Tale of a Wall

Last night around 9 pm I was driving home, coming up Rue Metelus. As many of you know there's is usually an overflow of market women and street vendors during the day in the area around the cemetary. Last night, there were workmen and police erecting a wall made of wood 2 x 4s and corrugated tin roofing to block the two roads where the market women usually spill out of onto Rue Metelus. I thought, "Hmm, interesting. Wonder how long that's going to last?". I assume it is the mayor's attempt clean up the street market problem.

This morning at 7 am on my way down Rue Metelus, I noticed there were no market women anywhere on the street and there were a few men 'guarding' the entrance to the cross street. On the other side, a few people were pushing on the wall as the tried to get around it.

This morning at 8:15 am on my way back up Metelus, the wall was completely destroyed. Traffic was backed up in both directions and only one lane could go at a time because pieces of tin sheeting and 2 x 4s were laying halfway across the road. There were no police officers in sight and no one looked like they were doing anything with the broken wall.

I'll pass by later today. My bet is those materials will be part of someone's house before the day is done.

Just Another Saturday in Port-au-Prince

Today's emotions:
exhaustion
fear
sadness
contentment
anxiety
anger

Today's events:
Woke up feeling tired after a late night with friends and some alcohol (no, alcohol is not one of my friends)

Ate 3 chocolate chip cookies and some scrambled eggs for breakfast

Shared some cookies with my neighbor

Met a friend at a cafe to do some work

Found out an NGO worker's husband was shot and killed last night. She's in Africa and hadn't yet been contacted

Went to the salon for a cut and color, mani and pedi; came away with color and not much of a cut- everyone says it looks great

Had a meeting for work purposes although the topic didn't have much to do with MCC work (sorry, can't give more details!)

Witnessed a mob of 20 beating a man to a pulp in the middle of Route de Delmas with UN soldiers standing by with weapons- the soldiers had even put out orange cones for traffic to move around the mob

Met a friend for a rant session about work with a little chocolate ice cream therapy at Fior di Latte

Came home and wrote this blog