The Truck

Jeremy supplied me with a brand new Toyota 4wd, 4 door Hilux (I think it would be similar to a Tacoma). It has been of service to many people, taking them to and from the airport, transporting things, etc. Most recently we used it to drive up into the mountains to deliver water filters to a village. Sustain Haiti had been waiting to do this for some time but couldn't without a truck. You need 4wd in Haiti, even if you're only in Port au Prince. Pot holes and rubble everywhere.

I let Sustain Haiti use the truck for running people to the airport while I was staying with them, and it really came in handy one day. Here's a story of how the truck helped to save a life... (from their blog http://sustainhaiti.blogspot.com/)

"A couple of our volunteers did something incredible this past week and may have saved a couple of lives because of their quick action. Dustin Homer and Rony Charles were returning to Leogane Monday after dropping a volunteer off at the airport. While they were on the road, they saw a tragic accident take place involving a tap tap. A tap tap (pictured below) is one of the major forms of transportation in Haiti. These modified pickup trucks usually have between ten and twenty passengers in them. There were probably about a dozen people who were hurt in this accident. One was person was killed in the accident. Another may have had a broken back and another was bleeding heavily. It didn’t take Rony and Dustin long to realize that it would be up to them to make sure that the victims would get proper medical care. In Haiti, you can’t simply call 911 in Haiti. There are very few ambulances and some of those ambulances are little more than pick-up trucks owned by the local morgue.

One man was bleeding badly but still on his feet. With the help of a couple of bystanders, Dustin got the other man in the back of the pickup truck. He was bleeding so badly that Dustin took off his shirt and used it as a bandage to compress the wound. He probably had a broken back. After about thirty minutes of navigating the crowded, rough roads of Port au Prince, Rony was able to get to a tent hospital where the men were able to be treated. Dustin called the whole experience very eye opening. Haiti simply doesn’t have the kind of infrastructure to care for problems like that efficiently. Without the quick response of Dustin and Rony the outcome of this tragedy could have been much worse."