Haiti info - urgent

Press is staying at the Ville Creole. Pay for a room but sleep in the garden, +food and electricity and sporadic web access. bring tent, sleeping bag. Will get back on a fixer later.

try contacting tim fadek, chris hondros, mike mullady (hes still there) or ed linsmeir (hes about to go back) – all should be able to help- they are all swamped with the work from haiti and with being in haiti, just shoot them some emails

olufson hotel full of snappers too; safe, gated and central. Good driver-Surlin Wendy.+509-3490-2654

Thanks! any more info will be greatly appreciated.

Guilad, I stayed at the Coconut Villa in Delmas 19. It is very central, very safe and the people where nice. Specially a Cuban manager named Carlos. As for fixer/car I used mostly a bike with no fixer, but a good contact that I could recommend is a fixer with car that I met, perfect english. David Charlier +509 3468 4777 and latelier.mail@gmail.com if you need anything else shoot me an email.

Villa Creole in Petitionville, Ollafson, Villa Vista in Delmas, Coconut Vill in Delmas.. Lots of places to stay now. I know the two in Delmas let you stay inside.

I was on foot and worked with a great guy named Franz who was an english teacher before the quake- 509-3-608-4326 (leave the first 3 out if you’re outside Haiti) to translate.

TOUR HAITI
115 rue Faubert, Petion Ville. Haiti.
Tel : (509) 257 1926 / 510 2223 / 457 5242
info@tourhaiti.net

They can help arrange a lot. Ask for Cyrille. A bright college kid, Fanielle, works there and speaks English, Creole. Really good, knowledgeable fixer.

La Reserve (P-Ville, Rue Mettelius) should have rooms. Fritz is connected and a good guy- should be able to fix you up with driver/translator, etc. Coconut Villa has been there forever and are good people. Fixer/driver: try Orick- I think he’s looking for a job now- +509 393 610 93- he’s honest, trilingual.

Thanks everyone for all the advice, I really appreciate it. If any of you come by Thailand, I’d love to repay the favor.

My father’s all set now.

Man, I thought Zoriah at least took care of his students’ logistics… what a sham…

Sorry to Hijack this thread.

Could one of you helpful people give me a list of essential items to pack before going to Haiti.
Appropriate food ,shelter etc.

Sounds like Guilad’s old man is harder than he is.

Harvey, at this point there is no list……if you can’t get a place to stay in one of the few hotels with rooms….then its camping out, and there is no “list” as far as locations for that. There are probably 500,000 Haitians in camps, and there is no official camp for journos, and if you arrive with nothing set up, I don’t know what to tell you. You can make friends fast and sleep in the street…..I would suggest Petitionville. But if you don’t speak Creole of French you have a lot of trouble.

Just to add to the surreality, there is a marvelous boulangerie in Petionville……its right up the street from Nick’s Exterminating….baguettes, fancy cakes, sandwich jambon, pastries, etc. Makes you feel much better after au tent from dusk to dawn with trips behind the banana tree with baby wipes….remember to order, then pay, and THEN get your food.

Bring immodium AD, pepto bismol, sun lotion, mosquito spray, baby wipes, cash and patience. This is a hard place to be and getting harder, not easier, as the emergency is over and people are looking long-term right now….

Thanks Andy

Bump what Andy says. Try the new expat pub behind Gallery Monin in Petionville- they have rooms, and may have one open. Talk to Ralitsa, Erna, Philip or Alex. Buy a motorbike for 500 bucks. It’s way easier and faster to get around. Bring some wide spectrum antibiotics- you’ll need them.

Yes on the antibiotics as Tim suggests…..extra socks, etc. There are stories and pictures all over that still need to be made, but as the story widens, away from the bodies in the streets downtown……it becomes harder to just drop in and put a finger on it. Or perhaps we are in a holding pattern of sorts right now. Things are stable enough so that PAP is functional—amazingly functional considering the extent of the damage and deaths, but the sustainability is the question. How long can 500,000 stay in camps? How long before the rain compounds the misery? How long before blame is assigned?

Over quite a nice cheeseburger last night, I talked with some locals, better off than most, one couple lost their house and business. They were able to flee the house with the kids, a miracle as that most structures pancaked in from three to four seconds.

From what I am gathering Haitians are now as were we New Orleanians were after returrning from Katrina, recognizing faces and saying “how happy that you made it.” Its not something that can be easily captured in a picture, but it rings really true to me. People are very thankful to be alive.

Are prices on rooms at hotels like Creole or Oloffson coming down? They were around $100/night for a bed when I was there a few weeks ago, hoping it’s less now. How full are they?

I’ve just asked now to the reception of Villa Creole. They’re open until 21st of February and have place at the moment, than they’ll close the hotel for a while. At the moment it cost $150..with three meals included.

Today was the third and final day of National Prayer, there was a huge rally of perhaps 200,000 near the National Palace…..it concluded with a wild parade past the wrecked palace, people were celebratory, doing a carnival “road” march……I have been at this for 40 years now, I can’t remember an event with so much emotion and the images were not at all a disappointment. Very grateful for the opportunity to be here……a historic day for certain. Merci jz……

Thanks Ilara. That’s even more than three weeks ago!

Just found Creole’s website and indeed they’re shutting down to rebuild after the 21st. Coconut Villa is looking good, anyone have a recent report? I don’t want to stay at the Oloffson again.

@Andy

Is travelling into Pap on a tourist visa going to be problematic???

Your posts have all been a great help by the way.

Visa? No such a thing required when I was there. They didn’t even care to check passports. It might have changed though. I stayed at Coconut Villa. A room for two was 88,-$ which is about the same they asked before the earthquake. They had power all the time, w-lan sometimes and water whenever you asked.

If you can’t stand to listen to the ‘best’ of Celine Dion and the worst of Michael Jackson all day long, the Coconut might not be your place of choice.

None of the hotels are all that…..the Montana was the preferred one. But who knew that the soil there was silt? No visa required, just a passport. Airport supposedly opens today. Immodium AD and pepto bismol are required….plenty of motos around. SUVS and cars prices are dropping…still plenty to report and will be more, but the spot news seems winding down. The question is can the NGOs sustain aid (so far there has been amazingly little aid visible to the eye, much less even than when I was in Gonaives after the hurricanes there) and political unrest, so far little traction, but that will take some months to develop with an election looming as well. Downtown is still rubble, but nothing compared to even two weeks ago.

Thanks again..

Has anyone stayed here

Wall’s International Guest House
Delmas 19 www.wallsguesthouse.org ???

Harvey, its worth a try. Delmas is a nice broad avenue, and although there is a lot of damage up and down it, basically its middle-class Haiti and has a boulangerie open. Its a good area to be in.

having spent a chunk of time in & around Haiti post quake – get yourself a wind up torch… they are fab & some come with a radio too – marvellous.

don´t forget that shaking hands – whilst a great thing to do in breaking down barriers – is a easy way to catch disease – so a good hand sanitiser or anti bird flu “no need for water” liquid soap in a dispenser is great.

make sure you feel are comfortable – i always carry a roll of micro-pore just incase I get a blister. Big, sturdy boots are great for climbing over rubble, and are much easier to disinfect after treating in body ooze, or general street mess – but i usually wear some old leather deck shoes with some super-fit innsoles – they´ve gotten me throw some rather tough condtions.

there are water pumps on the street – so just boil water if you get desperate, or drop of iodine or something will do the trick – otherwise save water and drink rum.

James, that information is a bit dated. There is plenty of bottled water all over, te marchen are all over the streets, restaurants in Petionville open, there is absolutely no need for boiling water……even in the camps water trucks are bringing in enormous amounts of drinkable water. A wind up torch? Maybe a few weeks ago, but even street lights are beginning to come on as well.

Sounds much better to when I was there (just after the quake hit)…!

Thanks Andy for the update.

hotel park next to the plaza is a little damaged but the rooms at the back are cheap and serviceable $45 a night and the plaza is five mins walks away and has food and wifi. it is very central – on the champ de mars and had rooms when i was there. lots of mossies so he’ll need a net and a way to hang it.

everyone i know got pretty sick – so take antibiotics, imodium etc and gets jabs for typhus and take malarial prophylaxis. you can rent cars/motorbikes by the day outside the plaza and there are usually people pitching for translation work too