I am here in Anse a Pitres. Road mostly unpaved so, hard to write. Witnessed much environmental devastation along the way. Passed by camps, horrific! Utter makeshift, reminiscent of first days after earthquake: sticks of wood and quilt like covers, pieced together remnants of cloth, cardboard--the kind of "cover" which we Haitians say can fool the sun but not the rain...

First stop, went to hotel to reconfirm our lodging. All set. We face the sea. Rooms, spartan but have mosquito nets.

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I am now at church. Road practically blocked. Cannot approach gates. Uniformed police with long piece of wood in hand trying to manage crowd. He notices the car, waves. I ask for the priest, he asks for my name and says it’s ok for car to come in. Crowd splits, makes way, we go in. I’m told there was distribution of food rations today.

Priest arrives, a tall, large, avuncular curate. Benevolent aura. Kind of looks like Alix, ebony face with crown of gray hair. Clothes, shoes, covered with dust. Everything here is covered with fine white dust, even the trees. He apologizes about his dusty appearance. I tell him it's ok, it was like that in Galilee. He is pleased, smiles and says: “ha, you understand the mission!” We shake hands. He explains right away that it was hard getting these food kits. They come from Jacmel, the capital of the SE department. He had to explain to the authorities that a riot was about to ensue because deportees and locals are famished!!!

With the past several months of drought, food insecurity is at an all time high—locals having lost crops and animals. This is a coastal, therefore a fishing city. The waters are shared with the DR, thus much tension at sea like on land... Need to learn more about the dynamics!

Priest said there 3,000 people in one set of camps. I ask for confirmation. Three thousand he repeats in pak kado I & II. He reminds me that locals, too, are hungry and that there are other camps, also with hundreds of families... He said the people all come to the church for food, for help, they can barely manage, hence police at gate of church yard.

He also shares an anecdote about an incident yesterday, when some armed Dominicans came to one of the camps looking for some Haitians who allegedly had stolen their weapons.

Some people arrived shortly after me. Not sure who they are. They may be from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). He excuses himself so am using this interruption to share our encounter. I catch bits of his conversation. He is asking for gravel, he is saying the ground where camp is based needs to be leveled. So much of it is reminiscent of the first days after the earthquake when every vacant lot became the host of a camp site. Then too, there too, the ground had to be leveled…

I overhear priest saying we have a fair amount of mobile clinics but feeding everyone, every day is a most pressing challenge and yet feeding only occurs sporadically and is contingent upon unpredictable food donations.