Haiti Day 1: The Team's Early Challenge

A couple of days back from Haiti; let the blogging begin.

Friday/Saturday (March 15-16)

The 3 a.m. wake-up call might have been challenging enough, but we were expecting that.  Our 6:00 flight, along with all our luggage and tubs of supplies, meant a 4:30 arrival at the airport.  The airline agent was evidently still trying to wake up, too, but we made it through security and boarded our flight to Atlanta with time to spare.  Our flights to Ft. Lauderdale and Port au Prince were on time, and we ran the gauntlet from the luggage carousel to the parking lot and met Fenel, our ministry contact, there. 

Josh & me: A mission trip with one of your small group members is pretty awesome!

Josh goes with man-capris to adjust to the heat.  He would regain his man card later in the week.

Our team from Colonial Hills (myself, Josh, Dusty, Heather, Robbie, Jodie, and Jim)  got our luggage loaded, watched helplessly as our driver hit another vehicle backing out of our parking space, and went to a nearby convenience store to get a bottle of water and wait on Gary and Ethan, two team members arriving on a flight about an hour later.  Their flight arrived a little late, but we picked them up around 5:30 and prepared for the two-and-a-half hour drive to Jacmel.  We made our way from the airport for a few miles and then got backed up by a little traffic jam.  FOUR HOURS LATER, we might have moved a mile.   (We did, however, get backed into twice by a tap-tap, a truck with a covered bed used to transport people.) Great test for our team's flexibility, which they passed with flying colors!

Heather's view for about 6 hours.

After finally moving into a somewhat open road, it became apparent that our driver was going to try to make up the time.  At one point, a truck bigger than our van claimed the middle of the road, and we claimed someone's front yard without ever breaking speed.  We did, however, arrive safely at the House of Abraham about 11:30, ate some supper that had been waiting on us for hours, and went to bed.

At 6:12 a.m., the sound of singing and playing woke me and others on the team, and we looked out the window and saw most of the House of Abraham kids playing in the yard.  Clyphode recognized me and called the others to wave to me.  That was an awesome feeling, to be so quickly recognized by these kids that I had so fallen in love with several months before.  The rest of the team was introduced, and the day was underway.

We went up to the site of the new House of Abraham where we would be working.  Much progress had taken place since I had first seen the house in late October 2012.

Fenel laying out the plans for the coming week at HoA.

 

One of the roofing panels that part of the team would be installing.

Back at the current house, we laid out everything we had brought and made work plans and play plans for the week. Then, time to spend with 13 of the most precious children in the world!

Painting supplies, roofing supplies, crafts, Bibles, candy -- more than enough for a week's work.

Much excitement over the blue towels like ones our first team to ever go to Haiti in 2010 had brought.

The girls love to braid hair!

Our ladies had perfect hair for braiding!

Sidewalk chalk -- always a big hit.

Ethan transforms Richardson into Abraham Lincoln thru the magic of sidewalk chalk.

The kids want to see every photo you have -- over and over again.

Okay, so the kids didn't exactly get the object of this game, but they had fun trying to catch the bean bags we were throwing.  The game and the instructions are still there for Fenel to explain.

We got some rest at different times throughout the day and prepared for an early Sunday.  Church at 6:00 a.m.  Before an early bedtime, I got to see one of my favorite sights on earth, sunset from the roof of the current House of Abraham.  Though the views from the new house are breathtaking, I will miss this one:

Sunset over Jacmel, Haiti.  The new HoA is in those mountains in the distance.

I'll be back tomorrow with another day's adventure in Haiti.  Thanks for reading.

4theVoiceless,
Al