Monday, January 18, 2010

 

Judith's Deployment - update #1

Hi. I will use this forum to give everyone in a little more detail than what’s been given in short emails sent to some of you. First I will provide a summary of events from the time Judith volunteered to go to Haiti leading up to today, when she arrived at the embassy in Port au Prince and started to work. Following this, I have added some remarks and interesting images intended to provide a broader perspective, perhaps beyond what is portrayed in the media.

When the quake hit, Judith wanted to assist immediately. The first thing we did was donate some money – to two places so far – Dr’s Without Borders and a State Department fund for assisting local embassy employees affected by the quake.

A day or two after the quake, her chance to actually volunteer and go there arose. The Consular Affairs Bureau of the State Department put out notifications for volunteers but they were very specific on what they wanted: individuals with Consular experience, some background with Haiti and language capabilities in either French or Haitian Creole. Judith responded to this call, advising of her attributes: have Consular experience ( two years work in a Consular Section in Dakar, Senegal); lived in Haiti for two years and speaks acceptable French. Around 1130 Friday, the list of people who the Consular Affairs Director selected went out. The list contained about 25 State Department employees and Judith was on it! Another person from our embassy was also on it. She is a Bahamian local employee with a Haitian mother and relatives in Haiti. She also speaks Haitian Creole.

The selectees were advised to prepare travel documents, pack and try to get to Santo Domingo by Sunday. Once at the airport in Santo Domingo, they would be met by Embassy staff from there, put up in a hotel and flown into to the US Embassy, Port au Prince, Haiti the next morning.

There were not a lot of details given but they were told to expect to live very primitively, sleeping on the floor, not a lot of food and so on. Since this group was being assembled for Consular work, it was assumed that they would reinforce the existing Consular staff at Embassy – Haiti and help with the huge backlog of US Citizens waiting to be evacuated out of Haiti. The assignment is to last two weeks.

Friday afternoon we got her travel documents done and she went to the embassy nurse to make sure she shots were up to date. She had to have one injection but other than that everything was up to date. She also got some malaria pills – the daily kind - Doxycycline. On Saturday, we got Judith organized with some sleeping gear, energy bars, etc. and made sure she was packed and ready. I took her to the airport on Sunday and saw her off.

During her trip, we were able to keep in touch, texting a lot. The trip went routinely and played out as described. After a few hours sleep in a Santo Domingo hotel, Monday morning came round and Judith texted me, advising they were being bused to the military side of the airport at 0545, to meet their US Customs and Border Protection UH – 60 Blackhawk helicopter which would transport them directly to the embassy in Port au Prince.

By this time, about eight of the group Judith would be working with had made it to Santo Domingo the day before and also some of them were already at the embassy in Haiti. Judith was able to send me a few texts as they waited in the holding area, got loaded onto the helicopter and even sent one or two while flying along. She said it was extremely exciting and that she was totally honored to be able to be a part of this effort. About 0930, surprisingly I got a text from her advising that the helicopter had deposited them at the Embassy’s landing zone. I say surprisingly because the text means the cellular network is working at Port au Prince.

A few hours later, I got a couple of emails from Judith advising that they were settled in and that it was busy there but not chaotic. By the middle of the morning, she reported that she was working on coordinating getting another tent set-up outside to make the processing of applicants to be evacuated go faster and smoother. So, she is “on the grpound”, getting it done.

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Below is a picture of the type of aircraft Judith flew in from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to the US Embassy, Port au Prince Haiti. It is a UH-60 Blackhawk; a utility helicopter for transporting people and supplies.:


Below is a post-quake an image showing the downtown and outlying areas of Port au Prince. I show this to give a perspective of where the embassy is located compared to the airport and the downtown area. As you can see, the embassy is quite a ways from the city center and close to the airport; more or less on the very Eastern edge of the suburbs. If you continue east, you would hit the Haiti/DomRep border. It is also not in an area that received a lot of quake damage although there was some nearby. The embassy itself was largely undamaged. It is very secure, guarded by Embassy Security Staff and US Military. You have to click on this image to enlarge it so you can see the details.


Below is a close up image of the presidential palace – post quake. It was very near to the embassy’s old location. The new embassy opened only about a year ago. Judith and I drove by everyday on the way to work while posted in Haiti, 98-00.


The final image shows the national cathedral which was basically, completely destroyed.



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