Goodbye Haiti

I'm home!

In addition, a storm is coming that might influence travel for the next few days, so I'm really glad I got to go home a day early.

One of my friends who lives in Haiti described the difference living there versus living in Abuja, Nigeria (Abuja is very nice and safe relative to Lagos which, when I was there in 2003? was extremely dangerous) is that in Abuja they worried about terrorism. In Port-au-Prince they worry about street crime, because if someone mugs you it can get extremely violent extremely quickly. It is safer outside of Port-au-Prince.  

If it were safer I would have taken pictures of some impressive street art and I definitely would have taken a picture of the railless stairs that struck me so. I would have taken a picture of the steep streets winding off into the distance past what was once lovely architecture. These are taken through the vehicle windows on my way to the airport this morning. 

Now that we are out of there - the hotel with the security problem is the Marriott. The Marriott is a well known name and makes a great target for that reason alone. 

The reason for the protests is more clearly laid out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiQWmNyfUrk 
Essentially there are Petro-Caribe funds that went missing. Life is hard. No one has clean running water in their home, those who can have water trucks come and fill their tanks. Clean, safe water infrastructure does not exist. Most of the country does not have reliable electricity. This money was supposed to help people. 

I'm home! My family is happy, I'm happy. 

I saw the grandmother of the child who had the pasni. She was happy to see me after months and said she's going back to Nepal in two months and if I ever go to Nepal I'm to stay in her home. :-)

Oh, more good news, my Fuji is home!