DAY ONE: ARRIVAL

by Steve Gross

Haiti day one.  For those unfamiliar with the Port au Prince airport and its baggage personnel, the making of a miracle seemed to be imminent, or at least the situation was calling for one.  The porters vying for job of loading the 32 50 lb bags of medications on the truck after getting them out of the terminal was measured in the apparent angry conviction that each porter would establish is authority over the rest based on the loudness of his protestations.  To the unfamiliar, only a miracle would get the job done.

And it happened. The miracle happened   The chaos was dissipated—yes loudly—by the shouts of many red faced and red shirted porters as somehow the suit-cased medications-exhausted from their trip from Boston somehow got loaded and trucked two hour always to the oasis of Hospital St. Croix without the loss of one baby aspirin.