Cap'n's bLog

Typical street scene on our commute to work Haiti is a confusing place. Yin and yang not only balance each other but they battle each other. It is a place filled with life (avg age 23, US 38) and a place filled with death, often of the very young (under 5 mortality in Haiti is 47/1000, US 6/1000). under 5 mortality   We have met some of the kindest, most gentle souls despite the petri dish of deep seated corruption that is brutal and pervasive. The conflict infects visitors. At one moment you think of selling it all and moving there to help those in need and a minute later you’re moving up your return flight to escape back to the comforts of home. These are not random thoughts. They grow from realty. Twice I phoned Dr. Mark, a dentist who had literally sold everything, including his practice to move to Haiti and build a hospital. You might think it may not last but that was 27 years ago. The team before ours had flown home a day early due to more planned riots protest...

We had completed the difficult task of the day. Nine people had arrived from 5 separate locations on 4 different flights and were now piling into a rented Dodge Caravan in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We loaded up google maps on multiple phones and battled our way through traffic and unmarked lanes to Vega Baja on the North Shore about an hour west of the capital. We had completed a most comprehensive tour of our rental house, which was conducted in Spanish. A few things were lost in translation which became evident as we found that we did not possess the keys to the upstairs portion of the tour, which was simply advertising for next time. Anyway, we were past all that because we were hungry! We needed food. We reloaded google maps with a target, the closest one of the two restaurants which our hostess had provided as a recommendation. We asked for four recommendations since we would have four dinners at Vega Baja but alas only two places could be suggested as suitable for us. Our intend...