Arrival in Haiti

After a fairly uneventful trip I have arrived. 11 hours Auckland to
Los Angeles with a 5 hour stopover. I almost lost my phone but the
extensive security procedures at the airport reminded me that I left
it charging back in a rest area. Fortunately there was enough time to
leave security, get the phone and go through the procedures again!
Then in was 6 hours through a second night to New York where just had
enough time for a golden arches breakfast before catching the last leg
from NY to Santiago in the Dominican Republic that shares the island
of Hispanola with Haiti. Robyn had emailed to say that they had not
got over the border the night before as they shut it early for Mothers
Day. So she designated a young pastor in Santiago, Maxnet by name, to
pick me up. There were no problems at customs and my bags arrived with
me. After following Maxnet around while he negotiated transport to a
friends place with the cheaper taxis we scurried through the small
streets at what seemed undue haste, tooting all the way to keep
motorcycles aware of our presence. Later we took an even cheaper taxi
that could cram 7 people into 4 seats into town. I ended up stiing on
the automatic gear change stick next to the driver for the ride back!
Robyn Couper eventually made contact and picked me up for the made
dash to the border. Pastor Reuben was the driver of a beatup Toyota
ute. The road was pitted with potholes and the sealed bits have the
meanest judder bars I have ever seen. The taxis scrape their
undercarriage on them. We left it a bit late but in this old ratley
ute we passed the new model Subarus, Lexus, Ravs etc. The driving
habits were very similar to the Philippines and the Jeepney drivers
there. Just barge in and pray you don't get hit. And the overtaking
manoeuvers were unbelievable, especially for oncoming traffic. It was
a wonder we did not see more accidents. We ran into rain at times and
it was stifflingly hot but in the end failed to make the border before
it closed. So we were stuck in the border town for the night. We got
some Dominican Pesos, found a hotel and had a good feed before
retiring. It will be up at 5.30 to be at the border when it opens at
7am tomorrow so we can get into Haiti itself. First impressions are
like many 3rd world countries - very messy with litter everywhere,
people doing nothing and the typical 3rd world driving habits. It will
be interesting to see the medical side tomorrow at Cap Hatien.