Common Sights in Haiti

As I read what I have written and looked at pictures I have posted, I realize it does not even begin to tell the story of what Haiti looks like. So as we were driving around the other day I decided to take some pictures.

Charcoal is commonly used to cook. It is sold on the street and is nothing like our clean grilling charcoal. You can see from quite a distance where it is being sold just from the black residue it leaves on everything.

This is a common sight in Haiti, a man pulling a giant dolly thing packed full of wood or metal. It is not uncommon to see these things full of pieces of metal from a stripped down car with 2-3 guys pulling/pushing it.

Another common street. As you can see trash piled high, behind the trash what you can not see is an open gutter with all sorts of grossness flowing in it.

So all the above pictures are of Carrefour. This is the area that we have been asked to build a school in. It is probably the worst conditions I have seen in Haiti. It is amazing how just when you think you have seen the most horrifying, sickening, unlivable, poverty stricken, disgusting, heart breaking situation you see one worse. And the one you saw before becomes suddenly "not so bad". I think this is how one talks themselves into thinking this situation here is "not so bad". I am pretty sure if you had these responses every time you drove down the street you may just freeze with an inability to act or worse yet somehow rationalize that the situation is somehow deserved or okay because someone "does not know any different". I hope that we do not freeze and will certainly never think starving people is okay, but will continue to be able find ways to take action. We are still working on what that will look like. And with every dark cloud there is a silver lining. The silver lining here to me is the people. The conditions are dire, the people are lovely.

This is what the streets that are paved look like. Giant, unmarked pot holes or manholes without covers and of course the trash as well as the cars parked on the sidewalks etc.

Which is why our car very often looks like this. I will say Rachel and I are now expert tire changers even with our super sorry jack that has a bent piece of rhibar as the lever.

This week we went on a search for new rims. Our car has been making a funny noise after we loaded it down with 11 people and drove it to the beach. We have tried all sorts of things to see what the problem was. After 3 new rims and getting the tires balanced the noise is gone. One of the greatest things and most frustrating things about Haiti is the lack of rules. While the car was jacked up and the guys were working on it BJ & BT were squatted down Haitian style the whole time next to the mechanic watching. They were in little boy heaven.

I have been wanting to post a picture of this since day 1. There are guys like this all over. He is sitting on a pile of what I assume was cinder block rubble from the earthquake. Everyday he is out there hacking away. The rubble turns to big rock to small rock and eventually to gravel which they sift through to get sand to make more cinder blocks. Everyday, in the sun, on a pile of rocks hammering away.

I think it is BJ dream job.

Another picture I have been dying to post. The pill men. Guys walk around here selling pills on the street. There are just these giant towers of pills. I assume you can buy anything you want. I know from working in the clinic people buy everything from hypertension meds to antibiotics on the street. In fact, it is common practice for a woman to take 1 Penicillin at the end of her monthly cycle. Just one, every month. I can not even being to tell you the issues I have with this, let alone people diagnosing themselves with everything from diabetes to high-blood pressure and treating themselves as such.

And one of my favorite views. The hillside kind of near our house. I love the way this city looks. You have to blow up the picture to even have an idea of what I mean. House on top of house on top of house. And it is beautiful to me.