The Foreign Service Journal, April 2010

30 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 1 0 them by hand. Then some radios ar- rived. Next came a new crew of TDY- ers, followed by more military help. Then a generator came. Someone do- nated a baggage screener. Finally Haitian immigration showed up and started to stamp passports. A few days later, another commu- nications team arrived with desktop computers, printers and scanners. A passport swiper was a gift from above, as it probably tripled our manifesting speed. At night, we returned to the embassy and slept on cots, the floor or wherever we found a spot. I had the good for- tune of upgrading to a storage closet after a few days. The days went by quickly, and we tried to take in all of the sights, sounds and smells. I remember one Haitian- American who had to be carried onto the aircraft because he had never been so close to one. Then there was the imposter who abducted a wheelchair-bound girl with cere- bral palsy and tried to act as her escort to get into the U.S. Luckily, her mother showed up out of nowhere to save the day. The various smells of Port-au-Prince are also seared into my memory— from fresh coffee in the morning to the stench of destruction. Everyone who worked on disaster relief has unique memo- ries and anecdotes. Then, seemingly without warn- ing, the wild dream ended. It was like blowing out a candle. We packed up and left, passing the torch to the next wave of TDYers. Mark Hernandez Consular Officer P ROVIDING B ACKUP I was part of a three-person crew manning Las Ameri- cas International Airport in Santo Domingo, helping evac- uees get repatriated and assisting them with their onward travel. Though relentless, the work was rewarding. As we worked, I noticed a large group of people milling about nearby. My curiosity got the better of me, and I went to talk to them, learning that they were a 65-man search-and-rescue team from Costa Rica bound for Haiti. To my surprise, however, they confessed that they had no plan for getting there. As I considered the absurdity of 65 people, 12 dogs and four tons of equipment idling just 12 hours away from Haiti, a light bulb went off: Who was flying back to Port- au-Prince on the military planes that were bringing us our evacuees? The answer was encouraging: nobody. I quickly started calling around to determine who was in charge and how we could get the SAR teams into those returning planes. Several tense hours and many phone calls later, we managed to get them aboard a U.S. Coast Guard flight to Haiti. After that, we secured transport for dozens of other international travelers, rescue dogs and equipment. Days later on CNN, I caught the story of the Costa Rican SAR team that had found and saved three peo- ple who had been buried under a building for four days. My heart was filled with joy as I saw my amigos getting the job done. Glenn Tosten Immigrant Visa Section H ELPING E VACUEES R EACH S AFETY For several nights, I was manager of consular opera- tions at the military base at San Isidro, which served as a landing point for military evacuations of Americans from F O C U S Several tense hours and many phone calls later, we managed to get the search and rescue team on a flight to Haiti. Volunteers from the Embassy Santo Domingo commu- nity (top) gave unstintingly of their time and resources to welcomes evacuees (left) at Dominican airports. Rebecca K. Fell Ranshaw