So, how was your trip to Haiti?

By: Jim Bodenner

March 16, 2010

So how was you trip to Haiti?

Having just returned from a week in Haiti, friends, family and colleagues keep asking the obvious question – So how was your trip to Haiti?

I have traveled to many countries around the world and I have been in some of the poorest communities in the world, but I have struggled to put in words what I saw and experienced in Haiti.

On Tuesday afternoon on January 12^th the worst earthquake in two centuries struck within miles of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  It has been reported that over 200,000 people died in the earthquake and millions more have forever had their lives changed by the tragedy.

Poverty is Haiti is overwhelming but it was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere long before the earthquake and I  have seen the same level of poverty in many countries.  What was overwhelming to me was the total devastation of communities.  Two and three story building flattened and hundreds of thousands of people are homeless.  Thousand of home did not collapse but are badly damaged and people are afraid to sleep inside for fear of the building collapsing for aftershock.

Death, destruction, poverty,  lack of food, water and medical care are obvious and our news media has bombarded us with these realities.  However, what impacted me most was the amazing will of the Haitian people.