1/9/14
Greetings from a land of sunshine and palms.  Temperatures are a little warm but we are adjusting.

The biggest improvements I see here are from previous visits are that they are finally attempting to clean the ditches besided the road and the streets.  The second thing is the increased presence of the police.  On previous visits you would see a few officers riding in beat up pick-up trucks.  Now you see police on foot and even directing traffic.  At some intersections they are acting like VDOT employees where one is directing traffic and four are watching.

The traffic is very heavy and is approaching grid lock in Port au Prince.  On the open road there are no posted speed limits, so the traffic really rolls.  A mix of trucks, buses, cars, motor cycles, push carts, wheel barrows, burros, pedestrians, and an occasional bicycle, trying to use the roads together.  It is chaos, but somehow they make it work.  I have to say that they do better at giving way to others than state-side people do.

The work so far is demolition, sifting sand, moving gravel and rubble with wheelbarrows, building scaffolding, etc, etc.  The Haitians we are working with are some of the same ones as last year which is a good situation.

There is no school this week (snow days), so a lot of the kids hang around with us and are trying to help. They are a fun bunch and delightful to be around.

Our group is working and living together well.  I cannot think of a better group to travel and work with.

As noted, on the last two visits, the Haitians do not have much when it comes to material things.  They seem to be rich in the three important F's - Faith, Family and Friends.

General Vovo...aka...John Rogerson (Dottie's husband)