Arrival

The flight to Haiti was fairly uneventful. As soon as the plane took off Jayden fell asleep. I myself was up for over 30 hours before I had that privilege. I chatted with some of the Haitian people around me and was glad to see how friendly they all were. The flight lasted only 1 hour and 45 minutes, so before I knew it, I saw Haiti. First impressions? It looked bigger then I thought. The water around it was a cool blue color and I could see the coral reefs. The land looked a mix of browns and greens. Jayden woke up minutes before we landed and we felt a real thud, thud as the plane bounced on the runway. It took a bit of time to gather my things, but with the help of a friendly stewardess I was finally able to exit the plane. A metal stairs had been rolled to the entrance of the plane. As Jayden and I made our way down the stairs he cried! The bright sunlight and the wave of hot humid air was just to much for him. As I gently soothed him, he began to calm down, but he did cling to me.. after waiting for 20 minutes outside someone had finally found my stroller, which I had checked in before I entered the plane and we were ready to walk to the airport! Mark Williams, the program manager of Haiti was getting worried, so he came out of the airport waiting area to make sure we were alright, since it had been taking so long and to welcome us and help carry our things. As we entered the airport music played and shiny dark faces smiled and waved at me. Although the line up at customs was long, and I was a little worried since I had filled out some of the paperwork wrong, scribbled on it and rewrote over top, the girl at the desk took no notice. Very importantly she opened my passport, and stamped it, and then without even glancing at my papers stamped those too and waved me on. Then it was time to pick up our suitcases. Evidently two of my suitcases had been misplaced, but finally after 45 minutes I had them all! From then on, Mark Williams guided me through the crowd and we made our way outside to the waiting area, where Jason was waiting. He was glad to see us and we were sure glad to see him! The drive from Port-au-Prince was an experience! The roads were full of people, animals, buss', parked cars, tap taps, garbage, etc. There were huge dips, and holes in the roads, and some roads were actually partially dried up river beds. Since I had been expecting poor road conditions I guess what surprised me most was that I wasn’t afraid at all! It seemed like we had many “narrow misses” with other vehicles, people etc, but we were going so slow even if we had hit something it would have hardly mattered. Apparently people don’t use car seats either, although I had brought one with for Jayden, now I kind of understand why. The driving is so slow that although many vehicles have dents and scratches I doubt that many people get really hurt. Our first stop was to our house. We were surprised and excited to see that it had been well maintained, and to meet the Hatian family who had been taking care of it for us. Since they have no other place to stay we plan to have them live with us. There is a separate little house for them with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen, where they live. Their names are Arnold and Denise and they have two little boys, a 3 year old and a one year old. We just ask everyone to pray for this young family, and that we may received guidance from God, on how best to help them. I’ve got more to tell, but Jason’s getting antsy (he wants to use the computer) and this blog has gotten pretty long. I’ll write more later.. bye for now.