DAY 2 (January 3, 2012)

As I said in yesterday’s post, tonight several of us slept overnight in the Miami airport.  It was FREEZING here and the chairs all had arm rests so it was impossible to lay across the chairs and get a couple hours of sleep.  So, a couple of us played some cards for a while, others walked around just to try and warm up and the rest fought trying to sleep in the igloo conditions.  When the men are cold...you know it’s cold.  Anyway, as 4:00 a.m. rolled around, employees of the shops and restaurants at the airport started to roll in and open their doors.  I think we were all eyeing a good coffee or hot coco.  At about 6:00 a.m. Charlie and I went to one of the restaurants in the airport and ate our last HOT breakfast before flying out to Port-Au-Prince.  After breakfast the rest of the team that stayed at the hotel showed up and we boarded our final flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  We arrived in Port-Au-Prince late that afternoon, made it through customs, and loaded up all of our checked bags, carry-on items and equipment onto carts, and headed out the airport.  Our leaders, Josh & Rachelle Brewer warned us that as we tried to leave several airport employees would ask to push and carry our luggage for us, but they said to try an hang on to it as best as we could.  I’d say we all did pretty well until about half way to the vehicle.  The employees would all fight over who got to push the cart and take our luggage and after a while they would just kind of move in and take over the cart…there were usually 2-3 guys fighting over each cart and we probably had a good 5 or so carts, so once we got to our vehicle you can probably imagine how many employees wanted “their” tip even if all they did was walk along side another guy that actually pushed the cart.  That was an experience let me tell you…to be honest I was a little scared by it all, but I never felt in danger for myself or any one on our team members, but I am surprised I never saw a fist fight come out of the deal as much as they were yelling at each other and getting in each other’s faces.  Anyway, once we made it to our ride, we met Pastor Luc and his son who were going to be helping take us around the city all week and help translate whenever needed.  We loaded everything into Pastor Luc’s truck (which is very similar to what they call at tap tap-the taxi’s in Haiti which are pickup trucks with seating in the back) and a 15 passenger van and off we headed to Coconut Village where we set base for the week.  Wow, the driving and traffic in Haiti is crazy.  The Haitians drive however they want and do whatever they want.  There are very few stop lights and hardly any street signs to obey.  So, like I said, they literally do whatever they want.   If you need to turn and there is traffic backed up you can go into the lane of oncoming traffic and someone will eventually stop…yep even if it’s up hill-no big deal they do it all the time.  I found it best just not to worry and look too much, lol.  Oh and if traffic stops and is jammed, everyone seems to think laying on the horn for a good couple seconds or so will help, no not so much.  But to be honest I only saw one minor accident when we were there so that isn’t bad considering.  Once at the hotel we got our room assignments, settled in, played some cards outside and then headed to the lobby area for supper and debriefing as a team.  This meal was delicious, I had BBQ Chicken, rice & beans and I can’t even remember what else.  After debriefing we stayed up for a bit and chatted with each other and then headed to bed at a good time as we were all pretty shot from the very little sleep we got the night before and being tired from a full day of travel.

(Feel free to check out my album of photos on facebook...it was taking too long to load pictures each day)