"Hello Haiti" a Haiti Travel Page by johsab

Haiti - The Country

-Haiti has the lowest standard of living in the Western Hemisphere with a GDP per head of US$1,300
-Area: 27,750 sq km (10,714 sq mi)
-Population: 7 million
-Capital city: Port-au-Prince (pop 4 million)
-People: 95% African descent, 5% mulatto
-Religion: 80% Catholic, 16% Protestant (an estimated 50% of Haitians also practice Vodou)

Arrival at the Airport
We were told not to check luggage. Rather to just carry hand luggage on the plane. This was due to the chaos at the airport. You might loose you luggage, have it stolen or have someone in Customs decide that they want something from you. Also, we read not to travel in any vehicle if you did not know the driver personally. Taxi drivers would not only overcharge you, but rob you too.

We were quite happy to see our driver - a nice Haitian from the Mission. He did not speak English (or French) but did get us through the mess and up to the Mission without an issue.

Port-au-Prince - the capital
We knew Haiti was poor. However, we were not ready for how poor it was or how widespread the issues are. Many cities of the world all have poor, but there are nicer areas and, at least in theory, the rich can support the poor. In Haiti, even the wealthy were very poor compared to American standards.

Shantytowns like Cite Soleil, where over 2 million people live in 5 sq km of reclaimed swampland are an example of the issues facing Haiti. An almost total lack of civilian infrastructure is as obvious as the open sewage ditches. As you drive you town, you have to ask yourself if there is a government and if there is, what are they governing?

The streets of Port-au-Prince are full of wet, decaying garage. Not just a little garbage, but something like 3 feet high, 7 feet wide and as long as the road type of garbage. Think compost pile with some extra ingredients.

There were streetlights in some places. However, we did not see any that actually worked. If they did, we don't think they would stop for them anyway. Many intersections looked like they had the wiring but the light fixture had fallen down or been stolen.

Watch out for the potholes! Some of them are big enough to swallow cars?.

Especially in the more rural areas of Haiti, most do not have running water. Rolling electricity blackouts of 23 hours a day (tourist literature mentions 12 hours a day) leave the residents of Haiti to cook with wood. This resulted in the deforestation of Haiti. Only 3% of Haiti has been untouched. As the trees have been cut down, much rich topsoil has washed into the sea. The soil then choked the reefs and marine life and killed off yet another industry.

Pentionville - way up the mountain
In the hills to the southeast of Port-au-Prince, Pentionville is as close as the country comes to wealth. While much of the literature discussed how Petionville was the nicest area of Haiti and how wonderful it was there, we found it just less poor and less dirty than the city. It is still not a place that we would walk around in the day and feel safe. However, the views of the mountains started to appear.

Baptist Haiti Mission - further up the mountain

Out of the city grime, into the country grime. Beautiful views, but still very dirty. Still people (men and women) going to the bathroom on the streets and up-hill from their produce for sale on the ground. The weather in the mountains was less humid and much cooler.