following the rains

We went out of town Saturday for a funeral. Driving up the coast north of Port-au-Prince towards Arcahaie, we could see the effects of all the recent rainfall. It’s been pretty heavy recently and has started falling during the day rather than only at night. Flooding has been a real problem.

sandbags in front of the American Embassy in Haiti

As we were leaving town, we passed the American Embassy. I had heard that they had had some flooding problems. Honestly, that had surprised me; I expected them to have built it with better drainage. It’s a relatively new building, if I remember correctly. Sure enough, when we passed it, there were sandbags out front which they must have been using (Fort Wayne friends: flashbacks from sandbagging during the flood of 1982!).

a flooded stretch of the highway north of Port-au-Prince
note stalled taptap being pushed out of the way in the background, right

trying to avoid the deeper parts of the flooded highway

Traffic, too, was much slower and heavier because of the flooding, which slowed us all down. We came upon a few flooded stretches of highway – not a problem for us, as we have four-wheel drive, fortunately – but we did see one stalled-out taptap being pushed out of the way.


flooding affects traffic on foot, too - even cows



flooded tent north of Port-au-Prince

 On the way back, just north of this area, I saw an area with flooded tents. Living in a tent during a heavy rain is difficult at best; imagine being completely flooded out. I do hope they had built some shelves or something inside so they didn’t lose all their belongings.

the rain hasn't done much for the roads themselves



all green after the rain
meadows and mountains near Port-au-Prince

Further north, however, we saw the bright side of the rains. It turned out to be a lovely day for driving, and the greens were so bright. Last time I passed through this area, it was pretty brown; there was so little rainfall this winter. It was good to see the fields alive, both for the sake of the farmers and for the sake of the land itself and its beauty.



the hills are alive...

I pray that the rains bring much good to the land and to the farmers that count on it.