Haiti Day 1: The loooooong road to Jacmel, Haiti.

Three trains, three airplanes, and one three-hour crazy bus ride over a mountain later, I finally have made it to Jacmel, Haiti. Sleep has been few and far in between the past few days, so I am completely exhausted, but it has been an incredible experience so far. I left Chicago on Wednesday and had a pretty uneventful flight after spending the previous night way to anxious to go to bed. Christine had a dinner party for her friends Wednesday night before we left, so we ended up only getting 1 hour of sleep before meeting everyone at New River Church at 3:30am Thursday morning. The flights to Miami and Port au Prince were also uneventful despite my stomach problems from the malaria pills and the looming Hurricane Fey over Florida. In fact, if it wasn’t all over the news, I wouldn’t have even know there was a major storm. We arrived in Haiti around 2pm today and through the random plane seating and layover, I’ve been quickly getting to know every member of our mission team on a more personal level. They all are fantastic by the way!

Haiti is everything I expected it to be. We got off the plan presidential style…stepping out the cockpit onto a staircase which led down to what looked to be no more than a few hundred square foot cement slab with a shack for an airport building. The heat was heavy and damp and immediately wearing on my body once I stepped out into it. Getting through immigration was not a problem at all...a few papers to fill out, a stamp on the passport...piece of cake. The kids and men outside grabbing at our bags and begging for money gave us more of a problem. Pastor LeFluer (our host) literally had to yell at some of them to back off. There were so many of them...it just gave us a taste of truely how poor and desperate the people of Haiti are. While we were loading the bus in the airport parking lot, a group of trumpeters and trombonists came over and played America’s national anthem...looking for money of course. I felt like they were playing for me in the Olympics…that I had just won the gold medal in international travel! Its funny what your mind comes up with when you are sleep deprived. We gave them a few American dollars and loaded the bus for our long journey.

Several of Pastor LeFleur’s family members met us at the airport. About 20 of us with 4 bags each boarded a bus the size of a SpEd bus for the 3 hour trek across a mountain from Port au Prince to Jacmel. This totally would have been illegal in the USA and I’m pretty sure we almost flipped over a few times taking the sharp mountain curves. There was even a part where the road was washed out and falling down the mountain, but we crossed it anyway. I’m definitely thankful that we all made it to Jacmel safe and sound. There was no air conditioning so you can imagine the ride was a little uncomfortable. Let’s just say that Phillip (trip leader) and I have a whole new relationship after the bus ride.

Driving through Port au Prince was an experience. It basically is a collection of old shanty stone buildings with tons of people outside of each trying to sell something. Every time our bus would stop, people would come to the windows and stick their hands in trying to sell us water or phone cards. It is crazy because all of this takes place in the shadows of the Prime Minister’s palace which is a huge white mansion…very similar to our white house… stuck in the middle of beautifully landscaped grounds with armed guards and gates surrounding it. It made me sad. I asked Pastor about this and he just told me that Parliament steals the money.

On the streets, no one obeys the rules of the road. Basically, everyone just halls ass down the middle of the narrow streets and honks at people to get out of the way. The bigger guy usually wins. We passed a few Voodoo worship temples which had weird paintings drawn on the outside of them. There are a lot of random goats and cows standing about as well…oh, and the trash in the streets is disgusting! There literally is just heaps of trash piled in the middle of the streets. Now I know why disease is prevalent in Port au Prince.

The countryside is a little better. The houses are the same but spread out over more open spaces. The country was completely deforested during the last revolt, but think heavy tropical brush covers most of the open spaces. It reminded me of all the stories you hear about the brush in Vietnam...but again, there were lots of random goats and cows all over the place.

Jacmel is a busy little town on the southern coast. It still has much of the French colonial feel to its buildings, however most of them are completely run down. There was tons of people in the streets when we first arrived. They have the ladies here who balance and carry huge baskets of stuff on their heads…just like you see in pictures. It really is amazing how they can balance all of that stuff. There are people on the streets selling stuff here too, but they aren’t as pushy about it as they were in Port au Prince. It is very dusty here too, and there are constantly mopeds and huge trucks flying through the unpaved streets creating more dust. Overall, I kind of like it. It is a friendly place. I get the sense that people here don’t see a lot of white faces, but when you wave to them, especially the kids, their confused looks turn to smiles and they wave back.

Our hotel is simple but nice. Christine, Donna and I are sharing a room with 2 beds and a bathroom. There is no hot water and the shower literally is a pipe hanging out of the wall that spits water (my SD girls will appreciate that!!!). There is no public electricity in any building here. The lucky people have generators they use to get a few hours of light or air conditioning. Our hotel turns the generator on at 8pm and shuts it off at 6am allowing us to run fans and a small room air conditioner overnight for a comfortable night’s sleep.

After settling in, we went to Pastor LeFleur’s house for dinner. We took what they call a "taptap" which is pretty much a pick-up truck with tall hand bars in the bed that people pile into and use a a taxi. Again, we crammed 12 poeple into the bed of a small littel toyota truck standing up, holding on to the bars for the 10 minute drive zooming in and out of the unpavaed streets of Jacmel to Pastor's house. It totally would have been illegal in the USA, but again, a fun experience. His wife cooked us an incredible soup they call Bouillon. It was more like a stew with carrots, potatoes, bananas, sea kelp, goat meat and a bunch of spices of some sort. It sounds disgusting but it was really really yummy. We also had passion fruit juice which was awesome! We spent the evening hanging out with his family and neighbors. Many of the kids were eager to practice their English on us. On a side note, kids have to pay to go to school, and pay extra for schools that teach French (one of the state languages) or English. There is no public education system here so many many of the kids don’t have any education at all. Sadness.

Now we are back at the hotel…electricity running…and completely exhausted and overwhelmed from our long day and submersion into this strange but beautiful culture. We all met for prayer and briefing on the roof earlier tonight and got a lot of information about the town, the culture, and tips on keeping ourselves safe. Donna was able to use my computer to video chat with her adopted 3 year old daughter from China (and those of you who know me, know that I want to adopt kids internationally…so this was a divine roomie situation here). Now, we are just chilling in our room getting ready for bed. Tomorrow we get up early to go to a church in the mountains called “Bois Coup” for a special service. Tomorrow night will be my first experience here hanging out with the Haitian kids during a special youth service/movie night we are hosting. I can’t wait!

Here are a few prayer requests before I say goodnight…
The malaria medication is really taking a toll on my stomach. Pray that I don’t continue to feel nauseous in the hours after taking it!
Communication hasn’t been a big issue so far, but pray that we could effectively communicate with the people (especially the kids tomorrow) of Haiti.
Pray against any spiritual attack that may keep us from being fully open to whatever it is God has planned for us here.
Christine is being weighed down by a few difficult situations back home. She is very worried about some issues her roommate is having and needs discernment. She also is still jobless, but has a great prospect on the front. Also, pray that she could leave all of that stress behind and focus on what God has in store for her here.
FOR PROTECTION AND PROVISION!

Nighty Night, Friends!