Day 2 - Part 2
We had a chance to visit the feeding center at the Food For The Poor Headquarters in Port au Prince. Each day, Monday through Saturday, the center feeds approximately 15,000 people. People walk for miles to the center to receive their only meal for the day, a meal that consists of rice, beans, and a bit of stew. Typcially, it is the job of the young girls in the family who are not going to school to fetch the food in large buckets that you see at Home Depot. Imagine having your meal - your only meal - delivered in a plastic utility bucket. The lines start early in the morning and go on until the late afternoon. Since the center only operates 6 out os 7 days, this means that these 15,000 go without food on Sunday.
It was determined that it was safe enough for us to visit Cite Soleil after visiting the feeding center. Cite Soleil is considered by many to be the poorest slum in the Western Hemisphere, and in recent years was the epicenter of most of the gang in-fighting and violence in Haiti. What we saw was shocking - garbage piled in massive heaps, open sewage, children everywhere with sores and no clothes. But the sign of poverty that moved me the most was when we saw the women making "Mud Cookies" to sell and to feed their families: Bouillon, water, salt, seasoning, and dirt left to dry out in the sun. As a mother, I cannot fathom getting to the point where the only option I had in feeding my children was to feed them seasoned dirt.
We left Cite Soleil completely drained.
Day 3 - Part 1
Early the next morning, we left on a puddle jumper for the city of Cap Haitien in the northern part of Haiti. On the way to the airport, I saw public service announcement billboards telling the public about the new anti-kidnapping law that was just put into effect. Somehow, that was mildly encouraging. As you near the airport, you also see the UN bases. Compared to my last visit to Haiti, I did notice fewer UN armored vehicles (tanks?!) on the roads, and more light armored vehicles in the form of pickup trucks. I took that as a sign of lessening tensions. Flying out of Port au Prince, one notices that many of the houses in Haiti have no roofs. This is because that many of the more "middle class" families when building a cinderblock home will only build a lower level and then partially construct the upper level. If you put a roof on your house and paint it, that means you have to pay more taxes. The overall effect is one of a seemingly bleak warzone.
As we arrived in Cap, we saw the morning workers getting ready to vend their goods: the sugar cane carts, the man pushing a heavy cart full of raw meat in 90* temperatures, women carrying impossibly heavy buckets or bowls in their heads. Without all the heavy traffic, it was easy to see the canals between the homes running with open sewage and garbage.
As we settled into Cap, Delane and Jim McDaniel (the Operation Startfish Director) announced our upcoming suprise visit to the prison where we were to free 4 prisoners and provide them with a care package as they started their new life.
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