Haiti-Day 1

Family, Friends & Co-Workers,

After being home for a little over a week now I have gone back and read through the journal that I kept while I was in Haiti and so many emotions are brought back from what I experienced and from what the Lord taught me while on the trip.  Since many of you have asked what the trip was like and how it went, I thought I would type up my journal entries and share them with you.  I’m sure I may have forgotten a couple things, but for the most part this should give you a picture of what the trip was like.

DAY 1 (Jan 2, 2012):

Today we meet at the Life Light office in Sioux Falls, SD at 2:45 p.m. to have prayer as a team and be sent off on our way by the Life Light staff and family members.  We each packed the trailer with our 1 small carry-on bag, and yes I did say one.   Believe it or not we all managed to fit everything we needed in our one bag.  We then loaded up the sound equipment, 4 or 5 guitars, drum set, keyboards, luggage with electrical cords and microphones, boxes of rice, crafts for children, a tub of wordless books, etc.   We got to the airport and checked all our bags (except the carry-on items), made it through security (minus a little glitch with Nich one of our team members not being allowed to go up-stairs through security for quite a while…which we still are not sure why) and boarded our flight at 4:50 p.m. to Dallas-Ft. Worth.  Once in Dallas, we grabbed a bit to eat for supper at T.G.I Friday’s in the airport with several of our team members and then departed at 8:15 p.m. from the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport to Miami, FL.  This flight was not so fun as we were all very crammed and my husband with the long legs that he has did not fit in any of the seats really.  Oh and to top it off, there were two little Hispanic boys sitting in the seats in front of us that continually kept jamming their seats back and forth into his knees (on purpose) and for some reason did not understand what “no” meant when we asked them several times to stop.  Eventually we explained what was going on to the flight attendants and they told the little boys that their seat could not go back as the gentleman behind him, Charlie’s, legs were too long.  Shortly after both boys stood up, turned around and said, “Lo siento no comprende inglés.”  (For those of you who may not know Spanish, that mean-sorry we don’t speak English).  After those words were exchanged all was good and everyone was happy.  Once we arrived in Miami about half the team (Kansas who is 7 months along in her pregnancy, and some of the older adults or those who were not feeling well) headed to a hotel to get some rest for the night in Miami and the rest of us stayed overnight in the airport for the night.  I decided to be one of the few that stayed at the airport for the night, not so sure that was the best idea. 

Grabbin' a bite to eat at the airport in Sioux Falls before we take off

Flight #1

A beautiful view from the plane

Playing cards in the Miami airport to kill time before flying out to Port-au-Prince in the morning