Post by Dance Away on Jan 15, 2010 5:48:24 GMT -5
Back in the '70s, while my family and I were living on the Naval Base at Guantanamo, we took a trip on a Navy LST Landing Ship (USS Hermitage) to Port Au Prince, Haiti.
My family and I traveled in a taxi down mainstreet in Port Au Prince. We traveled several miles heading south down that road and stopped to eat at a restuarant. I remember we could only drink bottled beverages, like Coke, as the tap water was considered unsafe to drink.
We traveled east up into the mountains to visit a rum factory. In our journey up into the mountains, everywhere we stopped, a mob of children would rush up to our taxi with their hands held out begging for money. The depth of poverty we saw in the mountains of Haiti would make an American classified as living in poverty here in the States feel like they were filthy rich before that mob of children surrounding us begging for money.
update:
Guess my conscience is now getting to me. I started this thread, and now I'm going to feel like shit until I chip in my $10.
As written on this MSNBC webpage at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34835478/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/ and at the U.S Department of State Blog at blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/disaster_haiti :
My family and I traveled in a taxi down mainstreet in Port Au Prince. We traveled several miles heading south down that road and stopped to eat at a restuarant. I remember we could only drink bottled beverages, like Coke, as the tap water was considered unsafe to drink.
We traveled east up into the mountains to visit a rum factory. In our journey up into the mountains, everywhere we stopped, a mob of children would rush up to our taxi with their hands held out begging for money. The depth of poverty we saw in the mountains of Haiti would make an American classified as living in poverty here in the States feel like they were filthy rich before that mob of children surrounding us begging for money.
update:
Guess my conscience is now getting to me. I started this thread, and now I'm going to feel like shit until I chip in my $10.
As written on this MSNBC webpage at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34835478/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/ and at the U.S Department of State Blog at blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/disaster_haiti :
Text to help
For those interesting in helping immediately, simply text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.
www.redcross.org/