Arrival

Hello all.


I made it. The trip itself was pretty uneventful, with the exception of PaP airport. I've never seen such a madhouse. Our IMC contact met us on time, and herded us with the demeanor of a Marine drill instructor to a waiting bus outside. Along the way was a gauntlet of shouting, shoving PaP residents trying to convince me (only occasionally in English) that what I really wanted was a taxi, or for someone to carry my bags, or to buy a painting, etc. But our IMC man was relentless, and we ultimately made it out of the fray and into the bus.


I took some pics from the bus as we drove, some of which I'm putting up here. PaP is a dangerous enough place that we're not allowed anywhere other than the hospital and the hotel, so all of my pictures of PaP will be from a bus window, and will be of parts of the city less affected by the quake.




















As you can hopefully see from the pictures (especially those of the presidential palace), the force of the quake, and the devastation caused is a bit breathtaking, and makes you want to record it so others can see it. But when you focus on the foreground and see the people standing in the street because they have nowhere else to go, you realize that that pile of rubble you've just photographed was once where they lived, ate, laughed, watched their children walk for the first time, etc. I've discovered that I could never be a photojournalist. Taking photos of someone else's tragedy leaves me with a lingering feeling of exploitation that I don't particularly care for. That being said, if the pupose of this blog is to show you what it's like, and inspire you to help, I'll do the best I can.

Next time I'll give you a tour of the hospital.

f