Physical Therapy Haiti Relief: April 2

Today has been a very interesting and insightful day. I got on my flight to Miami just fine… I even had the seat next to me open. In the plane, you could tell who was an American relief worker/missionary and who was going home. A lot of cultural observations were made in this environment. Upon arriving to Port-au-Prince International Airport, I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. At the airport was one landing strip that we landed and turned around on to get to a makeshift terminal. After being loaded onto buses, we went through immigration… which was a joke!

So I’ve learned that everything here runs REALLY REALLY SLOW! It took about 30-45 minutes for the luggage to come out, then the real adventure began! From the inside of the makeshift luggage return you could see the outside of the building with large red bars separating the arriving passengers and the people outside. While carrying my 2 large and 2 small bags, I went out hoping, no praying, my ride was there! Sure enough, they weren’t…. but there were plenty of men out there will to help carry my bags if I paid them. A man called my ride and I wanted around for a bit of time for them to arrive. This is when I discovered how corrupt things are here. The police officer was very selective who he allowed into the gate to get passengers. These were older men /c disabilities and his friends. Every body wanted through… It was crazy!