Setting up Camp in Haiti

Setting up camp

As we sit and wait for our campsite to be secured, we watch the UN troops let in groups of Haitians through the gate in front of us to hand out food to them. There is alot of pushing and shoving going on so they have to keep the groups to 30-40 people at a time. They line them in the street and try to keep things as calm as possible. There are many UN soldiers around with guns trying to keep things sane. It's crazy to watch. Outside the gate there are hundreds more Haitians waiting for their turn. We watch them from our secured area. Very intense!

Once we are allowed into our space, we pitch our tents and setup camp. We are camped on a paved, dead end road. There is an outhouse down the street with more UN soldiers standing guard close by. There is alot of activity around. The sky is very busy, full of helicopters. The Dominicans have 15 or more mobile food units parked near us and they appear to be feeding thousands of people. They load the truck up with meals and head out hourly. We ended up having many meals with them over the course of our stay.

We were able to get a sponge bath in the first night. We had a big tub filled with water and used cups to pour the water over us. We used the side of the big truck for our back drop and used the back doors for our shower curtain. Luckily it was dark out so our audience of soldiers down the street couldn't see too much. :-)

Since I'm traveling with 9 Dominicans the Spanish is flying so I don't always get all that's being said but we find our way to communicate and understand each other. I'm sure my Spanish will be much better by the end of this trip. After dinner we all went to bed wondering what our first day on the streets in Port au Prince will bring.