The Journey in and OUT of Haiti Thursday January 14th 2010

Thursday
Short night, early morning, as we get ready to depart. Sort through my stuff and give most of my clothing, shoes and food away. We hired a van to take us down to PAP. Ronny is coming with us, he brings two small duffle bags with all of his belongings. He is waiting to see if his mom and sister are okay, he has not been able to contact them since the earthquake. I pray for him, we all give him money and food for the journey.
Uneventful drive down to the city, coming over the mountain some boulders are pushed to the side of the road, otherwise no signs of damage yet.
In city the back up of traffic begins. Some collapsed buildings seen, a UN Convoy trying to get through the congestion, a couple of ambulances trying to get through the grueling traffic. We finally turn off onto alley ways to weave our way through to the Embassy. I am amazed at the friendly people as our driver shouts out to them on the way for directions and to ask if the main road is moving up ahead. We smell the dead in some spots and see a few bodies, see an old pickup with bodies and a casket perched across the bed trying to navigate through traffic ahead of us.
We also see gas stations with lines of cars into the streets and people lined up with any sort of container to buy gas in.
I am relieved as we get into the Embassy, there was a lot of worry regarding crowds around the Embassy. We get checked in and fill out paperwork. We were told we would probably get on a flight to the Dominican Republic later that afternoon. Later, we were told that we would be spending the night at the Embassy. I can see into a separate area of the Embassy where Search and Rescue Teams are setting up, there are K9 kennels lined up and cots. On other side of our area is a Triage area. We see people coming in by car and also by helicopter, landing and going nearby. Medical personnel are coming by where we are sitting, one of them stopped to talk to one of the ladies in our group. He stated that they were short on medicine, we loaded him down with all of our meds, was a good feeling to know a bunch of over medicated Americans could help out. (Hope our Obama care will provide for this.) As we settled in for the night, our excitement was self heating MRE’s. At about 10:30 one of the Embassy personnel came by and told us to grab our bag and come outside quietly, and we would be able to get out tonight. (Many in our group had volunteered earlier in the day with odd jobs around the Embassy and I think that helped our cause). Outside we were picked up by armored Suburbans and whisked to the airport. We were driven out on the tarmac to a C-17 Air Force plane. It had the ramp on the back that drops down and we walked in to jump seats. The plane had 102 jump seats for us. We were told that the plane was going to McGuier Air Force base in New Jersey. Quite a ride they hauled ass, we left at about 1:30 in the morning and arrived at 4:30 in the morning. They had quite a reception for us. They got us checked in and through customs. Had a qymnasium set up with cots and pillows for us. There were showers and food available. My hats off to the men and women of McGuier Air Force base they did a great job of taking care of us. Made me proud of our military, they really rolled out the red carpet for us. We were having trouble with our plane tickets and they got an Army lawyer to help out with our arrangements. She smoothed things over and we were on a shuttle to Pittsburgh airport in no time, compliments of the Air Force. We flew from Pittsburgh to Chicago then to Minneapolis.
Quite a reception at the airport, my wife and kids and my dad came. The news was there recording the story also.