Jan. 27

4:33 am

Thought we were touching down on Haiti only to find out that we were stopping in Ft. Lauderdale to refuel. Apparently the airport at PAP (Port au Prince) is chaos and you can circle for a while. The pilots have been down there once already and they said it was pretty hairy. We made the trip from JFK to Newark in record time thanks to a crazy Jamaican driver who talked non-stop. Turns out he was part of the Jamaican highway patrol!

We are on a small jet with a team of doctors and nurses heading down to help Partners in Health. These are the real heroes, as they have left to jump into the thick of it. One of them is telling us that the situation here is quite safe, and that the news has blown things out of proportion. But he also said he has also seen food and water riots. On the flight to JFK I made the mistake of watching CNN. Scary stuff. While they were talking, a power line in the background fell, sending sparks and they commented that this was normal.

I've been up now for about 24 hours with little sleep. That was cool when I was 20, but not now.

Gotta run, Port au Prince in an hour.