Haiti diary 1: Logistics...
9 February 2010
Karri Goeldner Byrne is the IRC's director of economic recovery programmes and is based in London. She has flown out to Haiti to work on a market mapping analysis designed to help speed recovery and independence for communities after a disaster.
Day 1: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Arrived last night around 9pm. The city reminds me of Puerto Rico, with its mix of people and Spanish-influenced architecture style. There are a lot of organisations coming through this town, the capital of Haiti's neighbouring country, although it's more used to tourists.
Our bags went by road to Port-au-Prince, and in retrospect we should have gone in the same car. At this point it looks like we will arrive at the same time. We didn't have our "MOP" forms…a form which no one had ever heard of previously, except that it is now somehow required, along with an insurance waiver form that says that I know that the flight is taking me "to a location that may potentially be unstable or dangerous". I think of all the UN flights I have been on and wonder if they fly anywhere that isn't dangerous?
Hopefully we will be out of here on the 4pm flight. I have the new deputy director and a health technical advisor with me. I wonder how much better I will know them after sharing a house with them for a couple weeks? Apparently we are four to a room at the IRC house/office, unless you choose to sleep outside. I made sure to really appreciate the hot shower I took this morning because I imagine bathroom time will be precious in the days to come...
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