It is well known that companies often treat workers in other countries differently than they would in their own country. This is common knowledge and the main reason why most of the items we purchase in the United States are made in other countries, where the companies can legally (although not necessarily ethically in my opinion) pay people very low wages.
It only occurred to me this week that American companies may sometimes also treat paying customers differently in other countries than in their own. Since I speak English I offered to help a Haitian friend communicate with an airline who had lost her luggage while she was visiting relatives in the United States during the summer. After many messages and phone calls, the airline agreed to send a check to the local airport in Cap-Haitian to pay for her lost items. A few days after that we received an email saying that the check would be made available to her in Port-au-Prince. I emailed the airline representative reminding her that she had agreed to send the check to Cap-Haitian, that the person whose bag was lost lives in Cap-Haitian and had boarded the plane in Cap-Haitian on the day her bag disappeared. The airline baggage specialist called me on the telephone that afternoon, and very politely apologized for saying that the check would be available in Cap-Haitian; it will be available in Port-au-Prince; this was beyond her personal control. She does not know if when it arrives in Port-au-Prince if they will somehow be able to get it to Cap-Haitian. If they had found her bag while she was in the United States they would have delivered her suitcase to her at any reasonable address, but since it was never found she needs to make the trek to Port-au-Prince to get the check. I did ask the woman on the phone if she knows how far that is and what the roads are like. She admitted she had no idea. I even pointed out that I had received a couple of messages from the US embassy that very day explaining that there were ongoing protests in Port-au-Prince and encouraging US citizens to avoid certain areas of the city. I asked if the airline had lost the bag of someone who lives near the airport in Boston would they expect that person to drive to Philadelphia to pick up the check to reimburse them for the loss? Most Americans would find that idea absurd, yet an American company operating in another country, Haiti, specifically thinks this is perfectly acceptable. The reality that even paying customers in other countries would be treated differently probably should not have surprised me but in this situation, honestly, I had not expected it.
Amusing:
In the midst of the joys and challenges this week, I sometimes allowed the unexpected to amuse me.
Yesterday in between therapy appointments at the orphanage I noticed that there was a real lizard first appearing to be looking at the toys on the shelf and then it moved almost blending in with the toys.
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| The real lizard is right in in front of the small toy dog. |
In one of the schools this week a young preschooler's response to hearing me a blan (white person/foreigner) speak Creole almost made me laugh out loud.
There was a pile of bicycles that seemed to me to mysteriously appear on our front steps; they are going to go to one of the sisters' schools for a program, and someone apparently knew that they were going to be delivered there. Imagine coming home and seeing this on your front step! I realize the quality of the pictures is poor. I took them with my phone and not my camera, but you get the idea.
Many blessings!
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