Haiti Blog 2

Scheduled to leave Sun AM for Haiti

Saturday afternoon we met at Peter Roman’s house to finalize packing. We had to divide our personal gear, medical supplies, and 350 pounds of food donated by Market Basket (quite an assortment of dried salmon, packaged tuna, dried fruit, etc) It was made clear to us by JetBlue that we could have 2 bags max, and they could not weigh a pound over 50.

After completing that complicated task, we then made arrangements for travelling to Logan the following day. Those leaving from Andover would meet at Peter’s at 3:45 AM.

On arrival at the airport, it was somewhat alarming to see that it was mobbed, with long lines everywhere. Yes, at four in the morning!
Fortunately, we were directed to a special counter to check in.

My wife Honey had come up with the idea to solicit from her friends a donation of Beanie Babies to hand out to the Haitian children. Pretty good idea, especially since we were to be camping across the street from an orphanage. I should have said, it seemed like a good idea at the time. She had collected hundreds of Beanie Babies, and at the weigh in they topped the scales at 50 Lbs ! What followed was both chaotic and amusing. Our careful weight apportioning of the previous afternoon was out the window as we scrambled to divide up all of these stuffed animals. We had all the cases opened. Put some here, some there, all under the watchful glare of passengers waiting in line. During this mayhem, a passenger waiting in line passed out and fell to the ground. Marie quickly rushed to his side to attend to him. Don’t know what the problem was. Too busy with the Beanie babies!

Believe it or not, we were successful!

Following successful check-in, we were then accompanied by a JetBlue agent to the security checkpoint. I felt very uneasy as she led us past everyone right to the front of the line. Instead of grousing, however, once the waiting passengers found out who we were and where we were going, all we heard were “thank you for what you’re doing” and “God Bless you”. I felt very uneasy with this. It is not something that we are used to. I am the first person to thank uniformed military personnel. I consider them to be true heroes. What we are doing is not heroic, it is just what we do.

Landed at JFK, and transferred to a non-stop to Santiago, Dominican Republic. I do believe we are the only non-Hispanics on the flight.

Do you think I should have been offended and cried “Profiling” when I was handed a US versus a Dominican declaration form on the plane?

As I write this, I am looking out the left side of the aircraft at Cuba. For those in my age group, you can’t help but think back to that October so many years ago, when the U.S. naval ships were circling these waters.

Arrived at the Dominican Republic. Lots of red tape, but not a big deal.

While walking down the street from the international airport to the private aircraft area, we saw a teenage girl riding towards us on a motor scooter. She did not have a helmut on. I commented on how dangerous that was. We all had a big laugh when she took a big swig of an El Presidente beer as she rode past. Our driver told us that in the Dominican you could not use a cellphone while driving, but there are no laws against drinking!

While waiting to be flown out on the small aircraft to Haiti, we were amazed at the scene. There were private pilots from all over the world who flew down here simply to shuttle aid workers from the DR to Haiti

One pilot I spoke to was from Seattle. Probably about 40 years old. He admitted that he made some money in the last few years, spent 3.7 million dollars on a plane, and serves charities throughout the western hemisphere. He was shuttling people to Haiti, back and forth many times a day from the DR. They would also transfer supplies. We were assembling at a warehouse on airport grounds, apart from the terminal.


 I wouldn’t say that we were nervous, but there was a bit of apprehension as we awaited our airlift. Once we left the DR, we knew that our world would change.

When it came time for us to fly, imagine our surprise when we saw it was a Cape Air plane. The pilot usually flew from Hyannis to Nantucket, but in the winter obviously business was slow. The owner of Cape Air, Dan Wolf, donated two planes for the relief effort. It had cost him 80 thousand dollars thus far out of his pocket. Deeds like that should not go without recognition.
We then flew our Cape Air aircraft (pilot Spencer Day from Plymouth) across some pretty serious mountain ranges, elevation about 11,000 feet. Amazingly, there were actually primitive homes up there, with no visible access roads. They were growing some crops, maybe coffee, maybe something a little less legal.


As we passed over Port au Prince it was a truly amazing site. You could see the US Comfort anchored in the bay, an AWACS circling over the airport, and a constant stream of aircraft in line to land. Heard a Japanese air force jet request clearance for landing.

We passed over Port au Prince, at low altitude, and kept heading towards Jacmel. This is a beautiful little seaside town which was devastated by the quake. It is actually the same distance from the epicenter as Port au Prince.

Our guide told us that the devastation to Haiti was in part due to the engineering and building practices. He said that the San Francisco earthquake was of equal magnitude, but resulted in only 18 deaths. Thus far, there are over 200,000 confirmed fatalities.

Arrived in Jacmel. Quite a sight. Helicopters coming and going. The airport is controlled by the Canadian army. It is very reassuring to have them here.

We then loaded up a couple of vans and drove to a school run by the nuns. They have a secure room which is serving as a warehouse for our medical supplies.

Originally, it was planned that we would be sleeping on the grounds of the convent, but we were thrilled to hear that there was a house available for us to stay in. Most of the Haitians are still afraid to go into buildings. We are sharing the house with a team from Washington,D.C. Sleeping on the floor, but it beats braving the elements.

Tomorrow, they are sending us up into the mountains with a Cuban team. Apparently, there are many Haitians who have not been reached, and are unable to make it down. We do have the option of having them picked up by Canadian Army’s helicopter and flown to the USN Comfort.
More tomorrow.