Haiti Crisis Update #16 from Jimmy Dodd

March 19, 2010 - 11:15:35 PM by Eric Rochester

The Big Picture

  • Moise Vaval will be featured in a segment – ‘The Lost Kids of Haiti’ this Sunday night as a part of Sixty Minutes. Spread the word.
  • School has yet to reopen in Haiti. April 5th is the new target date.
  • The rainy season is in full swing. Heavy rains most of last night.
  • New orphanages are being built throughout Port-au-Prince. This morning we visited an orphanage which is being built near the Global Orphan headquarters. More than a dozen men were working to get the building constructed by early April. Forty kids will soon have a place to call their own. Praise the Lord.
  • George Bush and Bill Clinton will be making their first joint visit to Haiti on Monday, Bush and Clinton are the heads of the Haiti Fund, leading the US disaster relief effort. I will be sure to give them a fist bump as we pass in the airport on Monday morning.

Reflections

It’s not everyday I hug a luggage handler. On the rare occasion when I stay in a hotel where someone fights to carry my bag to my room (never a problem at the Fairfield Inn), I have never had the urge to give him a hug. I have asked for help with my bags at a number of airports when traveling to Haiti with numerous 50 lb. bags. Just this week I solicited help in the Ft. Lauderdale airport with four fifty pounders. But, there were no hugs. Tips yes; hugs no.

Arriving at the Port-au-Prince airport is an experience unlike any other. When Americans comment on the chaotic conditions of the baggage retrieval system, I chuckle knowing that it has significantly advanced in the past decade. When I first arrived in Haiti in 2000, it was a literal free for all. If you didn’t immediately grab your bag when it emerged through “the bag hole” chances were quite high you would pay sizably if you ever wanted to see it again. Back then, luggage handlers were allowed into the baggage claim area. Whoever toughed the bag first, it was theirs. And the owner of the bag would be resigned to allow the particular “first toucher” to carry the bag and be tipped accordingly. You don’t want help with your bags? Tough. If he touched the bag before you it was like you had just contracted his services at the local day laborer line.

In 2003, the luggage handlers were moved to outside the baggage claim area. They are now perched just outside the door emerging from customs. The rules of the game changed. Even if you are carrying your own bag, if a luggage handler so much as has his pinky finger touching your bag as you walked to your bus or taxi, he is technically assisting in the carrying of your bag and will want to be tipped accordingly. It is a system which has frustrated many first time travelers to Haiti. “I wasn’t even out of the airport and I had already been fleeced!” Welcome to Haiti.

I solved this problem many years ago by selecting three men to carry my bags every time I arrived in Port-au-Prince. I use three because I am regularly traveling with a team. One of the three is an older Haitian man with one arm. You have heard of a one arm paper hanger? This is a one arm baggage handler. He works so hard I selected him many years ago because it is hard to say no to someone using everything they have to make a living.

Another of my regulars is a tall lean younger man with a million dollar smile. I never have exactly gotten his name right. Some Haitian names are simply unpronounceable to Americans. No matter haw many times I try, I just can’t get it right. I just smile, call him Chief and he is on the job.

The leader of the three is Mr. Big. Now, I have no idea what his real name is – perhaps that is his real name. All of the other luggage handlers just call him ‘Big’. He is appropriately named. I regularly bring Mr. Big a hat. The next time I arrive, he can be found wearing my latest gift. Over the years, we have formed a sort of strange friendship. I only see him for a short time every trip (Mr. Big only works arrivals) and our conversations are limited. He knows that I am a pastor; he knows that I love Jesus; he knows that I bring a lot of teams to Haiti and he knows that I am a good tipper. What else is there to know?

When others try to grab my bags I inform them, “only Mr. Big”. They typically drop the bag immediately knowing that it would be a bad idea to infringe on Big’s territory. And, trust me; you wouldn’t want to be on Mr. Big’s bad side. Mr. Big is an appropriate nickname.

I emerged with my daughter Megan from baggage claim and customs on Tuesday. I saw two of my “regulars”, but no Mr. Big. I warped my arms around my one armed friend and expressed how glad I was to see him alive. What he said to me was amazing. “Pastor, God took such great care of me in the earthquake. I only lost a sister and a daughter. Everyone else is fine. Praise God”.

Are you serious? He lost two family members, and he is rejoicing? Where would I be eight weeks after I lost a sibling and a child? Giving testimony to the goodness of the Lord? I can only hope. But, this is the spirit of the Haitian people.

I continued to look for Mr. Big. No sign of him anywhere.

After an earthquake which claimed 300,000 lives, mostly in and around Port-au-Prince, when you don’t see someone you fully expect to see, you begin to fear the worst.

I begin to ask around. Where is Big? Is he okay? Is he alive?

My one armed friend gave me sweet news. Big is not only alive – he got a real job! He repeated with a huge smile, “Big got a job!” I learned that Big was working at the US embassy. I was told that he wasn’t official yet in that he didn’t have his embassy badge, but he had a job! I must admit that I felt simultaneous elation and sadness. I would miss seeing my friend – but “Big has a job!!”

I was both amused and impressed that fellow luggage handlers were sincerely happy for Big. He had escaped the airport grind and had emerged in a “real job”.

As we waited with our bags for our transportation to the Global Orphan Project Orphan Transitional Village (called the OTV), I saw a familiar figure approaching. Mr. Big. I ran to him and wrapped my arms around him.

“Big, you’re alive and you got a job!”

His countenance fell. “Good to see you my friend, but the job didn’t work out”, he said. “I am back here at the airport”.

“My bags are right over there” I said. “Can you take charge?

Asking Big to take charge of luggage is like asking Michael Jordan to take over a basketball game with 30 seconds to go. It’ll get done!

“Hey Mr. Big, the rest of my team arrives on Thursday afternoon. Can you handle the luggage?”

He just smiled as I gave him another hug.

My three luggage handlers – Mr. Big, my one armed friend and the guy with the big smile whose name I never get right – all alive and well in Port-au-Prince. And, it’s not every day you get to hug a luggage guy.

Report from The Global Orphan Project

The GO Project on 60 Minutes This Sunday

A crew from 60 Minutes spent 3 weeks plus with us on the ground in Haiti. This Sunday, March 21, at 6 pm (CST), 60 Minutes will run the story, “The Lost Kids of Haiti.” GO Project will be a significant part of that story. Please tune in and tell your friends to watch. Obviously, we have no control over the story or its content. We simply opened our kimono to share with them, very transparently, what we see and are doing. We’re hoping and praying that the story goes well. Mostly, join us in praying that a hard and honest light shines on the pandemic of orphaned and abandoned children in Haiti and around the world, and on the great hope of children amidst a demoralizing problem.

So, tune in to CBS, 60 Minutes, Sunday night at 6 pm, central time.

Jimmy Dodd

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