PROVIDENCE — Some things transcend nationality. Take, for example, that overshadowing feeling some mayors share when larger, neighboring communities lay claim to their airports.

When Scott Avedisian, mayor of Warwick and a board member of Crossroads Rhode Island, was introduced yesterday at the Providence shelter to a visiting contingent of Haitians, Jean Frantz Theodat, mayor of Tabarre, Haiti, made a point of saying: “I like your airport.”

Theodat went on: Like you, many people think the main airport of Haiti is in Port-au-Prince, when in fact, it lies in Tabarre, next door.

Laughter proceeded to bridge a cultural gap.

Nine Haitians, including local politicians, two reporters and the director of the Institute of Democratic Education and Human Rights, were in Rhode Island Monday and yesterday as part of a three-week tour of the country.

The tour, sponsored by an arm of the U.S. Department of State, is designed to give the Haitians a better understanding of how average citizens, businesses and community groups work with government at various levels to influence political, social and economic changes.

On Monday, the delegation visited the state Ethics Commission and met with Providence Mayor David Cicilline and members of Operation Clean Government. Much of the discussion centered on accountability in local government.

At Crossroads, the state’s largest service provider for the homeless, the visitors heard Anne Nolan, the agency’s president, discuss the difficulty of finding money to serve the 6,000 to 7,000 people who arrive at its Broad Street doors each year.

Besides seeking private donations, the agency, Nolan said, is dependent on state and federal money, which becomes harder to find in difficult economic times. The hunt for money is endless, Nolan said. In fact “we’ll look under the seat cushions when you leave.”

During a lunch break, Mayor Theodat said he hoped the three-week tour of the United States would show the delegation other options for dealing with the economic and political hardships his country faces.

“We don’t have a lot of resources either,” he said. “We have to stretch the dollar, too.”

tmooney@projo.com