Trip to Port Au Prince

Jan 8th, 2016

Traveling to PAP

Last Friday we left for Port Au Prince to take Cecile to the airport on Saturday. We also needed to see if our missing suitcase had shown up and to do some shopping. The trip to PAP was uneventful. We arrived just after noon and went to the airport cargo to look for our missing bag, it was not there. We were sent over to the airport to get a paper from the missing baggage desk that we were suppose to fax to American Airlines, we don’t know of any fax machines in Haiti. There are very few land lines even to have a fax. When we got to Mathew 25 we filled out the form trying to remember all that was in the bag, although that is not too hard because everything we pack we need. Cecile took the form back to the US to fax for us. I really would rather have the bag than the money for the claim, as I said everything we pack we need. To replace the things here would be very expensive if we could find them. An example would be a small box of off brand pancake mix is almost 7.00 US.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Mathew 25 guest house,. Bob and Cecile and our friend Lamont went to the store to get some things, As they left the store many people started to run toward the store and the guards closed the gates. Two opposing demonstrations were marching toward each other on the street. Although there were guns present no shots were fired and the police and UN troops disbursed the crowds, after a short time the gates were opened and everyone could leave.

There was an election in Haiti for the new president last fall. The opposition is saying it was a faulty election. We have asked different people and no one seems to know what the problem was. There was suppose to be a runoff election in January but because of all the demonstrations it has been put off until April. The President said he would not step down so there was a lot of anger among the opposition.

Saturday morning we did our shopping. We went to a new store that is kind of like a Target. They are pretty expensive and we decided we could live without the things we looked at. Then we went to a builders supply. It is very large but has a very small parking lot. Many of the shoppers were Americans. We found what we were looking for, for the most part and after getting loaded up we went to the grocery store.

In PAP there are now several American type grocery stores selling many of the items we are used to for very a high price. We were shopping for the sisters, Anita and Elwood and the doctor’s house plus our selves. I first spotted beautiful heads of broccoli our diet does not include fresh vegetables so it looked so good, but doing the math it was almost 8.00 Us and I decided it was just to expensive. Maybe another month and it will be just too hard to refuse ( I am a vegetarian). We are also getting fresh tomatoes from my roof top garden so they are helping with our need for fresh vegetables.

We finished shopping and were on our way to a restaurant that serves almost American food, when the traffic stopped and cars started turning around. Fear of a demonstration made us take back roads back to Mathew 25 to access the situation for our return home. Lamonth made phone calls and Bob checked a website that people working here have to let everyone know about what is going on. A town on the national highway Arcahaie was having a big demonstration and the highway was closed. There is a back road we can take and decided we would return on that road. We had given a lady and her daughter a ride to PAP and we were going to pick them up on our way out of town. When we stopped to pick them up police came to the car. We showed them our paper work and the paper we had showed our insurance had expired. We paid for the new insurance but forgot to get the new paper from our friend Domade. The police wanted to keep Bob’s license and give us a ticket. We could not reach Domade on the phone, so Johnny suggested we give the police some money so they wouldn’t give us the ticket. We gave them 20.00 US and Bob got his license back and we were free to go.

When we got to the National highway Johnny asked us to stop so he could be sure where we would need to turn off for this other road. While there he found out the National Highway was now open the demonstration was over. So we proceeded on the National Highway, when we got to Arcahaie there was a burned van in the middle of the road and a man who was dead lying in the road. The sight of the man still haunts me. There were lots of police cruising the road and UN trucks coming toward us. The next town we came to had stacks of tires in the road and many people on the sides of the road. It wasn’t more than fifteen minutes after we passed through that Bob got a message on his phone that a demonstration had broke out in that town. It was the grace of God we passed through without problem.

Fortunately the rest of the trip went smoothly. We didn’t get home until 8:30 pm but all was well and we were safe. Yesterday morning we go news the president did step down and things feel calmer now. Hopefully things will stay calm until the next election and we will be back in the States by then. This week is Carnival so people are partying and not worried about the election. I pray for the family of the man we saw laying in the road, and for all the people injured and killed for their political beliefs.

Thank you for your prayers and your interest,

Denise