Haiti aid flows out of the Dominican Republic, and the desperate flow in
A wrought-iron gate across a two-lane road in the mountains separates two nations speaking two languages and, especially in recent days, living two realities.
On Monday, dozens of vans carrying relief workers and trucks laden with emergency food, water and other supplies kicked up dust as they arrived here from the sleepy capital of the Dominican Republic and crossed into Haiti, bound for earthquake victims in Port-au-Prince.
Coming in the other direction were several hundred Haitians, seeking permission to enter the Dominican Republic. They disembarked from joyously decorated minibuses, just steps from a brackish cobalt-blue lake that laps near the road. Doctors at a tiny clinic by the gate treated minor injuries and, in small groups, those coming from Haiti were allowed past the gate to plead their case before Dominican border agents.
The two-way traffic at this border crossing has grown precipitously since the earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince last week. Dominican authorities have been worried about a flood of refugees, though so far the numbers have been relatively modest.
With the seaport in the Haitian capital damaged, and the airport handling a full load of relief flights, aid agencies have increasingly used two airports in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo as the first stop on the island of Hispaniola. Some of those goods are put aboard smaller planes bound for Port-au-Prince, but large shipments are put on trucks for the four-hour drive to the border.
Santo Domingo, on the southern flank of the island, suffered no major damage from the earthquake, which struck on the western edge, just a few miles from Haiti’s capital. Some tourists have canceled vacations to the Dominican Republic, but the gleaming hotels that line the waterfront are filled with relief workers coordinating the incoming shipments or preparing to make the seven-hour overland trek to Haiti’s capital.
At a large warehouse in Santo Domingo on Sunday, several dozen Dominican volunteers singing church songs gathered to put together packs containing enough food and water for a family of four for several days. The packs, in large buckets, were loaded onto 24 trucks and dispatched to Port-au-Prince.
For the two countries, not always the friendliest of neighbors, it has been a revelation.
“It’s a great experience of solidarity with the Haitian people,” said John Service, country director for Catholic Relief Services in the Dominican Republic. “There are historic tensions but it seems no deep animosity. After all, they share a common history.”
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