From May to November

I arrived on Friday at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport. On my flight there were two women returning for their father's funeral that had not been back to Haiti for 3 and 9 years respectively. They were glad that they were not to spend much time in Port-au-Prince before their secondary flight to the north coast city Cap Haitien, near their destination of Limbe. Right before the plane lands on the runway, you have a very good view of the acres of tarps that constitute shelter for thousands of Haitians. There is silence while people peer out their windows, but as we touch ground, the plane erupts in cheers and applause.

When I first saw this sight in May, I remember feeling a sharp spike of fear and incredulity. At that point it had been 4 months since the earthquake and only a small percentage of people had been relocated to less concentrated camps on the outskirts of town. These new "settlements" were lauded by aid agencies as model camps, but their isolation is one of their greatest flaws. They provide shelter, but not access to jobs or food aid. This month, I see the vast sea of plastic, now and then supplemented with tin sheeting or 2x4s, with a better understanding of why people might "choose" to stay in a crowded tent settlement instead of moving out to the rural, empty countryside.

Another difference since May is the temperature. It is cool, a phrase I joked I did not need to know. In May, I was hot, so much my pants sagged with the weight of my sweat. Then, the fact that the water comes out of the shower in only a cold trickle was just dandy. Now, I think on special occasions I will heat up some water in the teapot and give myself a nice, warm wash-cloth bath out of a bucket.

In a few weeks the elections will take place and the walls, poles, and abandoned cars lining the streets are plastered with campaign posters. There are 18 or 19 presidential candidates, but if you measure popularity by their number of posters, Jude Celestin (#10) and Martelly (#8) are the leading candidates, at least in the streets of Petionville. These posters contain little more information than the smiling visage of the presidential hopeful, their name, and their candidacy number. Their graphic impact primarily relies on color. Celestin's posters are green and yellow, while Martelly's are a bright fuschia. These posters are slapped up in multiples, creating walls where the candidates fight for dominance with wordless optimism. There is also new graffiti by the artist Jerry Rosembert Moise, commemorating Michael Jackson and depicting an old man soliciting a young woman with a wad of cash.

I am still settling in so my posts may be sporadic for the first few weeks. Wish me luck on my first week in Haiti!