Haiti: Part youn

I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting from Haiti, but I do know that what I had in mind turned out to be very different from reality.
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On Friday April 19th, Jil and I hopped in the car and drove 3 hours to Greensboro, NC where we were to meet up with 5 of the 7 other team members we'd be spending (and smelling) the next 8 days with. After a stop for gas, a stop for Sheetz, and a stop during a tsunami rain storm where the lines on the roadway were some how concealed by Forest Gump sidewayupwaydiagonal rain we checked into our hotel complete with stale smoke incense and box spring stains. Little did we know those rooms would be the worst of our weeklong adventure.

Next we headed to a japanese steak house for our last supper before departing and we finally got to meet Adam, Kitty, Carey, Lindsay, and Roy. We stuffed ourselves with sushi, Grampy Gif would be proud as we covered the two best topics of dinner conversation (death and poop), got to know each other better, and speculated about what the next week would hold for us. I don't think any of us were sad to say goodbye to the glorious Days Inn, and after an early wake up call headed for the airport. Compared to the Haitian airport, checking in was a breeze even with 14 bags of medication weighing 50 pounds each. Since the medications were to be checked through to Haiti, we hefted 8 days worth of clothing and food through Greensboro and boarded our first flight to Miami. There we met up with the final 2 members of our team, Peter and Caleb, and headed for Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.

I had a mini panic attack when I thought my carry-on was lost (not because it had my food, but because it had all my clean underwear) but we managed to make it out of the airport with all of our carry-on bags AND all of the checked bags. After some confusion as to where the van was parked (some how ending up on one side of the fence with the teenagers), we piled our things in and all opted to squeeze into one tap-tap for our first of many bumpy/hot/dusty rides through Haiti. 

Jil and Carey

My first view of Haiti

9 people in the back of a tiny pickup truck with 2 benches? Fantastic idea!

We jostled and bounced our way to St. Josephs, a home for boys that rents out several rooms in a guest house tower. I actually have no recollection of how long the drive from the airport to St. Josephs was, I must have blocked that part out of my travel exhausted mind. Port-Au-Prince is the largest city in Haiti, and standing on the rooftop of St. Josephs guest tower all you can see are concrete rooftops on top of other rooftops with tents and laundry and chickens in between surrounded by mountains and bordered by the ocean. The longer you stood at the railing the more you actually saw, layers and layers of people and kids and cars and livestock all piled together.

I'll see your guest house and raise you a tower

Some of the boys playing what I can only assume is an awesome combo of basketsoccerhand ball

Port-Au-Prince was exactly what I was expecting. Tons of people living so closely together its hard to tell where one roof ends and the next begins. Where tap-taps and cars and motos and bicycles and pedestrians all try to go in opposite directions at the same time. It's chaotic and loud, but when you look up at the mountains or the ocean you almost forget about the mass of millions surrounding you.

After an amazing dinner, 9 no longer strangers (it's hard to be a stranger when you keep sweating on and bouncing into each other) met on the rooftop for a cold drink and relaxation before bed, because the next day would bring us to the clinic at Jolivert and the reason for coming.

XOXO

Kiki