Haiti
I'm scheduled to go to Haiti next month for business (50/50 chance, at this point). Have any dwellars been there? Do you have any good survival tips?
I'll mostly be in Port Au Prince (PaP) and surrounding environs.
I plan to take several energy bars and some powdered water.
When my mom worked at the clinic, her nurse friend had been there to volunteer. All I know is that mom says D says she stepped off the plane and looked around and wondered what she'd gotten herself into. But a good experience overall I think. so I'm not much help but I'll start taking donations for powdered water.
Do you have any good survival tips?
Stay in Colorado?
When my mom worked at the clinic, her nurse friend had been there to volunteer. All I know is that mom says D says she stepped off the plane and looked around and wondered what she'd gotten herself into. But a good experience overall I think. so I'm not much help but I'll start taking donations for powdered water.
Last night I watched a documentary "Frontline: Battle for Haiti" which is about 4,500 inmates that escaped from prison during the earthquake and the on-going efforts to capture them.
I might watch some other Haiti documentaries to learn more about the country before I go.
Wait, its 2012 and you're going to Haiti?
No, it's 2011 and he's planning to go.
and some powdered water.
What do you add to that?
No, it's 2011 and he's planning to go.
I'm in a different time zone.
What do you add to that?
Dry ice and Jim Beam
haggis!
Don't have any identification or money on you.
Don't give anything to anyone, no matter how much you may feel compelled to do so.
My father was there a few years ago. He had a very interesting experience.
Why no identification? How will they identify the body?
Why no identification? How will they identify the body?
Stigmata?
Last night I watched The Serpent and the Rainbow. Now I know what to expect.
Well, it's comforting to know that zombies won't actually eat your brains. See you in 16 years then!
Why no identification? How will they identify the body?
You don't want them to. :eek:
By your Prince Albert?
not... the one in the can, right?
yikes.
Do you have any good survival tips?
1. Don't drink anything.
2. Don't eat anything.
3. Try not breathe.
4. Stare at your shoes.
5. Don't look up for anything.
Also this. Ugh.
[SIZE="1"]from AFP, via YahooNews[/SIZE]
Haiti cholera death toll nears 7,000
Nearly 7,000 people have now died from cholera in Haiti in an epidemic which has become one of the worst of recent decades, a top health official said Friday.
Jon Kim Andrus, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization, said that as of December, on top of the deaths, the Haitian government had reported more than 520,000 cholera cases with 200 new sufferers appearing each day.
Andrus said it was "one of the largest cholera outbreaks in modern history to affect a single country."
There are also 21,000 cases in the neighboring Dominican Republic where there have been 363 deaths, Andrus said at a briefing for the second anniversary of the January 12, 2010 earthquake which killed more than 225,000 people.
The cholera outbreak erupted in October, 2010 and has been widely blamed on a camp of UN peacekeepers from Nepal. Lawyers representing victims have demanded the United Nations pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation.
Andrus said Haiti needed a huge campaign to improve its supply of drinking water which various international institutions had estimated could cost between $746 million and $1.1 billion.
The international community has already given impoverished Haiti $2.4 billion in humanitarian aid in response to the quake.
Rebeca Grynspan, a UN under-secretary general at the UN Development Programme, said about 50 percent of the quake debris had been cleared -- some five million cubic meters of concrete and tangled steel.
I'm scheduled to go to Haiti next month for business (50/50 chance, at this point). Have any dwellars been there? Do you have any good survival tips?
I'll mostly be in Port Au Prince (PaP) and surrounding environs.
I plan to take several energy bars and some powdered water.
My daughter went on a Mission Trip with a church group last year. It really depends on who you are going with of if you are going to be on your own. You definitely need a full time guide and driver if you are on your own.
Sort of... she had a few situations where things got a bit dangerous but they were protected by a group of guards, Hatians, hired by the group they went with. There are numerous parts of Haiti that are quite dangerous and given the current social situation you need someone local to guide you around to stay safe and out of trouble.
Converting the savages?
See pm
Converting the savages?
Thanks for not taking offense.
I need to work on my sensitivity.
Whether religion was involved or not, I sincerely admire your daughter for going somewhere dangerous and uncontrolled, whatever her reason.
It must have been out of her usual life experience, so that's courage.
HLJ I get that it's business. But I respect your "business as usual" perspective too. Even in the most dangerous of places, it does help countries get back on their feet.
So, are you going, Mr. Hung?
I'd say 85% chance that I am.
My goal this month is to learn a little French and some Haitian Creole.
When they were considering sending my dad to the Ivory Coast I told him I could teach him the only french he really needed: Je voudrais une biere, s'il vous plait. Or something like that.
He actually became fluent in spanish after spending years working in Costa Rica.
Can I go with you? I'm sick of Ohio. ;)
Sure, I need a translator.
J'ai besoin de trouver un clochard.
What would you need a bum for?
Beside sitting on it?
I'm back. It was much nicer than I expected. Even the dump wasn't that bad.
I think they've made a lot of progress, though the roads are still terrible, and driving is crazy (luckily we always had a car and driver from the US Embassy or from the UN). Because we were there for such a short time, we ended up eating almost all of our meals in our hotel (Visa Lodge) and didn't get to experience much of the local cuisine.
Welcome back. I'd also like to hear more.
or cholera.
Welcome back, story and pics please.
or cholera.
Welcome back, story and pics please.
Well, I did start to feel sick about the second day there, but I wasn't sure if it was because my wife was sick just before I left, or if it was a reaction to all the vaccinations I'd had, or to the anti-malaria medicine, or if it was because of something I ate or drank, or because the whole city is a giant burn pit, with the garbage being burned out in the streets and in the landfill, and the air filled with smoke. Yesterday I felt the worst, and today a little better.
Regarding pictures, we hardly left the hotel, and then only in the company of embassy or UN staff, and they were very sensitive to us taking pictures with people in them (I was told, "You don't want to look like a disaster tourist.") so I didn't get as many pictures as I'd hoped. I'll look through them and see if there's anything I can post.
"Only looks like a disaster tourist"
excellent new user title
Glad you're home safe and well(ish).
Details PLEASE!
Somewhere I will never go and never see.
Feel free to change names of people and locations, but please share.
Well, I did start to feel sick about the second day there.... it was a reaction to the anti-malaria medicine...
Most likely.
Glad you are back. Can you tell us why you were there and how it went? love to hear more. Glad you are safe.
Thanks.
[COLOR=Silver]I'm always hesitant to post about work.[/COLOR]
We were in the country to help with energy and infrastructure issues. The country doesn't have a national grid - just partial grids in the bigger towns.
The Port-au-Prince metro area has the largest population in the country, and the best grid, but service is still spotty and the grid frequently goes down. Because of that there are something like 10,000 (100,000? I don't remember) diesel generators in the country: at hotels, some restaurants, government offices and the homes of the wealthier citizens and foreign workers.
Our mission is to help with support for renewable energy studies, and evaluating the effect of projects on the grid. If a large solar or wind plant were to be installed, it could actually make the grid reliability worse, as power production becomes harder to control. We're working with the Haiti government, UN, US State Department, Government of Norway, etc. to evaluate both intermittent and baseload power projects for implementation.
Upon arrival at the airport, my co-worker, M, and I are picked up and expedited out the back gate. We wait in the car while the expediter takes care of customs and immigration.
The driver takes us to our hotel.
I ask him "Is it OK if I take pictures?"
He pulls over to the curb.
I say "I didn't mean right now. I just wondered if it was OK."
We don't move.
I take a picture. "Merci."
We resume driving.
At the hotel there is a guard at the gate with a shotgun. The hotel is nicer than I expect, considering the conditions we just drove through.
Check-in reminds me of Mexico - they take an imprint of my credit card and ask me to sign the blank card receipt, which I do.
The main building has the reception desk upstairs, and a restaurant and a pool on the roof. Downstairs is a conference room and some guest rooms. Most of the other guest rooms are in small duplex bungalows, including mine. The porter gives me the key to my room, which is on a plastic tag with the room number, 41, written in magic marker.
I open the door and see that the room is a mess. The porter apologizes and says he'll send the maid over right away. I've never seen such a filthy room - I can't understand how someone could get it in that condition. Even the toilet is clogged. (When I'm in a hotel I always clean the room before the maid arrives.)
I ask the porter, "Is there a safe?"
He says, oh yes, very safe.
I say, I mean a small safe, to put away my stuff.
He says, oh yes, your stuff is very safe.
I say "Merci" and he goes to get the maid.
I leave my clothes in the suitcase and take my backpack with me. I go to find M's room, but I'm lost. There are signs pointing here and there, but none for #20. I keep getting to dead ends.
I see a man trimming the bushes. He stops and asks me what I'm looking for. I say, "I'm trying to find room number 20."
He has a blank look.
I'm trying to remember the French word for 20. All I can think of is veinte.
He starts walking to the office and I tell him, never mind, because I just figured out where room #20 is - it's next to room #2, of course.
Thanks so far HLJ.
Would love to hear (and see) more.
So far it sounds a bit like Cuba.
MOAR PLZ!
I'd like to hear more too.
You're pretty impressive for a funny guy, HLJ. :)
Merci!
I am eager to hear more please.
This story is awesome. I demand chapter 2!
Please sir, may we have some more?
I appreciate the requests. Already the memories are fading.
I'm preparing to leave in the morning for Mexico.
But at least now you'll know how to ask for room #20.