...And we're back

Arriving a little later than last year proved to be a pretty good idea. We really only had to wait about a half hour until we boarded and got in the air. The wait in Miami turned out to be a little longer than expected due to unexplained issues with the plane but we made it to PAP in one piece. After landing and meeting up with two very brave college freshman girls who flew here by themselves and are staying with a group for 6 weeks, we lead them through the absolute chaos of the airport and jumped in a Nissan Urvan, a Toyota Hi-lux and a Toyota Landcruiser FJ80 and were on our way. Walking out of the terminal I was the first one to recognize Ronald from last year. We said our hellos and he lead us to the cars.
The city looked just as devastated as the last time we were here. There are still tent cities all over the place and people living in extreme poverty. We all drove by and stopped at the Haitian National Palace which looked like a bomb went off in it. Honestly it looked like something out of an apocalypse movie. This is their White House and I'm sure seeing it in the shape it is over a year after the fact does nothing to boost morale in the people. We began to be hounded by people selling pretty good looking paintings so we got out of there pretty quickly. The paintings were cool but I'm sure if we would have bought one then we would have never made it out of there. One guy started talking to me (in pretty good English) about where the money goes in this governmental system but he gradually shifted the conversation to buying his paintings. When we got out of there we drove north and went a little in to the mountains to the place where we are now. The guest house is a newer 410 Bridge guest house that sits right across the street from a soccer pitch that is totally covered in rocks. It is crazy, I'm fairly sure that people have placed these lighter colored rocks where the paint lines would be on a soccer pitch because from where we are we can see the center circle, midfield line, goal boxes, and out of bounds markers. There were some people playing a half field game but it was kind of hard to tell how old they were. We ate some pretty good bologna sandwiches for a snack and then hung out on the balcony for a while while we waited for dinner.
Dinner consisted of the expected rice, beans and chicken with fried plantains and this incredible sauce stuff that you poured over the rice. After dinner Ronald explained that he would be leaving us in the very capable hands of Franky, another guide because he was going back to lead another group in Bohoc, where we were last year. We each read a chapter of Proverbs and found a verse or string of verses that said something to us and read them aloud. The last thing to happen was the worst shower I have ever taken. The temperature was nice but the water felt like it was gravity fed from 3 inches above the faucet. No matter though we are all going to smell by the end of the week anyway. Also Tom now has a phone with international minutes so contacting our family will be a little easier. This guest house doesn't have wifi but the next one will so I will post this when we get there. Tomorrow the real trip begins.