Part 4

Our procession slowly made it's way down the mou ntainside. There were many hairpin turns, traffic and potholes. Somehow we all stuck together. On the outside of the vehicle, chaos ruled. Inside all was very quiet. The nannies were getting their first look at the severity of the two earthquakes and fifty-five aftershocks. I shocked them, and troubled them. They began to sing praise song to Jesus, in Creole. It comforted them.
We turned to take a different route. This route was new to me ,too. We drove past hillside that had completely collapsed onto the road, on area had come down on top of a tap-tap, and I could only imagine that the driver was dead. We had to slow right down here, swerve to the left, towards the cliffside. You could see an obvious crack in the ground, following along the pavement, for about twenty feet. I wondered how long it would hold together.
We turned again, this time to the right, and down a steep little hill with a hairpin in it. Most properties were at very least damaged here. Retaining walls, embankments, trees, everything was lying in the road with just a single lane open that weaved and twisted through the chaos. Our processioon went on, turning left down an alley, then right on a good road until it,too was blocked.
We were down in PAP now. We were in an area of total destruction. For a while, it was 100% loss. We saw one high-hoe, that was it. We passed what had once been buildings, shoddy, but inhabitable. Now it was an endless gravel pit. ONe man ran up near our procession, and reached down and picked up a single cinder block. With a stone he chipped off a bit of mortar stuck to it. A prize, it would certainly soon be used by him to rebuild, or sold for food.
F awoke. He looked out the window at total destruction. Certainly this must be hell on earth. We were in an area that looked like a civil war had happened, the houses that once had bright colors now lay in ruin, a drab monotone of whitish- grey, covered in dust.