Port au Prince, the capital of Haiti, is a city of more than 2 million souls. It is so different from rural Haiti that it is sometimes referred to as the "Republic of Port au Prince" - a kind of country within a country. I arrived here at Hospice St. Joseph yesterday after leaving Fondwa around 9 in the morning. The trip from Fondwa takes about two hours with about half that time spent getting through Carrefour ("Kafou"), one of the crowded and densely populated suburban neighborhoods of the capital.
Not much has changed here in Port au Prince since my last visit in June 2006. The streets are congested with traffic - the omnipresent, overcrowded tap-taps moving people in all directions - pedestrians, open air markets and garbage. In spite of a campaign (funded in part by USAID) to provide people with jobs picking up garbage, it looks pretty much as it always has. I had a chance to ride up to a lookout above the city yesterday with two Americans I just met who were visiting in Port au Prince from Jeremie (in the far West of Haiti) where they are working with the Haitian Health Foundation and with an English Language "institute". The view is a familiar one to me now, but for them it was a "first time" experience. I enjoyed pointing out landmarks to them.
My wife Daneen and I visited that lookout on our first trip to Haiti in 1987. It always reminds me of the story of Jesus' temptation on the heights overlooking Jerusalem! The street vendors there have always been "devilishly aggressive" and they lived up to my expectations again yesterday!
This morning I went to mass at St. Louis de Montfort parish - a vast, city parish of more than 30,000 souls established 8 years ago. The pastor, Fr. Nicolas Gerard, is a friend of mine as are Sr. Eileen Davey and Sr. Helen Ryder, Holy Union sisters who work in the parish. Partners in Progress (through the "Skip a Lunch, Save a Child" program of it Rich in Mercy division) supports a "head start" program in the parish that provides early education and nutrition to about 70 pre-schoolers. The parish continues to grow with people flooding its poorer sections to escape even worse conditions in Port au Prince's notorious slum called City Soley, built on what used to be the garbage dump.
Comments:
No Comments for this post yet...
This post has 1 feedback awaiting moderation...
XML Feeds