Despite the title, I am now more than halfway to Haiti, as I sit here typing on my iPhone via wifi @ the Miami International Airport Hotel. I have 11 hours between flights and before I get some sleep, I wanted to take my first stab @ blogging this adventure!
Went to bed late as I was busy organizing and receiving donations right up until the last minute. The 2 bags weighed 140lbs but the lovely American Airlines woman didn't charge me extra because I told her I am doing humanitarian work. The other bonus was that since my layover is less than 12 hours, I got to check my luggage right through to Port au Prince! Having had to literally sit on one of the suitcases to get it to close, I am happy not to have the temptation of getting into it for any reason and look forward to reuniting with copious amounts of herbs, power bars, receiving blankets and other birthing supplies tomorrow.
Thank you to all who donated money, supplies, food, packing time and energy. Within a week WE (that is all of you and me!) managed to pull it off. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you via this blog over the next month.
Internet acess is intermittent at best in Haiti right now, as I understand it, so I will do my best to write when I can.
I am was lucky enough to get a window seat for tomorrow's flight into Haiti, as I have distinct memories of the view from the sky the last time I was there with Fiona back in 1998. We flew into the DR that time, as it was cheaper and then took the bus over the border. The most signficant memory I have is of flying over the island and noting, as many before me have, the stark difference in green ground cover between the Haitian and Dominican sides. The DR still had many green areas, whereas the Haitian side was almost all light brown and dusty in colour with no significant greenery in sight. I am curious if this will be as striking this time.
For now I will leave you with share some statistics re maternal mortality in Haiti.
670 woman per 100 000 die in childbirth annually in Haiti, while their next door neighbours in the Dominican republic have a matenal mortality rate of 150 in 100 000. In Canada maternal mortality is 7 in 100 000.
It's amazing that 2 countries sharing a small island in the Caribbean can have such dramatically different rates of survival for childbearing women. It is even more tragic that the difference between Canadian stats is even more remarkable.
