Haiti
Haiti, as I've already said on our facebook page, was the most difficult country for me to handle both physically and emotionally. From a physical perspective, I think it was the combination of exhaustion (we'd been traveling for over 11 weeks), the stifling heat and relentless mosquitos that pushed me over the edge. Add to that a night spent in what appeared to be a cholera tent at Medicins Sans Frontieres when Susan came down with severe food poisoning and the complete stress of having someone you really care about get that sick and I was ready for all of us to come home. Emotionally it was very difficult to see yet another country so stricken with poverty and some many challenges. I had never been to Haiti before so I don't know what the living conditions were like prior to the earthquake although I was told it wasn't much better than it is now. I guess the big difference and it is a big difference are all the tent cities scattered around Port Au Prince and the rest of the country. There are so many people, hundreds of thousands I was told, still living with no running water, no electricity, no proper sewage control and no security. These conditions just intensify all the other issues facing people living there - the lack of educational opportunities for children, the lack of medical care and the ongoing issues of violence against women. Yet despite the challenges, once again, we met remarkable people doing remarkable work. From a young doctor working at Carrefour Feuile, a community clinic that provides free health care with a children's nutritional center where mothers can bring their children for meals (see photo), to a young woman Voodoo priestess who is educating her community about basic health issues and HIV/AIDS, to two women who themselves were forced to live in a tent city with their families following the earthquake and now run a program to help girls who have experienced sexual violence. The dedication these people show everyday, in the face of such adversity is amazing and does provide one with a sense of hope for the future. So with that in mind, it is time for me to stop whining about being tired and prepare to move on to Ecuador - the final stop on our around the world trip.
