Our Arrival

I just got access to the internet - sorry for the long delay...

Monday June 30th

The flight arrived late, but safe and sound. The situation with all of our bags went like a dream. A nice older gentleman who worked at the airport asked us in Creole how many carts we needed, showed us to a great spot to wait for the luggage, and help us to the exit. I have to learn to give better tips. I gave him $2 and he complained, so I add $3 and he then said thank you. In hindsight I should have given $5, but I am not on the salary I used to be (I am not on any salary).

There was another person at the exit that helped and demonstrated to us that we got too many carts (he consolidated them and started out the door). It was a little difficult to tell who was a worker and who wasn’t among the chaos of the moment, yet looking back at it, there were two groups of people that helped and they had uniforms on this time (as opposed to last time). The uniforms were impressive – it seems like good progress and they didn’t have them last time.

We walked out the exit with me manning the second cart following someone on the second and Tina and kids were manning the third. Two guys in uniforms took over mine and Tina’s as we realized it was OK. As we walked out, I was looking for a BHM sign (there were a few other signs) and didn’t see one. What I did notice in the crowd is a Haitian waving at me with a huge smile. I initially took him to be just someone wanting to help us. As we rounded out the back of the crowd he came up and said “Baptist Haiti Mission.” I knew then that he was there to help us out. So, I shook hands and took a few steps to be immediately greeted by Pastor Rob with a great handshake. I was surprised to see him since I knew they were busy. It made me feel important that he came to pick us up. The guy who said “Baptist Haiti Mission” apparently remembered us from our last trip. His name is Johnny and he is around 15+. He is Carter’s new best friend. Carter got a handshake and hug from him.

After packing the pickup truck full to over flowing with luggage, there was no room for Johnny. No big deal to them, he would just ride on top of the cab of the truck. These roads are very rough and narrow and steep. He had to hang on and I have no idea how he hung on – some of the bumps knocked us out of our seats.

By the time we were half way up the mountain it was dark. Pastor Rob was telling us where we were and where things were – we didn’t get that last time we came up because we couldn’t communicate with our driver.

We arrived and everyone that we met last time was here to greet us and help us. After getting a very quick rundown, they invited us to eat. There was meat, potatoes, green beans and even cookies for dessert. It was good food! We ate and then we went to our place to get further instructions. We started unpacking but were getting too tired, so we went to sleep. We didn’t get the greatest sleep. There are roosters here that apparently don’t know what a sun looks like – at 2 AM they were all communicating very loudly and didn’t start back up until 5 AM. We may have to buy a new mattress because this one smells like mildew and is really stiff.

We finished taking things out of the luggage and started putting things away. Around 8:30 we made eggs (there was 2 dozen in the fridge when we arrived) and then had a visitor – it was Patti the Director’s wife. She gave us further details about the place:

• Termites in the cupboards
• More frequent kidnappings of Americans locally
• Where the laundry facilities are
• When the common meal times are (M, W, and F)

They are very busy during the next month or so. This means that we’ll be on our own somewhat for a while. This should help us get acclimated to our surroundings.