Unrest in Haiti

Dave Rivard writes to us from Haiti, describing the deteriorating situation:

12/08/10

Last night was pretty bad, today is worse. All airlines and borders are shut down. There is a complete (far as I’ve heard, blackout on news, excepting Metropol. A lot of gunfire and bombs et al. and an unsuccessful attempt to burn down several government buildings and the Kinam (right outside my window) last night.

The airport is completely locked down with no flights from ANYONE till further notice. Needless to say, all roads are curfewed, and we saw the police carry away a guy walking down the street. The ones visible to us are all blocked anyway with hundreds of burning tires—that’s just from our little neighborhood. When you think of it, the government won’t budge, MINUSTAH is verboten on the streets, so that only leaves the Haitian police in control. They retreated with their limited resources to their police stations, so you do have in fact an anarchic situation. All UN staffers and I would guess all major NGO’’s are completely locked down. Our neighbors are all sitting on their roofs watching a serious 4^th of July celebration, complete with live ordinance for the fireworks. Recon helicopters are overhead—is this on CNN?

12/13/10

There are still tires burning in the streets and smoke everywhere… even the police seem sympathetic to the protesters--which is worrying, since if the re-tally is not what is wanted, I fear we will have an all out revolution in this country. There is absolutely NO food in the grocery stores except for a few bottles of ketchup. Today I had the last of cereal we had at the apartments. There is no more food or water…. The UN is under complete lockdown. UN employees are ordered to stay in their apartments and commercial flights are not operating....

To see Dave's videos visit our Youtube channel here.

Somnang a Year Later

Pinch me!!! Pinch me!!! Pinch me!!!

I've dreamt about this day since June - wanting to relive our day together, Somnang and I.

Mr. "Rock'' - our tuk-tuk driver - drove us to Kerry's house, and Somnang was taking a nap. Srey Mau - the house mother - brought her downstairs and just the sight of her "healed" me.

Of course I gave Kerry and her family a photobook of the pictures I had taken on my last visit to the orphanage and it was so interesting to observe Somnang looking at her pics of Oct 2009 when we found her naked, homeless, motherless and nameless under a house.

Now she's safe & secure, growing, learning, AND PLAYING! Yesterday we brought Somnang and two of her older sisters (now she is the youngest of nine at Kerry's house) to our hotel pool. Ahhhh. Squeals of delight - and that was just me! Then to the ice cream parlor.

Gotta run. We're off to Geraldine Cox's place to have lunch with her 100+ children there!

Deb Quigley
AAI Volunteer

Living on Trash

I’ve been frustrated for the last seven days that ‘aukun,’ thank you, is one of the only words I know in Khmer. But I’ve found that being equipped with ‘thank-you’ is better than nothing, and I am grateful that the Cambodians we’ve met so far are so forgiving. Today we find ourselves on the outskirts of Siem Reap, a major Cambodian tourist town thanks to the nearby temples of Angkor Wat.

In the small community we have just driven into, our 4wheel-drive truck is the the only vehicle in sight, and the pot holes in the road made the experience closer to ‘off roading’ than driving. There is a small ‘store’ where a woman sells packaged sweets and some rice, although she explains through a translator that even that will be hard soon since her homemade roof is falling in.

This impoverished community’s livelihood is the nearby trash dump, which boasts tourist hotel trash, and most ‘commerce’ revolves around this harsh economic reality.

A visit from outsiders is not often seen and calls for an invitation from the village head. We crawl up a ladder to a one room house set eight feet off the ground on stilts for when the rains come. As always we are accompanied by children we’ve never met and some interested onlookers. The person in charge turns out to be an ancient-looking woman who holds the card to the rice distribution system managed by our guide, Kerry's, NGO called New Hope Cambodia.

Every other week the village head goes to the rice distribution station and gets extra sacks of rice for everyone in her community.

Most of those who have been lucky enough to find employment in this community are men who have been drafted into the Cambodian army. They are absent for long stretches of time and are paid about $50 a month. Their wives stay within the community and raise the children, occasionally collecting usable items or food from the nearby trash dump to live. Almost no one has a roof, let along a steady income.

As we sit with the village head, Kerry tries to explain through her translator (a middle schooler who lives with her at the NGO base) that she is very sorry that they have not been able to fix the village well or sponsor any new families. A humanitarian organization put in a well about 6 months ago, but they did not dig deep enough, even though the villagers tried to explain how to get below the toxic upper layer of dirt, and now they have a new well that does not function so they’re still pulling dirty water from the old well. This is enough to make Kerry cry, since she feels that this community has depended on her and she has let them down.

The village head looks a little confused by this blatant display of emotion in a culture where everyone has PTSD from the Khmer Rouge era, and it seems that only babies are given cultural permission to cry. But she smiles at Kerry and says that they are very grateful for the rice distribution and that it is okay, they are just glad we are here.

After our meeting we donate mosquito nets for the entire village, and when a guy selling frozen pops walks by, we can’t help but buy enough for the local kids. We ask Kerry if next time she comes she’ll bring toothbrushes to combat the sugar. She says, of course.

Emma Blaxter
AAI Program Development

Rebuilding in Cauquenes, Chile

When an Airline Ambassadors team visited the town of Cauquenes at the epicenter of the huge earthquake that hit Chile on February 27th, we were welcomed by 82 year-old Ilma who was still sweeping the floor of her partially destroyed home to keep it clean, appreciative of what she still had, despite hardly having walls or a roof. She and her husband had lost everything they owned.

The couple had nothing to offer except grapes growing in their backyard, which they gladly picked and shared with us.

In agreement with the local municipal authorities, AAI decided to help rebuild their house and we are pleased to report that their home is now fully rebuilt - a wood construction that is earthquake resistant.

Other people's homes are at last being rebuilt under a government program that was long to get to the devastated community, where residents told us AAI was practically the only NGO that had been able to visit the epicenter so soon after the earthquake.

Corey Aungst
AAI Mission Coordinator

So near, yet so far...

As soon as we drive over the border, it is very evident we are stepping on foreign soil. Forget clean, sterile, and orderly, say hello to dirt, disorganization and poverty. The road that parallels the city provides instant saddening views of run-down shacks strewn down mountain sides along with their garbage. As we drive father down the coast to Ensenada, still in view is the ever present poverty, but the ocean views are spectacular.

We have been conducting missions here for over two years. These missions provide food and needed supplies to two different orphanages. The orphanages have approximately 40-50 children at any given time, some with special needs. Some of the children have been dropped off at the orphanages doors by parents too poor to feed them and more than likely have experienced some physical or sexual abuse. But they are the fortunate ones, at least they do not survive by living off the garbage dumps.

The downturn of the economy and violence between the warring drug cartels have all but dried up any support these orphanages used to receive. Too many times we have come down to find they were out of propane or the electricity was going to be cut off. Airline Ambassadors has set up a fund called the Mexican Orphans Fund through which we have been able to help out one of the orphanages, Casa de Paz, for the last 20 months with their electricity and propane. They have been trying to be more self-sufficient, but they still desperately need our help.

The other orphanage is called Pequenos Hermanos and we were saddened to find out on our last mission in July that their needs well exceeded what we originally thought. They had been cooking up rice, adding water to it and serving it as "rice soup" to the children. Our goal now is to be able to provide help and needed supplies to both orphanages through our fund.

Most of the volunteers that go on these missions are repeat volunteers. It is easy to bond with the children and each other. Once they see the needs of these children it is easy to get hooked. Besides providing the help, we are also fortunate to stay in a gated beach front privately owned home. We make the time to enjoy the local cuisine and spectacular ocean views. The needs presented to us are overwhelming and never-ending but we do what we can a little bit at a time. After the missions are done, we are exhausted and filled with mixed emotions of fulfillment and sadness.

As we drive back over the border again it is hard to believe such a foreign land is only two hours away.

Becky Gahman
AAI Mexico Mission Coordinator

A Trip to Mirebalais

The prevailing poverty continues to overwhelm me each time I return to Haiti, and the last trip was no exception despite the few slight improvements made to the country's infrastructure.

There really is no way to prepare those traveling with me what to expect, as full realization of the chaos caused by the earthquake has to be encountered first hand. The poverty is too enormous, too widespread. New groups often get the feeling of: "Where do we begin?" It would be hard not to feel moved, frustrated, even futile.

The difficult journey north to Mirebalais gave everyone time to reflect on the severity of the situation. By the time we arrived at the Orphanage for God's Children the members of the group were naturally disposed to be captivated by the warmth of the children, demonstrating the effects of what a little kindness can do.

We set to work with purpose creating a virtual classroom. You can imagine the buzz of excitement and the collective curiosity generated by the forty individual laptops various AAI groups had donated. One of the older children commented that "Airline Ambassadors is taking us out of the stone age".

We spent the next day training Haitian teachers on the use of the computers, and suggesting ideas for a curriculum as well as setting up educational seminars for the children. Sue Hanna gave a stimulating biology lesson to kick off proceedings. The children were like little sponges, soaking in every detail. One child mentioned that he "didn't think my body was like animal bodies".

Education is clearly a crucial agenda for the development and future of Haiti.

Corey Aungst
AAI Mission Coordinator

All Creatures - Great and Small...

A passionate advocate for animals, Airline Ambassadors volunteer Kathy Casper has five dogs of her own. When she went to Haiti on an AAI humanitarian mission she met "Spy", a young Rottweiller owned by Gael Antoine, AAI's Haiti Logistics Director. Spy had been hit by a car, which had shattered the bone in his hind leg. Fearing the leg would have to be amputated, Kathy took the dog back to the US for treatment, paying the $150 in airline charges...This is her report back:

Just got home. Spy met with two doctors and one of the best orthopedic surgeons and had x-rays. Surprisingly, the advice was that the leg is healing nicely, and that surgery was unnecessary. He will walk with a limp because a pin is not an option as his bone was shattered, but new cartilage and bone is growing back. However, the dog is in no pain at all. They had him on an IV with antibiotics and a list of other things for two days and he is ready to go home to Haiti.

We also did all the vaccines, so he is good to go. He has been a good patient and everyone loves him. Now I have to work on getting him back home. Ideally, it would have been great to have an x-ray machine in Haiti, but we certainly would not have gotten an expert orthopedic dog surgeon to work on Spy, so at the end of the day, Spy is a healthier dog.

Kathy Casper
AAI Volunteer