Hospitality in Haiti and Dajabon

It's a long trip to Haiti. The group arrived in Santiago and the last member of our entourage Elizabeth Carlo met us at the airport. Elizabeth works for LS&Co. in Santiago. She works with GrupoM and together with the manufacturer she has helped pull together our employee experience for the week.

We decided to feed the group as they had been traveling overnight and were served coffee on the plane. Our food stop took us to a traditional Dominican buffet and everyone refueled on beans, rice, meat and potatoes. (It's rare to see fresh vegetables around here.)

Then into the van for another two and a half hour drive to Codevi the GrupoM factory.

The people at Codevi are so happy to host us. When we arrived they had hot towels and fresh coconut water.

We gave our group some time to shower and relax before we went to dinner in the Dajbon which is on the Dominican side of the factory. Our typical transport involves taking several trucks driven by Codevi security agents. It's not dangerous, but it's smart to be cautious.

I think as I visit the DR/Haiti for a second time,  one of the most striking visuals is the difference between neighborhoods. On the DR side the streets are paved, you see banks and restaurants and street lights. On the Haitian side only the main road through town is paved, there are two banks in the town and no lights are on as electricity is only available for a few hours a day.

Our dinner was an adventure. I'm not sure they were ready for a group of over 15. It took almost 45 minutes to bring out our order. The best part was half the dishes weren't exactly what was ordered but our group ate what was served. And the local beer was excellent.

For a little adventure, (sadly no pics) we took an errand run for toothpaste our international traveler Kim Almedia forgot hers and our other volunteer Jamilla Hubbard forgot her band-aids. So we stopped by the grocery store - think 7eleven Dominican Republic style to collect both. Sadly the band-aids were not available - not even at the pharmacy next door! But our security guard Alex (who spent six years in the Israeli army) sweet talked the pharmacists into a few plastics for our group.