Timo, Pt. 1

Drs. Matt Kelly, John Schmutz, and Peter Banks

We left Las Vegas shortly after midnight and after a 5 hr layover in Miami, arrived early afternoon in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Made it through visa and customs without a hitch and loaded up onto a van with a couple of Haitian translators.

We immediately headed out of the city and headed for the trailhead at Tom Gateau.  Mile after mile of Port-au-Prince looked like this.  Motorcycles everywhere small buses and trucks crammed with passengers, big trucks piled high with whatever, the occasional UN vehicle, and passenger cars all trying to fit 4 lanes of traffic on a two-line road!  The horn, the gas pedal, and the brake were often used, in that order.

I know it doesn't look far, but it took us 3 and a half hours to get to the trailhead.  Once we left the coast we followed a twisting, winding road up to Tom Gateau at an elevation of approx. 2600 feet.

They let us out on the roadside and we prepared to hike down to Timo.  Some of the translators and other Haitians carried the checked bags while we took our personal items, like clothing, sleeping gear, snacks, toiletries, etc.

Starting the hike down to Timo.  We descended about 600 or 700 feet over the course of a mile.

Our destination.  This picture was actually taken at the end of our last day there.  I included it here to show the layout of the clinic. We are looking at the back of the clinic and the blue tarp structure is where they did the registration and dental education.