This I won't forget

Haiti is in the midst of a bit of unrest. There are demonstrations each day in the streets right now. This consists of mobs of people marching through the city, burning cars, etc. I had heard of these things and seen some groups as we went to and from work. The issue is that parliament passed a law increasing the minimum wage from ~2 dollars to ~5 dollars a day. To become law the president must sign it. He has not. In fact, many businesses have said that people will lose jobs if they make this law. And students have started protesting in the streets over this. They want it signed. One day we saw a car in flames. Other days we have seen cars overturned and destroyed.

Today something happened that I won’t forget. I was returning from work, in the front seat of our truck, next to our driver. I was the only “blan.” As we pulled around a corner onto a street, a kid ran in front of us, pushing a tire with a stick. To the left I made eye contact with an elderly lady, she was wagging her finger back and forth, mouthing “no” to us. It felt weird. We rounded the corner at a decent speed and immediately slammed on the brakes. In front of us was a mob overtaking the streets, running right at us with sticks and poles, yelling, angry. Our driver looked a bit panicked, cut the wheel to the left, peeled his tires, threw it in reverse, and spun around. In a matter of seconds we were turned around and peeling out in the other direction. The mob turned onto the street and was still behind us as we fled. Now, if you’ve been on the streets of PAP you know that it is CROWDED. Luckily, our driver hit the gas, weaved in and out, and we made it out of there. In fact, we drove to the clear other side of town before heading up the mountain to my place.

The whole thing felt like it was straight out of the movies. Later in the day I heard that a good friend of mine here, Jonathan Katz (who writes for the AP), was there. This same day he wrote this story:

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=979979&lang=eng_news

Glad it wasn’t out car.

Before you get stressed out or worried, I should point out a few things (this is for you mom). First, no one died in yesterday’s car burning, so even if we had been caught, we would have fled at worst. Second, we work at the AIDS clinic in the bad part of town- this seems bad, but everyone generally knows someone who gets their medication there and leaves those doctors alone. Third, as demonstrated yesterday, our drivers are quite good.

Tomorrow Mandy and I are flying to the Dominican Republican for some R and R. It’s probably as good a time as any to get out for a few days.