Ayiti Air Anbilans’ Bell 407 over Cite Soleil (City of the Sun), one of the most impoverished areas in the western hemisphere. Photo: Lyn Burks
they realize that they are also aff orded the same treatment by Ayiti Air Anbilans as the minority with money. “A lot of folks here can’t believe that our service is for anybody,” says McDaniel. “We have the poorest people say, ‘You mean that’s for me too?’ They just can’t believe it. We’re there for those people. We’re also there for the chief of police too if he needs us. It really is for anybody and everybody.”
Ayiti Air Anbilans’ crews often receive coconuts as token payment for their hard work. “It’s really one of those touching rewards that you can’t get anywhere else,” says McDaniel. “They feel this grand
blessing of what this helicopter can do and what it means for their country. I wish I had a dollar donation for every time I heard ‘Thank you for what you’re doing for Haiti.’ The people realize that this service is here to take care of them, and not to take anything from them.”
STOMPING ELEPHANTS, PROUD PEOPLE
Sometimes when large international relief organizations come to Haiti, it’s like elephants arriving to help a mouse. The elephants stomp around, excited to accomplish great things—while the mouse gets trampled in the process. McDaniel
says, “Haitians are real accustomed to international organizations coming in with a fury, and a month later they’re gone. They don’t really leave anything behind for them.”
Ayiti Air Anbilans has a diff erent plan. “In our organization we realize that all the Americans are here to work themselves out of work. We want to turn it over to the Haitians,” says McDaniel. There are already several Haitian employees in medical care, maintenance, and dispatch, and he believes that while the transfer is “light-years” away from a piloting standpoint, it can happen perhaps as
Villagers take cover behind foliage as the Ayiti Air Anbilans crew touches down in an unimproved mountaintop landing zone. Photo: Lyn Burks
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October 2015
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