We arrived safely in Port au Prince this morning. Roads were cleared, and everything was fairly quiet. A lot of the population attend church, and it was very cool to see families all dressed up... the little girls in frilly dresses and ribbons in their hair, boys with long-sleeved shirts & ties. They take a lot of pride in their dress.
Grass Roots United works with several NGO's, kind of as a middleman. They are experimenting with building of different types of homes, using materials readily available in Haiti. One is built of tires & pop bottles covered with concrete, another of rice straw. Pop bottles are a real problem here. There's no recycling, no garbage pick-up - so pop bottles are strewn everywhere. Composting toilets are also made on site. I spoke to a young Haitian, Lucio, who builds the toilets, and he told me of his goal of getting lots of these toilets out into the community. He has a passion for his country, and chooses to put his passion to good use - doesn't see any useful purpose for the demonstrations. Believes that each individual is responsible to make a difference - that expecting the government to make a difference is a waste of time.
Because this is a city, we have some city amenities... actually had a ham & cheese sub on fresh bread for lunch from the corner store, and we're bbqing hamburgers for supper, plus mashed potatoes! Beats rice & beans! The stuff for supper was purchased from an actual, air-conditioned supermarket.
I'll take some pictures tomorrow..... until then...
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