What about the food riots?

As many of you know, there was some rioting in Haiti in April.

Safety was a concern going into this trip. But when we hit the ground in Haiti everyone we talked to, from Thony to our hosts at the guest house, said that safety issues now are about the same as just before the riots. The riots were blown WAY out of proportion in the international media. Now, there is generally a serious lack of food in the country, which is a huge problem that we'll cover later. But in talking with Thony, the riots consisted of groups of 20-50 people going down the main streets of P-au-P and protesting the government, mostly the PM, specifically in relation to food. They want some new people in office...and I can see why.

Most of the windows on the main streets were still broken from having rocks thrown through them. Protesters had broken into shops and trashed them, burned tires, etc. At one point it did get violent and 5 people were killed.

When I asked people there 'what about the riots?' I got an answer that I wasn't expecting. People said that they were frustrated with how it got portrayed in the media. The last two years in Haiti had been relatively peaceful, and thus had seen a lot of people warming up to the country. They felt that most of that progress had been lost due to how the country was portrayed in the coverage of the riots. So that was really surprising to see the contrast of an inside perspective from Haitians and the outside perspective from the media.

According to the State Dept. travel warning when we left, I should have been scared out of my mind even at the thought of going to Haiti. Sure we had to take precautions and safety is not the same as being in the US, but not once did I feel unsafe. Except for the crazy driving...but that really wasn't any different than riding with a cabbie in the states!