Back to Haiti

OK, it’s been way too long since I’ve posted something. Things have been crazy to say the least, but that’s no excuse for letting this blog go entirely…

I’ve been back and forth to Haiti a couple of times since my last post, and each trip was very eventful. Aftershocks have calmed significantly. There were a few very strong shakes in the weeks immediately following the quake, but during my most recent visit I only felt one very small shake. Still, I find myself constantly thinking about being prepared for aftershocks. I refused when the hotel I stayed at asked me to move from the 1st floor to the 4th floor for fear of not having time to make it out of the building during a quake. Any time I walk into any building I find myself thinking about where the closest exits are. I don’t expect to experience another major aftershock, but better to be ready nonetheless.

Our big news is that my wife, Michaela, and I will be moving to Haiti to live and work beginning in June. It’s something we had been discussing quite a bit since the earthquake. The need in Haiti is great, and I feel that I can be more effective in my job while I am on the ground. I will continue to manage activities out of our Haiti office and Michaela will search for a work opportunity in the education or psychosocial field where she can put her school counseling background to good use.

Work hours in Haiti have been crazy, as there's always more to do. I’m constantly busy, balancing my time in the office dealing with administrative issues and fielding e-mails, visiting our program partners, completing reports for our donors, and attending numerous meetings in between. We hired a shipping coordinator in March to help manage our relief distributions and he's done a great job, so that has helped tremendously.

With the major influx of organizations coming into Haiti, there has been a huge increase in demand for nice housing. The home and apartment rental prices have doubled and tripled in some cases. Traffic has been insane. Many of the back roads throughout the city are blocked, so traffic is naturally funneled up and down the main roads. One day it can take you 20 minutes to get somewhere, and the next day it can take you an hour and a half.

Rainy season has officially arrived. It has rained through the entire night on a number of occasions, making life even tougher for people living in camps. About thirty camps in the Port-au-Prince area have been identified by the Camp Management cluster as being at a higher risk to flooding and planning is underway to have them relocated to safer areas.

At the same time, life in camps is getting a bit better. People are getting creative with small businesses such as barber shops and restaurants under tarps. Electricity has been wired in, and it's now common to see groups of people circled around a tent watching soccer matches. This is the new norm…

Most organizations, including Cross International, are beginning to move from a short-term response to mid and long-term responses. It is a transition from the "relief" phase to the "recovery" phase. We know that shipping rice and beans to Haiti to give away is not a sustainable activity. Focus is moving to education, transitional housing, cash for work, and psychosocial support programs among other things. As delicate as the situation currently is in Haiti, there is much hope for the future given the amount of attention the country is receiving from the international community.

Looking back, I can’t help but wonder why our office building sustained almost no damage in the earthquake, while almost every building and home in the area either fell or had major damage. I don’t think it was any mistake that I happened to arrive in Haiti on the morning of the earthquake, and I don’t think it is any coincidence that Michaela and I don’t have any kids, don’t own a home, and have basically nothing else holding us back from making the move. We took our time in making this decision, but eventually decided that it was all part of the master plan.