One day at a time, one task at a time...

Having traveled through many third world countries in Latin America and Asia, I'm not unfamiliar with inefficiency and corruption. But I must say that Haiti takes it to a new level. Today I waited in line for four hours to open a checking account. Harry, who took me to the bank, saw me getting fidgety after a half hour or so of waiting and told me, "In Haiti, sometimes you are lucky to get one thing done in a day." After he said that I reflected on my first three days here, and realized that he was exactly right. All three days I have made a long list of things that I'd hoped to get done, but each night I have only been able to cross one significant task off of my list. Banks and anything run by the government close early and have humongous lines. It can take two hours to go a mere 8 miles if you hit traffic wrong. Sometimes I wonder if things are intentionally run inefficiently in order to solicit bribes from those that can afford them. Aargh...