there is nothing to eat there but toothpaste, soap and shampoo). I unpacked my stuff. I brought a pillow for my bed and a nice bath mat for the bathroom floor, just a small touch of comfort for after a shower. We brought stuff to the lab and found that the autoclaved trash had not been taken out. The lab smelled bad. We also found out that the Internet connection in the lab was down. I was exhausted. I took a shower (cold, of course) and was in bed by 9 pm. 

     Woke up at 5 am. The chickens were making a racket and the odor of the pens was quite pungent. The goats were also pretty active. Turns out that Eric was in Christianville this weekend from North Carolina to give the does their hormone injections for the next breeding cycle. I guess the bucks were pretty excited. At 5:30 am Meer and I got back in the Everest with John to drive to the U.S. Embassy. Meer had an appointment at 7 am to renew his visa.  We arrived at 6:40 and waited in a long line outside the embassy. I think I was the only “blan” in line. The line slowly moved forward as they checked off people’s names and let them enter the compound. By 8:00 we reached the gate. They checked off Meer’s name but they would not let me in with Meer for his interview. So I walked back to the Everest and waited with John. The sun was up and it was getting hot. The U.S. Embassy in Haiti is located in the Tabarre section of Port-au-Prince.  There is a sort of industrial park across the road, the Capital Coach Line bus company next to the compound, and a Brazilian United Nations camp across the road. It is a rather barren section of town, far from downtown PauP and clearly not residential (although the Embassy is building housing units across the road) and there seems to be a lot of open space around it. I watched the line of vehicles passing by on the road in front of the embassy.  There were lots of UN vehicles. How much longer are they staying here? What exactly are they doing here? You see their vehicles everywhere around PauP but I don’t know what they do. Meer and Solomon know people in the Bangladeshi and Indian UN contingents, respectively, and they socialize with them frequently. I’ve asked them about the UN troops. Meer and Solomon said they don’t appear to be doing much of anything except being visible.

     Back at Christianville, I took a break from working in the guesthouse (the only place we can connect to the internet until the lab connection is fixed). I walked up to the new dorms (still under construction). The air was cool and the goats were quiet. I climbed up to the roof to look out over the landscape. PAP stretched out to the east. The sun was low in the western sky. The mountains within mountains rose off to the south. Smoke from charcoal fires swirled up from several spots in the valleys. The pasture and farm land next to Christianville was green and peaceful. Haiti is a beautiful country. 

     I’m back.