Haiti and Peter

Peter now has a cot in his office with a blanket and pillow. He was also able to get a shower and a meal at the home of a coworker that wasn't damaged. His bodyguard went back to his house to retrieve Pete's laptop and some clothes. While he was in the house, there was an aftershock, so he got out pretty fast. Pete may get a two day break in the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico, but that probably includes coming and going. Hardly a big break. Why those two places? Apparently. that because that's where the military planes fly. I guess U.S. Military planes don't fly to Miami, or maybe because there is no air marshall to fly along. Think that's far fetched?

When Teddy was on protective detail for the Vice President, he would act as an air marshall whenever he was flying to or from an assignment. He would speak to the pilot ahead of time and the crew would know where he was seated. One time he was returning from Wyoming with about 40 other armed Secret Service agents. They had left their cars at one Washington area airport (maybe it was Reagan, maybe a military base, I forget which), but they weren't allowed to fly into the airport where their cars were parked because there was no air marshall aboard. They landed at the other airport and were bussed back to their cars. That's your government at work folks.

Communications with Peter is still an iffy situation. Sometimes he can get a call through to Roxanne, sometimes not. She has the same problem when trying to call him.

Haiti, Africa, Peter, Leo

I finally communicated directly with Peter last night by email to his government email account. I don't like to do that because I know he is okay, but busy and there is not much more than the obvious that we can say to each other. He was answering at 9:00 p.m., so that was a pretty good indication of where he was at that hour since I believe his laptop is still in what remains of his house. He is still very, very busy and promises to write more when things let up a little.

In another twist, I learned that our youngest son, Leo, has volunteered to go to Haiti. The Immigration Service had requested volunteers and Leo put his name on the list. He already has all the shots he would need and is cross trained in adoption and other necessary paperwork. Peter said it would be great if he came, but that decision would have to come from Leo's headquarters office. Peter will speak to the people he knows in Haiti.

The reason that Leo has all of his shots is that this Wednesday (yesterday) he was scheduled to deport an illegal criminal back to Africa. This is part of what he does as part of his job as an ICE agent. He was already on the plane with the person at Kennedy airport, but the man was being uncooperative, resisting and refusing to sit. Since this was a commercial airliner, other passengers were starting to get nervous. After discussions with the crew and pilot, it was decided to abort the trip (of the man, not the plane). Leo said that the man will still be deported, but either sedated or put on a special deportation flight. Leo wasn't all that keen on traveling to Africa anyway. He would have been staying at a five star hotel, but not long enough to even see any sights. That is usually the case when he goes abroad (usually two agents go together). Mostly the return flight is the next available flight and if he wants to see anything he has to use vacation time and then he's usually there by himself, so depending where he is going, it's usually not that much fun. On one of his first trips (I think it was to Sarajevo, not sure) he and his partner decided ahead of time to take the following morning flight home, when they could have taken one within a couple of hours or so of arriving. When they turned over their prisoner, the local police were incredulous that they would do that. "Why would you want to stay here any longer than necessary? There is nothing here to see." Which turned out to be true.

I have a concern about other family members wanting to go to Haiti. I certainly admire the courage and volunteer spirit, but I would feel uncomfortable if it should become a trend. Someone may remember that I got a Bob the Builder outfit as a retirement gift and may feel that with extra time on my hands, I too should head to Haiti. I don't know. My French is very rusty and I don't speak Creole.

Haiti - One Week Later

Not much has changed for Peter in one week. He is still sleeping and living in the Embassy and overwhelmed with work. He hasn't heard about any relief for himself or his coworkers. He told Roxanne that when the quake struck and he was at home, all of a sudden, things fell off shelves and his china cabinet came crashing down with glass flying everywhere. He ran out of the house not knowing what was happening. He says that this has changed his outlook on life and toward people.

Crisfield, MD

With all of the activity related to the earthquakes in Haiti, I have been remiss in writing about our trip to Crisfield, MD on January 13th. Right before we left, we heard that Pete had sent a text message that he was okay. Our trip was much more relaxed after that. I can only imagine what parents of missing college students and others are going through when they have no idea what condition their children are in.

Crisfield is at the very southern tip of Maryland's Eastern Shore, on Tangier Sound, right above Virginia. It is an old oyster fishing town that has seen better days. We went there to get my new banjo. They would have shipped it to me but I wanted to go and I wanted Anne to meet Pat and Patrick Costello and Pat's wife Trudy. Anne wasn't all that excited about the five hour ride down and the five hour ride back, but I think she had a good time. We had a nice dinner with the Costellos. Anne and Trudy discussed quilts and sewing and such stuff, while Pat, Patrick and I talked about some of the finer points of the music business. The Costellos facilitate the construction of the Somerset line of banjos, which are very high quality at reasonable prices. The neck for my banjo was made by Neil Turner in Buzzard Mountain, Georgia, sent to Chris Via in Rich Creek, Virginia and then Chris builds the tone ring and pot, finishes the neck and puts it all together.

Since it is a five hour drive down there, we stayed over night at a bed and breakfast. The place was okay, but not quite up to our bed and breakfast standards. The couple that owned the place were very nice indeed, but the house needed some renovations which they were slowly making. The breakfast was fine, but Anne pointed out, that since we were the only guests in residence, we could have been given a choice of what to eat.

A long drive to get something that the UPS man would have been happy to deliver at a fraction of the cost of the trip and overnight, but, these are good people and I want to stay connected with them. Actually, the UPS man did get in on the act because Chris forgot to send the case with the banjo so he sent that directly to me and it arrived on Friday, the day after we got home.

If you ever find yourself in Crisfield, why that would be I don't know, but if you do, you should visit the Blue Crab Cafe near the municipal harbor which is owned by the same people that own the B&B. Therein you will find a relic of history, or so the legend goes. The proprietor's great, great grandmother and grandfather ran a hotel in the 1860s, in Washington, D.C. where the National Archives now stands. One day when Grandma was scrubbing the floor, a man came in and she asked him to remove his spurs and boots because he was getting the floor dirty. He said he had only come in for a drink and went to the bar. Grandma then told Grandpa to get him out of there, so he asked him to leave. Indignantly, the man left and went up the road to a hotel run by Mary Elizabeth Surratt. History buffs may recall that Mary's claim to fame was to have been hung by the neck until she was dead for participating in the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. The gentleman with the dirty boots was said to have been John Wilkes Booth. Could it be that if he was allowed to stay in Grandma's hotel, her fate might have been that of Mary's? Anyway, the brass foot railing upon which the same John Wilkes Booth rested his dirty boots is now in the Blue Crab Cafe in Crisfield, MD. Oh, also, the last lynching in the country supposedly took place in Crisfield. Who knew? Now you know. I should charge for this blog with all of the information that I dispense here.

Ears

Roxana didn't get a call from Pete yesterday, but did get an email that he has been very busy and just didn't have the time to call. He will try to call her tonight.

I was having trouble with my hearing and with my left ear especially, so when we visited my cousin Bill and his wife Joan, Bill had a solution. He had been having the same problem, so he got these small ear probes from Walmart and he gave me a couple of them saying they really worked for him. I tried them, but my hearing was getting so bad I could barely hear out of my left ear. I finally decided to go to the doctor who cleaned out both ears. It turns out that Bill also wound up at his doctor for the very same thing. The doctor told him that he should continue to get those little probes and give them to his friends. They will then push the wax so far into their ears that they won't be able to hear and they will come to him and he will have a lot more business. I told my cousin that I will never take any suppositories from him.

Haiti2

I couldn't edit the prior post to add any additional word for some reason, so I decided to do a new post, although there are no words that I can add to what Peter so eloquently said.

I never thought I would have sons that would be so involved in something like this situation. Peter was there on the ground from the beginning and the enormity of this tragedy will haunt him forever. We were at Katie Rose's 13th birthday party this evening and Teddy was there texting and on the phone arranging assignments of Secret Service personnel for Bill Clinton's departure from Newark to Haiti.

You never stop being concerned for your children, even when they become adults and have families of their own. Now there are not only children to be concerned about, but spouses and children. I'm not "worried" about any of them because they are all responsible, caring people (Tyler is only a baby, but he will be responsible and caring. Timmy and Bridget are almost five, so they are getting to be big kids.), but I will always be concerned for them.

Haiti

We haven't heard anything new at this point from Peter, except his Facebook posting.

Pete Kolshorn I want to thank my family, friends, co-workers and DS Brotherhood for all of your wishes of support this week. It means a lot to me. It has been horrific, heartbreaking and unimaginable. To all of my Haitian friends...the human spirit that comes through in a tragedy such as this defies words. You are strong!