We left at 7:00 this morning to get to the airport, where we met Dieucon, who was our driver for the day. Our objective was to go to the houses of 5 different individuals who had gotten earthquake relief grants from MAF. We traveled through a warren of narrow roads into densely populated neighborhoods of very small dwellings often housing a shocking number of individuals. One of the grant recipients has ten children under the age of 18, and he lost his job soon after the earthquake. They all live in a three room house. Four if you count a 4 X 8 kitchen. Traffic was expectedly chaotic, loud and dirty, and the roads very narrow and often all but impassable. All in all, a fascinating day. We ate a late lunch at a restored sugar plantation about 15 minutes from the airport, and are now back at the IT office writing up the stories and sorting photos.
The days continue to get warmer; daytime temps are in the high 90's and it rarely gets below 80 at night. No rain for the last 3 days. Dottie has lots of ceiling fans, but no air conditioning.
Jean Claude, his wife and 7 of their 10 children.
Their kitchen consists of a small charcoal brazier and some pots and pans. They have no refrigeration. Not one of the houses that I have visited has running water; they walk to a well or water distribution point and carry the water back.
A view of roofs near their house. There are dozens of dwellings in this photo.
One of the families lived in a tent after the earthquake, and felt fortunate when they were able to build this more secure dwelling.
No comments:
Post a Comment