Talk about a parking lot. This morning, it took over two hours to drive less than 15 miles. At one location, a pothole was being patched. That created a one lane bottleneck. At two other locations, trucks were broken down. Since the trucks are repaired where they stop, two other bottlenecks were created. On busy, two lane roads, the backups are huge.
As I observed our driver and the other drivers, it seemed like all took the delays in stride. The congestion is a daily fact of life. Who knows the number of man days lost in productivity in one day from these traffic jams.
After arriving, I took Gilbert, the neighborhood leader, to meet representatives of Partners in Development (PID), a non-government organization (NGO) that works in Haiti and Guatemala. (It is headquartered in Ipswich, MA.) We toured their clinic and housing development adjacent to one of the world's largest slums, Cite Soleil.
As I have learned more about the neighborhood, Papeau, the area of Croix des Mission that the new church is built in, one of the most pressing problems is job opportunities. The men do not have marketable skills for the jobs that may be available. Partners in Development has agreed to train Gilbert and other neighborhood men construction skills. The community is very excited about this opportunity.
After lunch, the VIM team distributed the items that you have given us: new/gently used ball caps and t-shirts, heavy duty work gloves, and new children's underwear. Using a different method to control the crowding, we were more secure as we gave away these items which are so valuable to these poor Haitians.
Again, leaving is sad. We get to return to the richest country in the world. We have pure drinking water; they do not. We have basic sanitary facilities; they do not. We do not live in two year old tents; about 500,00 Haitians, including some hundreds in the neighborhood, remain in tents. No one in the USA starves to death; it happens in Haiti. Americans are so fortunate.
Tomorrow, we return to the USA.
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