Angels?

 Violent protests in Haiti related to the alleged fraud in the election process of the new president.

It was not until I sat down in the airplane that was about to leave Haiti’s tumultuous capital, Port-au-Prince, that my mind started to put the happenings of yesterday into perspective. The wonderful team that was with me had worked hard on a slew of projects and most all had been finished by Thursday night. During the week I had kept an eye on the reports of manifestations and violence in relation to the election that popped up all over the country. Our area as usual had nothing to worry; people just went about their business to survive from day to day. I felt that keeping the news away from the team was warranted. After all we could not change anything and it might have made some of them very nervous. Thursday night it became clear that the route we were planning to take the next day was going to be impassable because of protests. Several vehicles traveling on route national #3 in Thomonde had been set on fire and that was something we could not risk. Early Friday I called a friend who is a commander in the Haitian police force and discussed a plan for getting to Port-au-Prince. Our route was going to take us North, through the mountains and close to Gonaives so Lala and Youvendjy who had been with us, could be dropped off. After that we would drive south on the #1 along the coast and head for Port.  During the day I kept getting information about the possible trouble spots, but we did real well and had smooth sailings until late in the afternoon we received a warning about a town just ahead of us called Saint Medard, where supposedly a protest was getting out of control.  I told everyone that it could become a little tense and to better say a prayer. When we approached the town it was clear that something was going on. People everywhere along the road seemed to look or wait for trouble to happen. Traffic was slowing down and all of a sudden two guys jumped on the back of our van. They stood on the bumper holding the rooftop rack. One of them was dressed entirely in white, the other in red. Initially Jeff, our driver, let them be but after we came to a stop he went outside to ask them what they wanted. He acted very timid and clearly afraid of what might happen. When he came back in he just said they were obviously locals and said they wanted to ride with us to the protest. We drove on slowly for a short distance and when we came to a complete stop, the guy in the white jumped off, came next to Jeff’s window and said he was going to help us. Next he directed Jeff to turn into the oncoming lane and for more than half a mile we zapped past a long line of vehicles all waiting to move on.  Suddenly our lane had traffic in it and when we slowed down, the man in white cleared an opening in the standing traffic and directed Jeff to pull in. Once again he made us go in the left lane and we passed another line of standing cars and trucks. Still standing on the back bumper he motioned Jeff to stop and he guided us through the line of waiting traffic onto a small gravel trail that led us away from the busy road. Soon we were completely surrounded by banana plantations and had no idea where we were. The thought crossed my mind that we might end up getting robbed but I was more intrigued about what was going on then to worry about that.  About ten minutes later and after making a lot of turns we ended up at the main road again but now on the other side of all the trouble, at least that is what it seemed. Just at that very moment two guys on a motorcycle blocked our way and started cursing and screaming at Jeff who they said had been passing them too close. They turned nasty real fast and it looked like they were picking a fight. In that instance our guy in white stood all of a sudden next to these two upset fellows. It seemed he huffed up and in a lightning fast movement he grabbed the ear of one of them, twisted and yanked it and made the guy instantly change his attitude. Clearly he was in charge. Now the two motor guys were docile like lambs and quickly left the scene. When we turned on the main highway our hero jumped off, said goodbye and smiled when Jeff put an unexpected tip in his hand. He had not asked for anything! On we went with Red guy still guarding our back. He stayed on the bumper for the next 20 minutes until we had passed all possible trouble spots. Once we turned on a local road leading to our destination for the night, he simply jumped off and disappeared. 

Two rows in front of me I hear some people telling how scared they had been yesterday, in the same place, when a crowd was beating on their car  and windows. Wow! What exactly did happen? We sure had been protected from something that could have been frightful.  Angels?