Friday, 20 November 2009

We went out early this morning to see the opening of the border between Haiti and the DR. At Dajabon a river forms the border but it is not very deep so that people can easily walk across and we saw a few people evade the border authorities. When the border opened, many people flooded across from Haiti to buy and sell in the bi-national market in Dajabon. Our friends the monitors from Solidaridad Frontaleza were on hand to look out for any human rights violations by the border authorities. They took us through the market which spreads through many of the streets of Dajabon. We walked through the parts selling second hand clothes and shoes, with a few fruit and vegetables. This was quite a crush and a bit hazardous due to the motorbikes pushing through the mêlée.

Our bus trip back to Santo Domingo proved eventful to say the least. Prospery was refused entrance because, though he had a visa in his passport, he did not have a required stamp. While he and Sophie rushed off to the immigration office, our bus set off. Thank goodness for mobile phones by which we were able to follow their progress and to hear eventually that they were on a following bus. Our bus, meanwhile, passed through innumerable checkpoints, at the first of which two men, presumably Haitians, were discovered in the luggage compartment. Another man was twice hauled off and twice bribed his way back on again. It was 11pm before Prospery was reunited with the rest of us at our Santo Domingo hotel
And so ended our visits to the Christian Aid partners. Now our thoughts turn to the task of spreading the word through the Congregational Churches.