Alan Thomlinson is in Haiti to help with proposal writing as CARE tries to raise around $100 million for a five year response strategy.
Two weeks in and there seems to have been some sort of truce declared between myself and the mosquitoes. Well more of a one-sided truce as I am still doing my best to reduce their numbers, but they are only biting me 3-4 times a day instead of the usual 12-15. I am a little scared as I feel this is just the calm before the all out storm of my last few days here.
A few colleagues and I went up into the mountains over the weekend. The view out over Port au Prince was amazing, in the distance I could see the large temporary camps set up where most of the damage had occurred. As we went further up the mountain I saw many people dressed up in their Sunday best. Despite many of the churches having been damaged they were still packed to standing room only. As we reached the top of the mountain we could hear the church hymnes driftng up through the cool mist.
Something bit me when I was up there, it looked like an ant only ten times bigger. I’ve heard childbirth can be painful but this has to be up there. On removing the claws from my arm I accidently pulled the ants head off, however it didn’t seem to bother it as it ran off into the distance none the wiser. The ants are hard here.
Today I found out what an earthquake alarm sounds like, sort of a high pitched wine. Luckily not from an Earthquake, but from me testing it, figured it would be a) good to know it was working and b) find out what one sounded like so I reacted to it. However my colleagues tell me that when one happens you don’t need an alarm to tell you to get out of the building.
