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Haiti Photos

While I was in Haiti a couple of weeks ago working with World Concern I was able to do from the iPhone. Photos, video and audio recording as well as all my email! Below is a snap shot of our trip and the work that is being done there.

I was able to capture a few videos and post them on facebook. If we aren’t friends on yet, add me. I’d love to connect! Take a look at a few of the videos below.

World Concern Haiti Video 1
World Concern Haiti Video 2
World Concern Haiti Video 3

Blog Entry from Haiti January 6, 2011

I flew into Haiti this morning on the same plane as Sean Penn.  OK, that was the glamour portion of this blog entry and I wish I could tell you that I got an exclusive interview with him, but, in reality all I did was say “Hi”, he nodded, and then I took my seat back in coach.  But hey…I “met” Sean Penn!

The first thing that hit me after landing in Haiti was that I actually noticed changes immediately!  On prior trips getting through immigration and the airport took quite a while and was rather chaotic, but this time everything seemed more organized and more systematized.  It was a good start.

After leaving the airport we immediately went to a church where World Concern was leading a seminar on cholera prevention and treatment. 

Over 800 people attended. It was rather sobering, however, because the first topic was what to do if someone in your household dies from cholera: 1. Don’t touch the body, 2. Contact officials who will come take it away and bury it outside the city, 3. Learn how to use Lysol and Chlorine. All of the sudden the news reports of the cholera outbreak weren’t so “over there in Haiti” because I was now IN Haiti and the fear and grief were palpable.  I reached for and applied another dose of hand sanitizer.  Preventing cholera was taught as was what do at the first symptom of cholera.  The audience was very attentive.  Afterward, courtesy of donations to World Concern, everyone received a kit which contained water purification tablets, serum to mix with water if you develop symptoms, a one gallon jug for water, and soap.

After the seminar we went into an area of Port au Prince where World Concern has been building homes, and with over a million people still living under tarps these homes are desperately needed.  This was the part of my day that I was looking forward to most because last year our radio campaign provided the funds for hundreds of these homes and I wanted to see the progress.  I wasn’t disappointed.  We spent a good portion of the afternoon in the exact same spot I came to last March.  Back then it was totally devastated and, in fact, I saw human remains being taken from the massive rubble.  But today that exact same spot is totally transformed!

The highlight, by far, was meeting Widzer, a man now owning and occupying one of these homes.  After the earthquake he and what was left of his family were living under a tree.  When World Concern told him he would receive one of these new homes he jumped in to the effort with both feet.  He was part of the “Cash for Work” program funded by World Concern where he was hired to remove rubble from the area where the homes were going to be built.  Once the rubble was cleared and the construction started Widzer refused to occupy his new home until others had their homes built as well.  Widzer’s home was soon used as a staging area for the other homes getting built and pretty soon an entirely new community was established.  Widzer had such pride in his new home that he worked even harder and eventually was able to afford the addition of a front porch and an inside ceramic toilet.  The exact same spot which experienced such devastation was now an example of World Concern’s motto: Life, Opportunity, Hope.  Oh, and Widzer says that in this community with new homes (i.e. no one living in tents or under tarps) there hasn’t been a single case of cholera.

I feel surprisingly optimistic about Haiti, and I can’t say that I felt that when I was last here in August.  Yes, there are still some significant issues, namely political unrest, cholera and the overall poverty that has plagued this country for decades, but I see signs of hope.  Tomorrow we’ll spend the day interviewing more homeowners – I can’t wait!

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Haiti Cholera Prevention Training
Part 1

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Haiti Cholera Prevention Training
Part 2

iPhone-The Wonder Tool

An amazing thing happened yesterday. I was preparing for my trip to Haiti (I’m leaving today) and as I was packing I was putting all my tech gear together – audio recorder, video camera, microphones, camera – and it hit me: I don’t HAVE to pack all this equipment! Every piece of tech equipment I was packing is actually in my iPhone 4. Did I really HAVE to take all this other equipment? So, I checked and re-checked the quality of each app, and I e-mailed test videos, and I uploaded audio and I did all the necessary testing and decided to use my iPhone for everything! That was a bit scary. Can I really capture everything I need – at an acceptable quality – to communicate to radio and web audiences my experiences on this trip? I’m going to try! So, every post, every picture, every video, every audio bite from my trip will be captured on my iPhone 4. Let’s see how this goes. Today’s technology amazes me still.

P.S. Just top be sure I packed all that other equipment too…just in case :)

From under a tent in Haiti…

Yesterday, my last full day in Haiti, I experienced something I never want to experience again.  News reports predicted it.  I knew that it was just a matter of time.  Still, I was unprepared for the intensity of what I experienced and felt.  It rained.

On this recent trip to Haiti I spent my time in Grace Village, the 2^nd largest refugee camp in Haiti after the earthquake.  As the rain began Sunday evening about 20,000 displaced Haitians ran to take cover under tarps, in tents, and even under a scraggly tree in the middle of the compound.  The light rain intensified into a storm, then a downpour, then into what I can only describe as an onslaught of rain, wind, thunder and lightning.  The makeshift roads and pathways in this seven month old community soon became a decent size current of rain and mud sweeping through and between the thousands of tarps and tents.  I was in one of those tents.  I heard the rain slam against the roof and like thousands of others in that storm, I prayed that the tarp would hold.
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My home for the next three days

Tomorrow morning I fly again into Haiti.  I’ve been to Haiti three other times, the last time was shortly after the January 12th earthquake.   Last time I came to Haiti I stayed on the roof of the World Concern offices and brought in my own food and tent…this time I’m actually sleeping in a refugee camp with 22,000 other people.

This time I’m coming down to Haiti to capture stories for Forward Edge International, a ministry based in Vancouver, Washington.  It’s a quick trip – just three days – but already I can feel myself being anxious.  I’m not anxious about staying in a tarp city or about the inevitable lack of sleep I’ll get by living next to so many people with nothing but a tarp between us.  I’m getting a sense of anxiety because I know that on Monday I’ll be getting on a plane and flying back home to my comfortable life in Wilsonville, Oregon.  How will I feel about that?   And I have other questions: What will I say to the Haitian people I interview when I leave them, knowing that they’ll still be living in a tent, still struggling to survive, still battling the rains and the poverty that is Haiti, and I’ll be safe and secure back in my world?  How will I be different from this trip?  Will my empathy and passion increase, or will I see the conditions and justify it away in my mind?  Those are the types of questions that raise my anxiety level.
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