The wait begins...

Check in and arrival went pretty smoothly this morning. I did turn one bag back to the car, as it was going to sky rocket the already ridiculous cost. Thankfully the ticket agents were helpful in telling me how to transfer my equipment to the med bags and get away with it. They did give me a small discount for which I'm thankful. I truly appreciate all the donations and support I have received. For those of you with a sour taste in your mouth for the airline.....its not the worst out there.. Still had people sniffling and sneezing, and crying...just like the bigger airlines.

The body armor went through without a hitch after identifying myself to half of congress, and thank god for zip up combat boots. Personally, I like to get dressed and undressed once a day...but that's not the case when you fly.

I'm estimating that around 290lb of supplies and equipment are headed to Haiti with me. My equipments probably only 14lb....

Had some Subway...the last decent food for awhile now...

As far as communications are concerned Ive run into a few issues and resolved one so far. My world phone from Verizon has both CDMA and GSM capabilities.....before I get into that, its time for me to spout off some knowledge and help you understand. I mean what else am I going to do in the airport for 7 hours?

Simple terms. In the US, there are 5 major companies Verizon, ATT, T-Mobile, Sprint, Nextel and a collection of "mom and pop" companies that serve tiny spots in their region or state. Lets forget those mom and pops. With in those 5 major companies( for those of you who know sprint and Nextel merged....they still operate much differently) are 3 fundamentally different types of technologies. How they work isnt really important for my point here, so lets skip that. One type is iDen, which is inherent to Nextel only...its basically proprietary. That's why you can not roam onto another phone network when using their service. Next is CDMA which is used by Verizon and Sprint. CDMA is kind of a dinosaur who has tried to become "hip" and adapt with time, and most will argue that its generally slower then the next technology Ill speak of in a minute. But the best part of CDMA, is that its a little bit more reliable if used by the right company. While speed for data on the network is slower its footprint is much larger out of all 3 of the technologies.

Think of it this way. You have a town with a bunch of roads in it. Isn't it easier to repave a road then to bulldoze, level, and pave a new one where non existed?

Finally there is GSM. Both ATT and T-mobile use GSM. It stands for Global System for Mobile communications. See the idea is in the title...global communications. .....yeah minus the fact that we are Americans and we decide to buck the system whenever we can. Im just saying..... Fahrenheit, Lbs, inches, miles, football thats not used mainly with your foot....can you see where Im going here? Most of the civilized...and even uncivilized world uses the same frequencies for GSM 900mhz and 1800mhz. So in the US, we use 850mhz 1900mhz. The point Im getting at here is if you have a US GSM phone(ATT or Tmobile)..unless the phone says world phone which has all frequencies... you cant use it out side of your country. So if your not asleep.... I go back to my Verizon world phone. Verizon is owned by the giant UK company, Vodaphone who has GSM contracts around the world. In order for me to use MY phone outside the use, you have to use their SIM card which uses their list of phones companies in other countries. It just so happens that Haiti would cost me up to $3.99 a minute! But if you buy a SIM card for your GSM from the country your visiting, like I have for Haiti...its only $.49 a minute. The other option is to have your phone company give you the secret "unlock code" to allow other companies SIM cards in the phone....and you guessed it, Verizon will not do that.

Ill find either a local phone there or use the other phone I have which can be temperamental at times.

Im pretty sure I just lost 80% of my followers with this article...

I have yet to see any type of aid going to Haiti or DR from this airport, starting to make me wonder whats going to hit me in the face on the other side.

My contact through USAID has been amazing at finding me ways of transport through Haiti. My backup option is the embassy transport bus to Haiti in search of US citizens needing repatriation. So far I have a helicopter transport set from the San Isidro airport. Im landing at Las Americas International airport. Here is a map.