Quit your whining... Here's a bit more.

So I was given some harsh criticism for my failure to give basically any details about my trip to Haiti on here. So to remedy that I post a slideshow of pictures (above) with some captions briefly describing what's going on. Click on the "view all" button to read complete captions.

Here is my journal entry on my first morning in Haiti. I wrote this while sitting on a 3rd story balcony overlooking the street. It was early in the morning and I just wrote whatever came into my head at the time:

"to wake up in a third world country is to wake up in a different world. The city of Gonaivs began to stir long before I got up at 6 am. This city is not beautiful at least not as far as I see from the third story balcony of the Paradis hotel. It reminds me a lot of the missionaries homes in Africa.

Gonavies is the sort of city that seems like it ought to be beautiful, but because of poverty and deforestation it is dusty and mostly filled with dreary, dirt colored buildings. But it certainly seems vibrant. Last night the street were bustling well after 9 pm and well before 5 this morning. It is interesting to just sit here and watch the traffic go by...people on bikes, cramed into colorfully painted flatbeds and school buses, piled into the backs of pickups, double or triple on motorbikes, or simply walking.

I know I must be in plain view of the street, but no one sees me. No one ever looks up. Some women just walked by with huge plastic tubs balanced on their heads. I keep looking for signs of movement on the eroding, brown, mountains, but I see none. Perhaps I am just too far away to tell, but it seems lifeless.

I need to go eat breakfast, but I really just want to sit here and watch. It's odd being here watching, yet unseen. I'm not a white person. I'm not a celebrity. I'm not even here. Now it's time to face the people, Haiti and my group.

Some small children have noticed me. It is always the children who see things most clearly. They waved, I waved. I wish I could go out and play. But I have to be a grown up and I must behave myself and be safe because everyone seems to expect me to be kidnapped the moment I step out of the compound. "
- March 11, 2007

If I'm in the mood I may post more later.