Greetings from La Gonave! La Gonave is an island off the coast of Haiti. We left the hotel at about 7:00 and experienced Port-au-Prince rush hour. People were everywhere, going ever direction on the roads. Police officers, UN troops, and other security forces were at most of the intersections directing traffic. I’m not sure if it was helping, but all those official people probably prevent something really bad from happening!

We finally got to the boat after about 2 hours of driving. As I know nothing about boats, I can’t tell you what kind, other than it was a motor boat. I ended up sitting in the front, which gets a little damp in the middle of the voyage. The waves between the coast of Haiti and the island are pretty good size. I don’t really remember the number of times I came out of my seat as we crested one wave and then crashed down, with the spray going over the front of the boat. Quite an experience.

The views from the water are beautiful, both of Haiti and of La Gonave. The water though is not as pretty. From the shore, it looks beautiful, but when you’re in the middle of it, you see all the trash and garbage that people have thrown into the water, or that has washed down from the hillsides. Cups, plates, Styrofoam containers, bottles, just about everything you can imagine if floating out there.

After arrival, we drove for over an hour over some very bumpy roads to the middle of the island. I’m not sure how many miles, but I’m guessing it was less than 15. The ride was so rough, I actually have bruises on the backs of my legs from being bounced around on the seat! There we saw a medical clinic first. The clinics on the island are staffed by intern doctors. These are people that have just graduated or are about to graduate from medical school. They serve a one year assignment here. At this point, they can’t get anyone else to serve here because it is so remote. Folks here suffer mainly from all the ailments related to unclean drinking water, plus respiratory infections, and malaria.

From there we went to a food distribution. There are several programs on the island run by aid groups to bring supplemental food (beans, corn-soybean blend, cooking oil, etc.) to families here. It is good to see, and seems to be making a big difference in malnutrition rates on the island. Then back down the bumpy road to the office to do other inventory management / supply chain work. I’m sure you would all find that incredibly exciting, but I’ll refrain from sharing all that stuff.

Now we’ve finished a wonderful dinner of cold vegetables, rice, chicken, plaintains, and fried okra, and back to the room to finish work and go to bed. While this hotel isn’t much to look at from the outside, the room has an air conditioner and a fan (bonus!), no bugs that I’ve found yet, and seems very clean. I’m not sure how much longer the A/C and fan will work though, as a storm is coming in, and the wind is picking up dramatically. Hope it’s not a really serious one, as we are right on the coast.

Tomorrow morning, back on the boat to Port-au-Prince, and then office work for the rest of our visit. While it’s very interesting to visit the more remote sites, sometimes, it’s nice to just be in one place for a few days in a row.