Hurricane Matthew is a currently a catagory 3 hurricane. However it was a catagory 4 hurricane when it smashed into the Caribbean nation of Haiti. Which is where I’m headed now. I guess an African Platypus can migrate as well.
You probably don’t think too much about Haiti. I tend not to. But I do know they got smacked hard with an earthquake in 2010 that they still haven’t recovered from.
The wifi on this bus through the Domincan Republic is good, but not that good. So I’m going to rack my brain with what background knowledge I have.
Haiti was formed following a successful slave rebellion in the early 19th century. The haitians rose up and defeated the french on the Island.Haiti was originally supposed to be a breadbasket colony for the french in Louisiana. Strapped for cash and losing Haiti pushed Napoleon to sell the Lousiana territory.
They speak french and creole
They are the poorest nation in the western hemisphere.
That’s all i got…
Heart to Heart international shot me an email asking for possible volunteers. I raised my digital hand and cleared it with work.
Well I should say work begrudgingly allowed me to go under the auspices they could use me for full propaganda purposes. To which I dutifully agreed. Exploit away [redacted] exploit away.
Due to logistics we had to travel to Haiti via the Dominican Republic. Incase you didn’t know Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola.
The Dominican Republic speaks spanish and is doing pretty decent for itself. Besides not only producing a huge number of MLB stars(Sammy Soasa being one).
They also have KFC that delivers. I havent seen it yet, but I hear thr disparitybetween the two nations is huge.
My flight path originally had me go through panama city. Then to Santa Domingo in the Dominca.
Then it changed to JFK and Santa Domingo. I hate JFK. My only other experience was when I headed to Israel in 2012 switched planes there. When trump spoke of American air ports being third world. I think he was just talking about JFK.
The day before I left I spent some time with my Daughter.
But not nearly enough. I gotta make it back in once piece, so when she’s a teenager I can tell her to quit complaining. Folks in haiti have it worse.
I left at around 430 am, got a ride to the airport from my dad. We said our goodbyes and I was off again. I slept from tarmack to tarmack with no recollection of the flight(time travel maan).I met up with John at JFK. Johns a good guy who I worked with in Africa.
The flight itself was good. I sat between two domincan girls who smelt like sunshine and beaches, but spoke no english. So I slept and watched a movie on that tiny screen on the seat in front of me.
We landed in Dominca and had our passports stamped by a little too friendly customs women, and were hurried to our hotel by an excited cab drivers.
The cab itself had seats covered entirely in plastics. John mentioned it was a little too dexterish for his likings.
Our hotel was nice, we were the first to arrive. And as such had to deal with a front desk clerk who lost our reservations. Then found them. Then couldn’t find proof of payment. In the end we spent around an hour at the front desk waiting to get our room.
After a hotel buffet and a sample of Domincas national beer el presidente we received our marching orders.
Assemble in the lobby at 6am. Depart via cab to the bus station and procede to thr Haitian capital of port a Prince. From there you will be picked up and taken to the heart to heart house. Where new orders will be delivered.
This is a rough draft im publishing now.i will finish later if i can(spotty wifi). Heart to Heart International has nothing to do with this blog and probably wishes i didn’t have it.
African Platypus 