Haiti Trip - Day 2

Haiti Trip – Day 2 (October 5)

Four o'clock and the telephone rings, “Good morning, this is your wake up call.” Actually, that call came about 1 ½ hours after I had already awaken. For some reason, at 2:30 I woke up thinking that I needed to e-mail my Sunday School class, and do a few other things. I waited until the alarm sounded before actually getting up to do it, but I never did fall back to sleep. I am in for a long day!

By 5:00, the team was assembled by the front door waiting for the shuttle. We were able to make it to the airport by 5:10, and were checked in for the flight by 5:30. We had breakfast before going through the security checkpoint, and by 6:15 we were sitting at the gate. Keep in mind the flight wouldn't leave until 8:30, but the airline requested we be at the airport by 5. The team has responded very well to the waiting period, so I am very thankful for that. I was able to call Dee, and eventually Harrison called to say, “hi”. We boarded and made our way to Haiti.

The plane was mostly empty, so we spread out around the plane. The flight went well, and soon enough we were flying over Haiti.

First impressions - it seemed like a pretty nice place from the air, but a very needy place when we hit the ground. We were surrounded by people that wanted to help us move our bags – just so we would give them some money. They were relentless. They kept grabbing at my bag, and I kept telling them to leave them alone. The rest of the team was having the same problem, so I stepped in to help out. Eventually the woman from Florida Coastal came to our aid, and we were on our way to the other terminal.

We arrived at that terminal and had to wait until 11:30 (about 2 hours) to board our next plane. The plane held about 20 people, and rocked and shook as we made our way above the mountains from Port Au Prince to Cap Haitian (on the north side of Haiti). Over all the flight was fine, but Karen was a little nervous (to say the least).

They could only take 5 of our 11 bags with us on our flight, so the remainder of our bags went on the 2:30 flight – arriving in Cap Haitian around 3:00. It was just a matter of an hour or so after we arrived in Grand Bassin (where the Bethesda Medical Clinic is) that our bags arrived, and we were completely there.

Key things that happened today...

1 – bags flew on a separate plane – everything arrived just fine.

2 – We were swarmed everywhere we went with people asking for money and wanting to help us.

3 – While riding in the back of a truck with my legs hanging over the tailgate, a kid ran out into traffic to grab my leg – just for a joke. It was rather funny.

4 – The kids at Bethesda are adorable, and are wanting to play. We didn't have time yet to hang out with them – maybe tomorrow. They are constantly asking for money/stuff, I hope to teach them to give to others – not always asking for themselves.

5 – We went to church – the service was swaying – literally. People clapping, swaying, singing - it was all in Creole, so I am not really sure what they were saying. Jimmy and Sanchez were translating for us, but I was too far away to hear most of what they were saying.