Traveling towards the border, the Dominican landscape is dry and not very interesting. There are many little villages with neat cottages and wooden fences. People sit outside on benches under skinny trees. Because wood is an important commodity for impoverished families, the hills are denuded. Occasionally you see teenagers gathered around a few motor bikes talking, but usually it was older and men and children who were about. Crossing into Haiti you are immediately there's a beautiful vantage point overlooking a large lake and dramatic mountains in the background. Some kids were fishing and except for a very few vehicles, there was little human presence.
The border crossings on both sides were in shambles and needing much repair. However, both countries care little for these land crossings because the big bucks come from the tourists landing at the airports and the visiting cruise ships. We had a wild and interesting ride on well-respected Caribe Tours. This bus ride was not one of their stellar achievements. Within an hour of leaving Santo Domingo, we stopped on a busy town street and waited for quite awhile. Nothing was said to anyone about this wait. At first I assumed that it was to bring on new passengers but that didn't make sense because the bus was full. We drove on and had to stop and change to a new bus. This meant also checking on our bags in the luggage area to be sure that everything was removed to the new bus. One thing that visitors are told over and over again is that theft is rampant -- often with official collusion.
We drove on for perhaps another hour when a large sound came from the undercarriage. Again we were told nothing, either in French or Spanish. It seems to just be their policy not to share information with passengers. Approaching the actual boarder perhaps 20 miles away, the bus stopped again and we were told to disembark again. The Caribe Tours representative tried to commandeer one of its bus coming back into the Dominican Republic (to get us to the border more quickly) but those passengers refused to get off amid much yelling. So we waited and waited until they decided to take the malfunctioning bus to the crossing -- with fingers crossed.
I was surprised when I saw passengers filling out their exit and entry cards and they all seemed to have their passports. We were the only three that were not in possession of ours because Caribe Tours said that they had to hang onto them. Knowing that Drack had been waiting on the other side for quite awhile, I wanted our passports returned asap when the bus stopped. The Caribe woman just said no. She said that she was going to get our passports stamped herself. I was leery because I had experienced this control before and it was usually done to secure a large tip for services rendered. When we got to the border crossing on the Dominican side, she disappeared and we waited interminably for her return -- while our fellow passengers had already got theirs stamped.
While Samantha was taking the bags off the bus, Maryna went in to get her passport stamped. Immediately she was surrounded, first by one man and then by five and they and started riffling through her things in front of where the immigration windows were . Understandably she was very upset until one middle-aged woman came to Maryna's rescue and indicated that she shouldn't let them do this. They tried over and over until the women took Maryna's suitcase away and told them to stop! Tourists crossing the remote border are a rarity and predators who spot a single woman will take advantage of the situation. It's amazing how many people stand by and say nothing. Kudos to this unnamed woman.
Finally the Caribe Tours woman showed up with the two passports but I was in no mood to give her any tip. We had a tough two kilometer walk to the Haitian Immigration and Customs and much of it was through knee-high water because this is the rainy season and the roads are really impassible except for Land Rovers and buses. A taxi driver said that he could drive us the 2 kilometers for 40 US dollars. Instead I told the bus driver through interpreters that it was Caribe Tours' responsibility to get us to the Haitian side to meet our ride where they themselves were heading. At first they said no but then relented (I blocked the door). We finally met Drack and his friend and had a good ride into Port-au-Prince. Drack and his fiance Stephanie have a beautiful home in a gated community named Belle Ville that overlooks downtown Port-au-Prince. Drack will be devoting a good amount of his time to driving us around which was something that Harold couldn't do because of his new job.
Today we are going to do some business with the newspapers and visit one or two neighborhoods for AIDS Attacks including one of the many tent cities set up by mostly foreign organizations. On our brief entry into the city, it was not readily apparent how much earthquake damage had been done, but maybe we will see today. We hope to take Drack and Stephanie out for dinner tonight and get filled in on Haitian culture.
AIDS is Haiti is a difficult topic. The government hates any mention of it because it destroyed their burgeoning tourist economy back in the 80's, when the first international reports showed that the Haitian American community in southern Florida had very, very high rates of HIV. The U.S. and many countries cut off all immigration at that time and even professionals were afraid to come to Haiti on humanitarian projects (in the first days, much confusion existed as to transmission routes -- even intelligent people thought mosquitos could transmit HIV -- they cannot).
The Haitians themselves felt that they were being unfairly stigmatized and truth be told, they were and the early reports were biased and incorrect. My Harvard mentor, the late Dr. Jonathan Mann, was outspoken on the human rights issue -- a position that we also push forcefully as the only youth AIDS organization that says it is teens' "human right" to have accurate information. What we know medically now, is that it is not who you are (i.e. what particular subset of the population) but what you do. A discussion of AIDS has been at the bottom of most Haitians priorities and consequently most of the young population here have not heard about how HIV is transmitted, in clear medically accurate terms. That is our mission here in Haiti. And for the thousands of young people we will meet and distribute our cards in Creole, I know that we can reach hundreds of thousands more through positive press coverage and social media. In a country like Haiti it is essential that youth receive information directly that doesn't just emanate from churches or reluctant government, that could be censored and not truly helpful. That said we will see what today's adventures will bring.
The border crossings on both sides were in shambles and needing much repair. However, both countries care little for these land crossings because the big bucks come from the tourists landing at the airports and the visiting cruise ships. We had a wild and interesting ride on well-respected Caribe Tours. This bus ride was not one of their stellar achievements. Within an hour of leaving Santo Domingo, we stopped on a busy town street and waited for quite awhile. Nothing was said to anyone about this wait. At first I assumed that it was to bring on new passengers but that didn't make sense because the bus was full. We drove on and had to stop and change to a new bus. This meant also checking on our bags in the luggage area to be sure that everything was removed to the new bus. One thing that visitors are told over and over again is that theft is rampant -- often with official collusion.
We drove on for perhaps another hour when a large sound came from the undercarriage. Again we were told nothing, either in French or Spanish. It seems to just be their policy not to share information with passengers. Approaching the actual boarder perhaps 20 miles away, the bus stopped again and we were told to disembark again. The Caribe Tours representative tried to commandeer one of its bus coming back into the Dominican Republic (to get us to the border more quickly) but those passengers refused to get off amid much yelling. So we waited and waited until they decided to take the malfunctioning bus to the crossing -- with fingers crossed.
I was surprised when I saw passengers filling out their exit and entry cards and they all seemed to have their passports. We were the only three that were not in possession of ours because Caribe Tours said that they had to hang onto them. Knowing that Drack had been waiting on the other side for quite awhile, I wanted our passports returned asap when the bus stopped. The Caribe woman just said no. She said that she was going to get our passports stamped herself. I was leery because I had experienced this control before and it was usually done to secure a large tip for services rendered. When we got to the border crossing on the Dominican side, she disappeared and we waited interminably for her return -- while our fellow passengers had already got theirs stamped.
While Samantha was taking the bags off the bus, Maryna went in to get her passport stamped. Immediately she was surrounded, first by one man and then by five and they and started riffling through her things in front of where the immigration windows were . Understandably she was very upset until one middle-aged woman came to Maryna's rescue and indicated that she shouldn't let them do this. They tried over and over until the women took Maryna's suitcase away and told them to stop! Tourists crossing the remote border are a rarity and predators who spot a single woman will take advantage of the situation. It's amazing how many people stand by and say nothing. Kudos to this unnamed woman.
Finally the Caribe Tours woman showed up with the two passports but I was in no mood to give her any tip. We had a tough two kilometer walk to the Haitian Immigration and Customs and much of it was through knee-high water because this is the rainy season and the roads are really impassible except for Land Rovers and buses. A taxi driver said that he could drive us the 2 kilometers for 40 US dollars. Instead I told the bus driver through interpreters that it was Caribe Tours' responsibility to get us to the Haitian side to meet our ride where they themselves were heading. At first they said no but then relented (I blocked the door). We finally met Drack and his friend and had a good ride into Port-au-Prince. Drack and his fiance Stephanie have a beautiful home in a gated community named Belle Ville that overlooks downtown Port-au-Prince. Drack will be devoting a good amount of his time to driving us around which was something that Harold couldn't do because of his new job.
Today we are going to do some business with the newspapers and visit one or two neighborhoods for AIDS Attacks including one of the many tent cities set up by mostly foreign organizations. On our brief entry into the city, it was not readily apparent how much earthquake damage had been done, but maybe we will see today. We hope to take Drack and Stephanie out for dinner tonight and get filled in on Haitian culture.
AIDS is Haiti is a difficult topic. The government hates any mention of it because it destroyed their burgeoning tourist economy back in the 80's, when the first international reports showed that the Haitian American community in southern Florida had very, very high rates of HIV. The U.S. and many countries cut off all immigration at that time and even professionals were afraid to come to Haiti on humanitarian projects (in the first days, much confusion existed as to transmission routes -- even intelligent people thought mosquitos could transmit HIV -- they cannot).
The Haitians themselves felt that they were being unfairly stigmatized and truth be told, they were and the early reports were biased and incorrect. My Harvard mentor, the late Dr. Jonathan Mann, was outspoken on the human rights issue -- a position that we also push forcefully as the only youth AIDS organization that says it is teens' "human right" to have accurate information. What we know medically now, is that it is not who you are (i.e. what particular subset of the population) but what you do. A discussion of AIDS has been at the bottom of most Haitians priorities and consequently most of the young population here have not heard about how HIV is transmitted, in clear medically accurate terms. That is our mission here in Haiti. And for the thousands of young people we will meet and distribute our cards in Creole, I know that we can reach hundreds of thousands more through positive press coverage and social media. In a country like Haiti it is essential that youth receive information directly that doesn't just emanate from churches or reluctant government, that could be censored and not truly helpful. That said we will see what today's adventures will bring.
No comments:
Post a Comment