Presidential day

During the day on 14th, I was told that the President Martelly wished me to pay him a visit. And on the 15th, my good friend Mireille Lherisson picked me up at Max's place and we drove to Port au Prince. Mireille is very active running several projects in favour of the country and was hoping to make a presentation of her project to improve water quality and eradicate cholera in the country.

Late on the 15th, we had an appointment at 7 p.m., but it turned out that the obligations of the President led him to postpone the meeting up to 9 a.m. the next morning.

I spent a nice evening with Mireille and her business partner Ingenieur Guy Francois in a Petionville restaurant and I stayed for the night to be on site for the meeting.

At 9 on the 16th, we were at the president's residence. We were swiftly let in, and after a brief conversation with the first lady, the President joined us and immediately started talking about the Festival of the Sea in Pestel that I used to organize in the late 80's. The President would like me to do it again and I promised that I would do my best to have it running in March 2013. We also talked of several nautical projects that could do good for the country without having to spend a lot of money in infrastructures (create an environment more conducive to attract pleasure boats to visit Haiti, use water taxis in Port au Prince to alleviate congested road traffic, study the possibility to set up a coastal freighting system with boats that Haitian sailors can afford and run).

This meeting is likely to make me change significantly my personal planning for the coming months, if not years. However, if I could within my possibilities and abilities, bring a little bit to help in the reconstruction of Haiti, I would certainly never regret it.