Haiti Rally Series Championship

Today was the first full day in Haiti. After I wrote the post for last night I went to bed and went to sleep. Apparently I was the only one though, the rest of the guys couldn't sleep because it was so hot. I on the other hand had no problem sleeping because God had me live in the Joy Hall heat all year last year. I slept like a baby even through Matt waking up screaming about the world's largest tarantula in the room only to find out he was dreaming.

We awoke the next morning to Matt again yelling at us that it was 8:00, but in reality it was 7:00 because he thought we were on eastern time.  So I lay in bed for another hour before I got a shower. To be honest I heard Drew yell my name, but there was no one there... Weird I didn't think about that until just now.

Anyway we awoke to a lovely breakfast of bread, cream cheese, and this really good egg, bacon, onion omelet thing.  The best part though was this pink drink thing they had.  It was amazing and I wish I knew what to was.

Little did I know that because I slept so well, everyone else had already packed their stuff up.  So I was the last one out of the door in PAP. Luckily for me, that meant that I got to ride in the Frontier again.  I threw my stuff in the Coaster and got in the passenger seat. Our driver Funky got in as well and then Tracy and Sean got in the back seats. Funky turned the truck on and then stopped to say a prayer before we took off. I didn't know why he was praying because I didn't see him pray before we left from the airport so I kinda just said amen in my head and went with it. We left our house in PAP and went to a gas station to fill up before the trip. There our driver got something like Coca Cola from a street vendor. From there we went north out of the city to Bohoc.  We left the potentially and incredibly  beautiful city of PAP behind and we entered the outskirts where there was a couple very American looking subdivisions being built. Or that's what I assumed because there was no one working on them.  Anyway ahead of us was a gigantic mountain range with switchbacks zig zagging all across it's face.  As we went up we could really see PAP for the first time from above and it looked awesome.  I also got a chance to see that behind us was another huge mountain range and PAP was set up between them. These mountains are so beautiful and green, half way up the face we got to see lakes and rivers dotting the countryside, and this country's physical beauty astounded me yet again.  We reached the top and turned in to the pass and there was nothing but blue sky and green earth in front of me, save for the pavement ahead.  The tips of mountains were obscured by their distance and the sky. The road was smooth as we carved through the mountains when we were not driving through portions that were being paved as we were driving through them.  We passed a dam that was apparently not too well thought out because it flooded a river so bad that it was eroding away at the hills next to it.  The problem there was that there were houses on those hills above the erosion. It also created islands out of the hills that once surrounded the river.

There is absolutely no concern for the environment here.  The lake that that dam created had just filth lining the coasts. The currents were visible from thousands of feet up due to the dark brown splotches strewn across this otherwise clear mirror lake.  It's just not on their radar at all.  Our driver Funky threw his "Coke" bottle out the window as well as the rest of his trash on several occasions. I would expect the cities to look like this but the countryside would be gorgeous if not for the trash and in most was is still gorgeous in spite of that.

There were a few quarries in the  mountains and that was interesting too, the Haitians just seemed to dig wherever they felt like it. There were a few caves in the mountains that were obviously blown out by TNT or a like explosive. I know they were man made because they were in the place that every cave is in a video game. At like the very top of a mountain.  That and they were almost perfectly circular.

After one of the quarries we came around a bend and I saw a bus stopped with a bunch of people standing around in a large group.  As we got closer I saw what they were standing around.  A black fairly new Mitsubishi pickup truck was laying on its passenger side with it's front facing the cliff wall at about a 45 degree angle away from the wall.  I saw at least 2 people injured sitting on the side of the road.  One man was dressed in a suit with an improvised bandage around his head with his knee up and another person was laying on his back with his hands over his head. Our driver stopped the car on the shoulder and was visibly torn as to what to do.  A beggar walked up to the window and without even thinking gave him some crackers that were in his bag.  He thanked him and then we heard sirens. Two cops in a white Toyota Hilux diesel with blue doors went past us and our driver Funky felt it was okay to leave. I really should have thought about praying but I never did. I was so focused on figuring out how the crash happened that I just didn't think about it. I really felt bad for the people and wanted to help but I really didn't know how. After we left we saw more beautiful terrain but all of a sudden went through a city and stopped at a school/house thing for some reason. I thought it was for a bathroom break but it turns out the Coaster had a flat tire. We hung around and started playing soccer outside. Sure enough a few kids came and played with us as well in a carport. Tony asked one of the owners of the house if he could have a coconut.  The owner got a giant stick out laying next to the wall and just gave it to Tony  and kinda just said good luck. We couldn't get one when we found a low tree in the yard that happened to be in a malaria infested undergrowth. Luckily a kid that happened to be the best coconut getter in the world was playing with us. In 3 seconds he climbed the tree by putting one foot on the tree and one on the wall next to it. When he got to the top of the tree, he grabbed it and shook it with his whole body. Like 6 coconuts fell and Tony got one.

Next came the funniest knife instance since Crocodile Dundee. I had my 3 inch blade and was about to stab the husk with it when Abby stopped me and said I was doing it too dangerously.  When I was about to ignore her and continue, someone brought out a machete that had obviously  been used to do it before. The same kid from before went to town on it after I obviously showed everyone I had no idea what I was doing. I had fresh coconut milk for the first time in my life, and it was awesome. This was when the Coaster got back and we reloaded.  After that we went through more beautiful terrain when all of a sudden the road ended.

Then I had the best time I have had in a long time. We went hardcore off roading for 2 straight hours.  It was awesome I had the time of my life. Tracy and Sean didn't have as good a time as I did but i was too excited to care. Our driver was awesome he took the best lines and was one with the Frontier. Se of the roads we were so crazy, I'm convinced that there could be a special stage of the WRC here in Haiti. I could almost see STIs EVOs and other rally cars flying around these curves. When I get back I am going to send out a few emails to people who I think could make that happen. I think it could really pump some money in to the economy.

We passed people doing laundry in rivers, walking their livestock up hills, and carrying things from A to B. Hours later we passed our drivers house where we got out to stretch our legs and then drove about 15 minutes more to the guest house that I am staying at now. It's basically a hotel. It's got a sweet yard, wifi and some of the best cooks ever. Tonight we had chicken, rice, pasta and this awesome passionfruit drink that was fresh squeezed. We played soccer outside again and more kids showed up. Amazingly the only language we had in common was Spanish so we kind of communicated through that.  Most of the kids spoke really good English though so it was pretty cool. I have yet to really build a relationship with any natives but I'm sure it will happen sometime. We also met this American working for the company that we are renting the guest house from. She's not a Christian but I hope I can be a light to her because I feel like we think similarly. That is pretty much it for today, church is tomorrow so that should be fun...