On the Road

I spoke with Elena last night and she said that they had been on the road for about two hours. It had taken them a bit of time to organize everything and get packed up and that it was about 70 of them on a bus and several cars and that they were being joined by 20 Germans with another organization that had just arrived to help. She told me that it was going to be about a five hour drive, but that they most likely wouldn´t be able to cross the border into Haiti because the U.S. Military had set up a timetable as to when people could cross. She said that once they set up camp that they were all going to be divided into teams, which consist of more or less the following, 2 to 3 Doctors, a water specialist, 4 people skilled in first aid and rescue (in this case Elena) and 4 volunteers. We agreed that I would call her in the morning, which I did and as you can see from my first blog entry this morning she is OK! THey had just crossed the border into Haiti about an hour before and they were going to start setting everything up. She sent me an e-mail of her night on the road which I´m going to post here along with some pictures and a video of one of the medical specialists giving some information on the organization.

Elena´s entry:

We just arrived in jimani after a long and rigorous ride filled with flat tires, dirt roads, and vehicles packed completley with volunteers and supplies. I was half asleep when we got here, but it was the bright lights of border control that woke me up. All 70 of us filled the streets and placed our mats on the ground, check out the pictures, it's not your ordinary king size bed with 500 thread count sheets, but at this moment in time is seems like heaven to all of us.

I'm laying down staring at the stars as I write this and the only thing that is going through my mind right now is that borderline. It's literally the only thing separating me from the reality of chaos on the other side. I've seen pictures, news stories, I´ve even been to some funerals, but I have never been exposed to something as real as what I'm about to expeirence in a few hours. It's rather quiet in the area we stopped in. It's far enough from the hospitals that we are not in the chaos, but close enought to where I can still hear a women crying. I just keep on telling myself that this is not even a glimpse of what is to come tomorrow.

On a happier note...
On our ride to the border I had the pleasure of sitting next to Ouldwin. He is a 29 year old paramedic who is happily married with two children. He is just one volunteer of the many on this amazing team that I'm traveling with. Of course, being stuck in the back seat of a truck we struck up a conversation and I found out that this will be his third time into Haiti for this disaster alone. This does not count the multiple times he was there before, for months, for previous disasters that Haiti experienced. When I look in his eyes all I can see is courage and kindness. It makes me feel good to know I will be working side by side with someone with a heart of gold. I asked him if he enjoyed being a paramedic and if he wanted to continue studying medicine, he said that it´s an honor to be able to help people and if studying medicine will make him better qualified then it's exactly what he's going to do. Being around people like this makes me realize that there are good people in the world. I can only pray to be as good as a person as my friend Ouldwin.

Time to catch a power nap before we begin the second part of our journey into Haiti in 2 hours...

Video of one of the medical specialists

Loading the truck

Water Supply