Vortex
01-13-2010, 09:13 PM
http://static.technorati.com/10/01/13/3221/haitipalace.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3415/3563543478_77498f7c43.jpg
Just wanted to drop a line about this place, sometimes when things happen you just want to write them down someplace. In my former career we got sent far and wide for all sorts of things and in 2004 I was sent to Port au Prince to work the protective detail on the interim President, Boniface Alexandre. After Aristide got run out of town (with everything he could steal), Alexandre, who was the Chief Justice of their Supreme Court, reluctantly took the job. He seemed like a good guy, humble, honest, was good to us and I believe was glad we were there to protect him temporarily from the paid mobs that were stirring up the rabble and the real bad guys with guns trying to off him. We worked out of the Presidential Palace, seen above. I think in the 45 days I was there I went to the embassy once, and that was to get some more MREs. I remember before going to Haiti I was kinda p.o.ed why I was being sent to a place to protect a foreign president in his/her own country but in my job it was a normal thing, we did it and continue to do it places like Kabul and Monrovia. I lived and worked in lots of places and the only time I ever saw poverty that bad was in Mogadishu (before anybody ever heard of the place) and N'jamena and it shocked me as it was just a 45 minute flight to Miami. Even with all the screaming poverty I remember when we drove in to work everyday seeing all the kids in their school uniforms (I was told there was no public schooling there, everything was private and those that could afford the $100 or so a month to send their kids would do so, it was suprising just how many kids I saw there going to school.) Other things that come to my mind was cutting thru the maze of City Soliel where we could easily get ambushed and that was where the poorest of the poor were and those were the folks Aristides guys paid to raise hell (the Chimere). Another thing that sticks in my mind were the hills with no trees; they had all been cut down to make charcoal for cooking, all the mountains were now just dirt hills with ravines and some grass, thats it. It was a strange place because for the most part the people we met were nice, they just needed some help. Now this damn earthquake. They had pretty much nothing to begin with and now this. Just needed to ramble a bit.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3415/3563543478_77498f7c43.jpg
Just wanted to drop a line about this place, sometimes when things happen you just want to write them down someplace. In my former career we got sent far and wide for all sorts of things and in 2004 I was sent to Port au Prince to work the protective detail on the interim President, Boniface Alexandre. After Aristide got run out of town (with everything he could steal), Alexandre, who was the Chief Justice of their Supreme Court, reluctantly took the job. He seemed like a good guy, humble, honest, was good to us and I believe was glad we were there to protect him temporarily from the paid mobs that were stirring up the rabble and the real bad guys with guns trying to off him. We worked out of the Presidential Palace, seen above. I think in the 45 days I was there I went to the embassy once, and that was to get some more MREs. I remember before going to Haiti I was kinda p.o.ed why I was being sent to a place to protect a foreign president in his/her own country but in my job it was a normal thing, we did it and continue to do it places like Kabul and Monrovia. I lived and worked in lots of places and the only time I ever saw poverty that bad was in Mogadishu (before anybody ever heard of the place) and N'jamena and it shocked me as it was just a 45 minute flight to Miami. Even with all the screaming poverty I remember when we drove in to work everyday seeing all the kids in their school uniforms (I was told there was no public schooling there, everything was private and those that could afford the $100 or so a month to send their kids would do so, it was suprising just how many kids I saw there going to school.) Other things that come to my mind was cutting thru the maze of City Soliel where we could easily get ambushed and that was where the poorest of the poor were and those were the folks Aristides guys paid to raise hell (the Chimere). Another thing that sticks in my mind were the hills with no trees; they had all been cut down to make charcoal for cooking, all the mountains were now just dirt hills with ravines and some grass, thats it. It was a strange place because for the most part the people we met were nice, they just needed some help. Now this damn earthquake. They had pretty much nothing to begin with and now this. Just needed to ramble a bit.