Trip to Haiti

Please scroll to the very bottom of this post to read from the bottom up.



Here is our team from Santo Domingo. Some of the greatest individuals I have ever met. I can only hope that their endlessly positive attitudes on top of their passions to help in some way rubbed off on me. Historically Haitian-Dominican relations have been a point of contention as at one point Haiti overthrew the Dominican government. Although, on this day you never would have known it. On this day they were people helping people. I am lucky to have joined them.

We drove back into Santo Domingo nearly 24 hours after we had left. Where we left with nine people our van became even fuller as we returned with ten. One of the volunteers who rode in the truck to Haiti returned in our auto. Not thinking it was possible the van became even more packed, and we must have bottomed out at least fifty times while driving. Both to and from Haiti the car was filled with laughter. Unfortunately, I do not speak Spanish well enough to know exactly was being said both to and fro. Yet, sometimes we experience and hear things that we cannot concretely understand, but somehow through the aura we feel it 100% nonetheless. I knew what they meant and my Spanish speaking friend corroborated my belief...we were thankful to have safely made it to and from Haiti to work hard helping those in need. It had been a very long day and we were hungry, tired and emotionally and mentally drained. We would do it all over in a heartbeat, and we knew there was still so much to be done.

I hope that I make it back to Haiti soon!

While driving up and down the hills of Port au Prince views of neighborhoods below could be seen. Houses that toppled to the ground were seen in mass.


Click of the image to see a larger view of the picture.

As the food was running low I was completely exhausted. I had not slept for over 30 hours, I was doing hard manual labor, the environment was one of desperation and stress and I had not eaten since my dinner the night before. Thankfully I was a good amount of water but I am sure that I could have used twice as much. I rested here with everyone for a minute but soon realized that I was sitting on the very food that people were crying out for. I did not think this was a good message to send. The last thing people want to see is a white man sitting on boxes of food after just being told that there is not enough to go around.

From the coloring of my shirt you can see that I was soaked in sweat. Not only is it humid in the Caribbean but everyone was working very hard.

As the food began to run low people in the streets began to get restless as they realized they were waiting for nothing.

Since the time we arrive at the YMCA at 11:00 am a crowd had began to form. In just over two hours we unloaded the truck, separated the food and passed it out. Word may have spread around the neighborhood about our efforts as more and more people were showing up when we had less food to give. The people in this picture are about 15 feet from the food. They were yelling at us to give them food. Actually they were begging. In English, Spanish and Creole the requests were relentless. The sincerity in their voices made them painful to ignore. If you spoke with any one of them you heard the same story of their family starving and needing help. While I and everyone else wanted to just hand them food we could not. If we circumvented our own system it is unknown what the result may be. Instead we turned a blind eye, but there was no way to stop listening which made us feel even worse. At the end of the day there was only one thing on all our minds, we need more food, we need more water, we need more help.

Here sits an American YMCA volunteer who rode with us from Santo Domingo. She is speaking with a young woman who lost her father and brother in the quake. The boy to her left lost both of his parents.

Here volunteers are about to pass out boxes of food to people waiting in line.

We believe that we passed out 600 of these or so.

Each box was marked with the YMCA letters. This was to act as a friendly reminder to recipients as to who provided this food for them.

Here we are creating the final boxes. Within each box contained the following and more: Rice, corn meal, candles, cooking oil, toilet paper, matches, two bottles of water, top romin, tampons, beans, toothbrush, soap and much more.

Since the prepackaged boxes and other bulk supplies were closed and bundled together I gave my fellow volunteers my knives to use. While I gave them out freely to help with the work that needed to be done I questioned whether I would ever see them again. This was my mistake in that when I went looking for them the Haitian youth were very helpful in helping me track down what I came with. The only thing that I did not leave with was a soccer ball that I brought. A young man was very thankful to have received it as a gift. I made him promise that he would put it to good use and practice often. Haitians LOVE soccer.

At first we moved the food again to the street where it would be repackaged. However, after one round of doing this it was decided to do the prepacking inside the YMCA gate. Just imagine putting all this food in front of hundreds of starving people and asking them to wait patiently while we sorted it for them.....they did wait patiently, but the right decision to move this operation within the gates was made.


This picture is of the two Executive Directors from Haiti and The Dominican Republic.



We had good leadership throughout the entire time we were in Haiti. This kept the process moving along. Here we are receiving directions on our next steps since all of the food had been unloaded.

These are the prepackaged boxes.

Here you can see 17 tons of food being unloaded and sorted by food type.

We needed to unload all the items from the truck and fast to get the food to hungy Hatians. The entire time we were there our team seemed to be working at the speed of light. After all there was no time to waste and everyone knew it.

In bulk the truck was packed with Toilet paper, rice, corn meal and around 600 prepackaged boxes of basic necessities.

Our supply truck was backed into the YMCA property which was thankfully gated off in all directions. This would come to be very important as hungry Haitians surrounded the area. A large squad of local young men and women were there waiting in YMCA uniform to help unload the truck. These volunteers were YMCA participants, and were they themselves subject to the hunger and loss that came with the quake. They were all very hard working and curteous. It would take a this type of character in large numbers to get through the work we had ahead of us.

Having the police on hand made all the difference. They cornered off the streets so that no vehicles could get through. As a sign of strength they were armed with shot guns and semi-automatic weapons. Their presence definitely kept the peace as food was unloaded and repackaged. The crowd got a bit pushy when food was being distributed but they kept everyone in line. When the food began to run out and people realized they had been waiting in line for hours and would not get food the crowd began to turn to an uglier side of pure survival. Without the police presence during this time my story would surely have a much different ending, and I may not have even lived to tell it.

Here is a picture of Don Andreas locking the door of our van. He is the Executive Director of the YMCA Dominican Republic. Through his leadership in conjunction of the Executive Director of YMCA Haiti and YMCA International this relief effort was made possible.

Here is the YMCA when we arrived.

Turn a corner and there would be a small tent city bustling with activity.

















UN Police troops were there but in very few numbers.


This is the entrance to a tent city. This one is guarded heavily.

Cracks appeared in walls all over the city. People sat by them and on them as if it were no big deal. A large percentage of people starred at us in since we drove into the country. I am sure that they had never seen the number of foreigners and autos like they had recently. Many people made gestures that they were hungry. It was not an easy sight to see as desperation weighed heavy on their faces. Naturally the toughest site was that of children pleading for help.



If you look closely you will see a crushed Jeep Cherokee automobile.


Multiple stories came down on one another. This was a reoccurring theme.







Small fires could be seen in great frequency. Larger ones were also burning in the distance as smoke from them could clearly be seen. By the time we got to the city we fortunately did not see dead bodies in the street, and I was lucky not to have seen a single one all day. However, the smell of burning bone was in the air acting as a constant reminder of the loss of life which ravaged this country. You will see many people wearing masks in an attempt to limit these aromatic fumes. I chose not to join them since it would take away from the realness of the situation I was in. By the end very few people were wearing them because we were working so hard that we needed to be able to take full breaths.

All of a sudden damaged buildings were everywhere. Driving into the Port au Prince from the border we saw a few structures with damaged walls and maybe a small structure falling but nothing like this.



I began to see tent cities before I saw damaged buildings....this was not a good sign.

As we entered Port au Prince I quickly realized that it was a city like none I had ever seen before. Dominicans say that it is a fourth world country if such a thing existed. People were everywhere in the streets and traffic was incredibly backed up. Even though the country is recovering from the quake life goes on for these Haitians as they work hard to survive.

We stopped at a gas station where we were greeted by the Haitian YMCA director and leadership volunteers who introduced themselves in English. We were thankful to have met up with them. Prior to this we stopped in a small town to call them from a local's cell phone. As we used the phone and waited a small but growing number of Haitians began to surround our vehicle. They were probably just curious. Within the van you could feel the tension in the air even though we were parked across from the police station. There were no officers in site. We could not leave soon enough.


The pond with the mountains in the background and to the sides was a spectacular sight. Even though the mountains where dry with only small brush growing on them it made for amazing scenery. These mountains stretch far off into the distance around this body of water. Where one mountain would end a larger one could be seen in the distance. It was a beautiful ride in. Even though it was early in the morning Hatian fisherman where fishing with only a string and hook.


Our truck that contained supplies followed us down the road into Haiti. On one side were the mountains and on the other was a large body of water Etang Saumatre which is considered a huge pond.

White rocks protrude from the Haitian mountains.


As we left the border town to drive into Haiti dawn began to break. It would give us the opportunity to see the lush green landscape that the Dominican Republic consists of. Just over the border in Haiti the landscape resembled a dry and arid climate with much different vegetation. Over the past century and beyond the Haitian land has been drastically over farmed and harvested. At the border there were not any Haitian military units, customs or anything. While the country now is riddled with poverty it used to be the most prosperous region in the Caribbean.


Here people crowd around this woman waiting for her signature to move onto the next station.

Even though I had a measles shot at a young age I received a new vaccination. Also, I was given a tetanus shot and pills to fight malaria. Once all this was done I waited for nearly twenty minutes for a registration card that acknowledged these procedures. Everyone waited for this card and it turned out that we never needed to present it. However, if I go back this may come in handy.

There were dozens of people standing at the central command post. Nobody seemed to know what was going on, and there were not any people leading this large group of people through the process of registering for the convoy. Basically we had to wait in line at each station which turned out to be for inoculations. However, you could hear the same questions being asked and translated in multiple languages, "what are these shots for", "do we need to receive them", "who is in charge", "where do we go from here?".......chaos. This was only the beginning though.


When we arrived at the border town of Jimani at 5:00 am or so there were many people, vehicles and supplies there. The best way to describe the situation is pure chaos. Everyone was trying to get ready for the convoy which would drive together into Haiti. Safety in numbers. I thought that this convoy would be protected by UN troops. This may have been the case, but I do not know since our van of volunteers and the truck with supplies ended up leaving earlier than most of the other vehicles. Here you see just a few of the numerous ambulances waiting to go into Haiti.

Just before we arrived at the town which borders Haiti the truck in front of us took a hard turn snapping its ropes which secured its cargo. Thousands of pounds of flour were now covering the majority of the road. Unfortunately we could not stop to move it because we were trying to make it on time to meet up with a convoy going into Haiti. I am sure this obstacle caused major problems for traffic in this area.


Ten of us left in a nine passenger van from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic for Port au Prince, Haiti at 9:45 pm on January 23, 2010. My friend Darren Reid and I joined YMCA staff members in this journey. They are amazing men who kept high spirits throughout the entire ordeal. The ride turned out to be incredibly long to Haiti as we turned around two times going at least two hours out of our way and we had a flat tire. The four of us in the way back were beyond cramped during the whole ride....sleeping was nearly impossible and I did not rest the entire night.


Here is a close up picture of the interior of the YMCA. The director of the organization said that the reason all of the items remained untouched nearly two weeks after the earthquake is because people in the neighborhood had their eye out for any suspicious activities. Apparently they would question anyone who looked as though they were there for the wrong reasons. The public perception of the good work YMCA does in the community is a testament to why all the organization's items remained in place and untouched. Even inside a computer remains.

Here is a picture of the YMCA in Port au Prince, Haiti. Many of the buildings in the same neighborhood were subject to a similar level of destruction.


Our goal was to transport, deliver and disseminate 17 tons of food to Haiti. The food would be given to Haitian residents who lived in the neighborhood where the YMCA of Haiti is located.







My trip to Haiti was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. Visiting a third world country that has just been ravaged by a natural disaster proved to be an eye opener beyond belief. The pictures and descriptions above in no way do the experience justice. However, hopefully if even in a marginal way the impact that I felt can also be felt by you then the large amount of time I spent on this post will be worth it.