Laurie with MAF Haiti

I arrived in Haiti on Monday evening having travelled from Toronto via Montreal to Port-au-Prince the capital city here.

Some of the tents in one of the tent cities

Although the earthquake happened over 12 months ago (January 2010) there are still many reminders of the terrible event around. Many, many people are still living in the tent cities, either too afraid to go back to their houses, or their houses are just piles of rubble so they have nothing to go back to.

Damage at the main terminal

In the areas that I have visited since I came there has been some obvious damage due to the earthquake. The main terminal at the international airport is one major example.

However it is actually quite hard to spot the difference between damage and building in most areas. Everywhere you look, as in Africa, there are houses being built or in various stages of being built.  They all even have the re-bar sticking out of the top of the house in the same way as Kampala. Apparently it is something to do with the fact that if the house is being built then there are no taxes applicable, hence everyone's house looks unfinished!

MAF Hangar in Port-au-Prince

My reason for being here was to visit the MAF Haiti program and help them install and demonstrate the flight planning software that MAF have developed over the past few years. We have been using the program in Uganda for as long as I have been flying there (just over 8 years now) and as a pilot and IT guy I have had cause to use it and can really see its benefits to our work there. Haiti had requested to see if it would be able to meet their needs and seeing as I was in the same hemisphere (Toronto) I said that I would be happy to go down and help them install it, explain a bit about how it works and also to get a feel for how the Haiti MAF program operates. While we are all MAF, every program has its own way of serving the Lord and so for me to be able to see first hand how things were done here would help the development team in tailoring the software so that it accommodates their particular method.

Michael and his house

It has been a really productive time here so far and I have thoroughly enjoyed being here. The majority of the international staff are from the US and my hosts, Michael and Karen and Caydence their 6 year old daughter have looked after me very well.

Multiple people

Brightly colored tap tap

In a lot of ways Haiti is very similar to Uganda, there is a high level of poverty, building work, and the need for MAF to be there is obvious. Even the Matatus (minibus taxys) in Uganda are replicated here, except here they are called 'tap taps'. Apparently when you wish to stop, you simply tap on the side of the vehicle and they will let you off.  The big difference though is that the 'tap taps' are very brightly colored with some really intricate designs on them. There must be a coffee table book somewhere with lots of examples.... They also manage to cram a multitude of people onto them - 'there's always room for one more'!

Beautiful Bougainvillea

Bougainvillea is prevelant here - I commented that I could have taken this photo in my back yard in Kampala.
Creole is the local language here which is derived from french, however, since I gave up french at school at 16, I am only able to pick up a little of the words that are similar. The MAF team here have to attend language school before they start and so the majority of them are pretty fluent with the locals.
While I am biased and think that the mangoes in Uganda are the best in the world, there are some pretty tasty ones grown here too - every day on the way home from the airport we pass pick-up trucks stuffed with them.
I am here until next Monday so if I get a chance I will post some more later.

Both these pick-ups are stuffed with mangoes