Day 5: The Market

The beginning of the day was a little bittersweet as we realized it would be the last full day here in Haiti. Breakfast was eggs, fruit and toast again. We loaded up the trucks for one last trek up the mountain and went on our way.

When we got there, we split up in to 3 groups to do home visits. I was put in Tom's group which was bound to be entertaining. After a short walk we arrived at a modestly sized house for rural Haiti. When we actually walked up to the house we saw the woman who lived there washing her floors.

We were encouraged to ask whatever questions came to mind. Mostly they centered around general stuff, what her day looks like, how old her baby was, etc. Their way of life is so simple compared to ours, but it seems like they are way happier as a whole. We were invited to walk around in her house which was 4 rooms, a dining room, a bedroom, a smaller bedroom and a partially outdoor patio type thing that she was washing the floor of when we walked up. She had some kind of nice furniture, a fairly nice bed and stuff but she had a separated kitchen thing. There was no chimney, just the roof was about 6 inches above the walls to let smoke out.

The girls helped the woman shell beans for the week while Tom, Alex and I talked to Francky and his brother Charles hi was with us. We asked if they wanted any help but they didn't need it. Kayla held the woman's daughter and played with her. 

We walked back down to the cars after a while and played with the kids for a bit. A bunch of them had heard we were going to buy things they made so they all made little bead necklaces out of some string and a plant that happens to be hollow. I bought one for a dollar and I'm probably going to hang it from my rearview mirror or something. The people of Chadirac set up a market with coffee, hand made bags made out of woven thatch (I think), and embroidered cloth goods. I bought an orange thing for my girlfriend and a red and blue thing because it was cheap and the lady selling it was really persistent.

I bought the necklace later from the vendors outside our hotel. When we got done with that we went back to the cars to play with the kids. We had another little dance party and I blew bubbles for them to pop. The kids in the pic aren't really dancing but this is right when we started before they really understood what was going on.

We played with them for about 2 hours and I taught a kid the English words for a few things, writing the words on concrete in chalk. No matter where we went the kids followed us, you could tell they knew we would be leaving them again, and this time we wouldn't come back.

When we had to leave we hugged and said goodbye to the kids. I found Tooie (Tiwil) and told him that I'd be back next year if the group comes again which I hope it does. I really hope he understood.

We left and started to go back to the hotel but had to stop halfway down the mountain and pull off the "road" to let a planet sized dump truck up the road. It may have been a normal sized dump truck but on these roads just looked bigger, but I'm pretty sure it was the size of a small planet. I didn't get a picture of it because I was just dumbfounded that a truck that size was climbing a 50° plus incline around a hairpin turn.

Anyway, when we got back to the hotel, we bought some stuff from the vendors outside the hotel. They all pretty much had the exact same stuff so it was clear they bought it somewhere else and were just reselling it, so I didn't feel bad talking the price down.

After that we had dinner, it was the best red snapper I have ever had along with what was probably goat, mixed vegetables, potatoes, and rice.

Being the last night here, during our worship service, we prayed for almost 2 hours straight, shared our PODs and sang. Tomorrow we are leaving early to go and do the tour we were supposed to do during the first day in Port-au-prince. 

Day 4: Shallow Holes and Rain Storms.

Today we had a fantastic breakfast of crepes, fruit, and toast. There's really nothing new until we actually got to the massive hill. We got out of the cars and headed down, not really looking forward to climbing back up. It had rained last night, which made the already slick hill even worse. Miraculously no one fell going down. We waited for a few minutes at the bottom for Tom and our guides, who told Tom as soon as we got down to pick 5 guys to walk back up mt. Cardiac Arrest past the place where we play with the kids and the church to a higher location where we would dig a pit latrine. I opted to go because it would be something different today. It ended up being me, Leo, Shanks, Justin and Jeff. Wudki led us up the hill again then we rode in the Everest, up the mountain, to the path where we walked to church.  

We then walked up past the church along a road that just sort of ended on its right side which was a pretty sheer drop.

We walked up the side and turned left and there was already someone digging. 

It turned out that that place was too rocky so we went to another place and started a new hole.

Then we found some piglets

Then we kept digging

A Haitian guy would get a pick axe (none of us wanted to get hit in the head as it turns out does happen) and break up the dirt, then one of us would go in and dig out the dirt till we got tired then switched out. We were up there for about 3 hours and got about neck deep. I was kind of disappointed at the progress we had when we had to leave, but there was nothing we could have done. 

We walked back down to the place where we play with the kids and waited for the other group to get there.

It was there where we shot a Harlem shake video even though the Internet is kind of over that. We hung out and I made a GoPro mount on a stick. Then it started to rain, really hard.

I stayed in the car to take pictures while the rest of the team played and dance in the mud.

After a bit, everyone was soaked and covered in mud but we figured it was Haiti, and no one cared how dirty we were.

The ride home was awesome because Laura had an iHome and we jammed out to reggae and The Black Eyed Peas. Our driver Berry (correct spelling now) knew a lot if the songs and it was just a blast.

We were so muddy when we got back to the hotel that most of us just walked in to the ocean and washed off a little there before we showered off in our rooms.

Also in the stupidest sequence of events ever, I discovered we have hot water in our shower. The hot and cold knobs are switched, so for the past 3 days I've been cranking the "hot" knob assuming we just didn't have hot water and taking cold showers. This brings up a point about the hotel. The owner/manager is the guy from Holland that I talked about last year. We always see him walking around the hotel, asking us how our stay is, directing his staff, I even saw him weed a part of a garden in the back. You can really tell he cares about the place and tries to make it as good as possible with the resources and income that he has.

I actually took a picture of dinner today (even though I promised myself that I would never be "that" guy) which consisted of spaghetti, fried plantains, chicken, rice, and these awesome cheesy potatoes that I ate before I got a picture of.

After dinner, we had another PODs session and worship time, which was the best one yet. Tomorrow is our last real day here since Thursday is pretty much exclusively a travel day. Leaving the kids is going to be awful like it always is but I know I will be back.

Day 3: The Return to Cardiac Hill.

Today we came down for breakfast at 7 something and had to wait a bit for the staff to be done with it but it was totally worth it.  That's just kind of how island time works down here, the whole attitude toward time is "no rush, it will get done when it gets done".  We had fresh mangos, bananas, French bread, and these really good omelets with cheese, and some kind of meat in them. After breakfast we loaded up and started up the mountain. On the semi-paved mountain roads, we were coming on a hard blind right hand turn and honked in case there was someone coming around the other side. There happened to be a motorcycle with 3 people on it. We went straight around and tagged the driver of the bike's left shoulder with our driver side rear view mirror. He was alright though because the Patrol happened to have the kind of mirrors that fold in when you put pressure on it. Our driver Barry (probably a different spelling but close enough) explained that the other drivers are treated like we are supposed to treat squirrels or opossums in the states. If there are less people in the car coming the other way, you have the right of way and you don't get out of the way, especially on a mountain road with a cliff face on one side and you hit them if they don't move. If you have less people or you aren't sure, you get out of the way. The idea is that it is better to lose 2 lives than 3 for example. The more I'm down here, the more I realize that despite what it looks like, there actually are rules of the road here, and generally speaking, they are pretty safe. I think the fastest we have ever gone is like 55mph on safe, flat, good pavement.

Hope I didn't scare any worried mothers.  Anyway, we turned before we got to the place where we play with the kids and the surroundings started to look pretty familiar. We kept going and ended up at the same gigantic hill that we did last year!

Sorry the pictures of the hill are after we came back up it because I'm stupid and forgot to take pictures on the way down.

When we got down the biggest hill in the world we came to a fairly flat area cut out of the hill.  

Instead of digging pit latrines they had us move rocks for the foundation for the school project. We formed a chain of people and moved them from the "quarry" (which was really just a pile of rocks in a separate part of the mountain), and handed off rocks from about 2 lbs to a few that were about 75 lbs. There were a few that might have been pushing 110-120 but for those, the biggest guys (read: all 8 guys) made a separate chain and moved those down.

After that, we did the same thing but this time we went to where the rocks were originally broken from and carried those up part of the hill. It was at this point Tony handed me a rock with a spider the size of a small Volvo on it and being that it was the last thing on earth that I expected to be 6 inches from my face, I jumped back and Shelob fell on to my leg and then jumped to the ground and took off (theres my Lord Of The Rings reference for the day). After a while of the group passing rocks up Mt. Cardiac Arrest, we finished most of the rocks and we will finish the rest tomorrow.

Since Tony, Alex, and I were positioned right next to where the rocks started and were right next to one of our guides and translators we talked to them for a little bit. They asked some questions about the states and we asked them about Haiti. Eventually one of the guides pointed over to a part of the brush and there was an even bigger spider there. This one was slow moving enough for me to get a picture of.

Naturally, being around kids with bare feet we had to kill it, so one of the guides Marc hit it with a hammer. After the guide killed it, Justin picked it up and we scared Laura and Taylor with it. This happened at about noon, and it's 10:45 now and Laura has almost forgiven us, totally worth it. After we were done the kids started playing with us and Shelby got mobbed by girls who started braiding her hair. 

We starting walking up the gigantic, crazy steep hill and got back up to the cars. Only resting once or twice along the way. I started running when Barry started running up the hill for no reason. By the top I was winded but it felt good. When we loaded up the cars and got back to the place where we played with the kids, we saw Tiwil (we've been calling him Tooie) Brett's kid from last year.

*thats him in the brown shirt and baseball hat*

We played with the kids for a bit and I taught a lot of the kids how to throw a baseball. I would love one day or Haiti to be as big on baseball as the Dominican Republic. I had a blast and the kids actually seemed interested. It started to rain so we had to leave before the roads became so bad we couldn't leave. So when we got back we had down time and we got to go to the beach and hang out. Dinner was really good, chicken, kebabs, and rice. After dinner we debriefed and worshiped. We did our PODs and now I'm super tired and now I'm going to bed. Night all, I'll write more tomorrow.

Day 2: First Full Day

Today began with this sunrise, the same one as last year, and it still too my breath away. We went downstairs for breakfast and had fresh fruit, eggs, toast, and this really interesting pumpkin soup that is apparently a special Sunday thing in Haiti. It wasn't bad but I wouldn't really eat it with breakfast. After that everyone who wasn't already dressed up went and got their Sunday clothes on. It was still kind of strange seeing everyone looking so nice in a developing nation but the hotel is so nice that we didn't really notice till we left. When everyone came down we loaded up in to two Nissan Patrols, a Ford Everest, and a Ford Ranger that looked nothing like any Ranger I had ever seen in the States.

Going up the familiar road to the mountain brought back a lot of memories from last year and I wish more people who went could have come back. The road quickly turned from this:

To this:

The road was just as fun as I remembered but the bumpy ride was worth it because upon getting to the same village we worked in last year, we were greeted with this view.

The sheer beauty of this country is just astounding. This picture will never do it justice, it's like trying to describe a color. You can sort of get an idea about it, but until you see it first hand, everything else falls short. Despite having seen it a year ago, I was still floored when we got to the top. At this point we split up in to two groups to go to two different churches, one with Tony speaking (who actually ended up not speaking due to a previously scheduled speaker) and the other with Tom speaking at the same church we were at last year. It wasn't nearly as hot this year due to the fact that some time during the past year the community had either taken down most of the left wall or it fell down and they liked it better that way so they left it.

The format of the service was a little different, they sang a song, prayed, sang a song, prayed and repeated that a few times before their pastor gave a short message and Tom stood up and gave a message about how much is "enough" and what that means. After service we shook everyone's hand and went back down the mountain to someone's front yard (the same place as last year) to play with the kids. Incredibly, when we got there, the little girl that Ellie hung out with, Lonzi, was actually there waiting for us!

Lindsay's little girl Margari was also there. It was pretty incredible to see these kids again after a year, and to have them remember us. 

It was at about this point I stood on an ant hill and started feeling a bunch of little bites all over my legs, even though I had pants on.  These things were so small but they bit like none other. Lindsay and Laura also accidentally stood in the ant hill and got bit but it was nothing a little water couldn't take care of.

We played soccer with the kids and some of the girls did hair and stuff.

At this point, a few of our leaders were asked to come and talk to a council of community leaders there in Chadirac and I was lucky enough to go. They told us that one of the biggest priorities they have is building a school, and that although plans were already in place, they had no idea what it might cost. Tom sort of jumped in and gave a leadership lecture focused on the principle "Don't build till you know the cost" and they seemed pretty interested in what he had to say. The also told us that they had asked the organization that we are with what the cost would be and they said they would never get back to them, so evidently there is some kind of communication mishap going on.

When we got done and went back to the place where we were playing, everyone was pretty much too tired to do do anything else, so we loaded back up looking at this view the whole way.

We got back and had some down time, which I am using to write this right now.

We're roughing it, I know. Anyway some people went to the beach to hang out.

And others did this:

After the light napping, we wet down to dinner where we were served mixed vegetables, rice, lasagna, and goat. The goat wasn't as good as last year, but it might just be that I got a bad piece. After dinner we debriefed inside and listened to Tony's message that he had prepared for earlier today. We went around and said each of our "pictures of the day" or PODs which is just like a little snippet of something that spoke to you during the day. We then spent about an hour in prayer and worship and then one of our guides this week, Wudki thought us a song in Creole, I'd write it down but the spelling would be atrocious, so in English it just talks about reading your Bible and praying.

Tomorrow we start helping the Haitians carry rocks for pit latrines so we will see how that goes.

Day 1: the familiar and unfamiliar

Sean, Lindsay, Alex and I got up at 9 for our noon flight, got our tickets, ate some Wendy's and got on our flight without a hitch.

After landing was a whole different story. The airport looked fantastic compared to what it used to be. It was just pretty much a warehouse with a bunch of tables in it for customs. Now it looks like a totally normal airport.

The Lindsay, Alex, Sean and I got our stuff from baggage claim and walked down the familure walkway where we saw Ronald holding a 410 Bridge sign. He was so excited to see us and I was pumped to see him. We went out to the parking lot and loaded in to a big Hyundai bus. That took us to a gas station that was pretty much just a knock off BP. We met up with the two previous flights in the gas station and everyone else loaded up in to our bus. That is where the issues start.

Sorry there are no pictures for this part, my phone died.

We stopped at a traffic light where guys usually beg or try to sell us soda of some kind. Our windows were open like they usually are and right when we took off, a kid about 15 years old jumped halfway in the window and stole one guy from our group's phone. We stopped real fast but the kid had split. Two of our guides jumped out, found a cop and went after him while we waited. Eventually they came bak with one of the guys who was around. He said he knew who took it but wasn't talking till the cop kind of put the hurt on him. After a while they figured out that he had handed off the phone in Port Au Prince's biggest slum and we were probably never seeing it again. The guy was obviously upset but he acknowledged that stuff happens. Aftermath that whole fiasco we got on the road to our hotel, the same one we were at last year.

The place looks awesome, even better than I remember. Still crazy beautiful from the front view as well.

Dinner of some beef type thing, chicken, rice, and potatoes. We also had this interesting banana flavored soda that tasted like banana Runtz.

We debriefed at the hotel and our guides, Ronald, Wudki, and Marc said they were really excited for us and incredibly sorry about the phone.

Tomorrow we go to the churches and play with the kids. So I will leave you with this awesome picture I didn't get to show anyone last year

...off to a great start

PWelcome back everyone, this will be my third blog of the Haiti trip. After just getting back from a short trip to Oklahoma City and Moore to help out with the relief stuff there.

 So today started off with a crazy 6 hour delay. We almost ended up not going because we are going to have to be on 4 different flights to get to Haiti tomorrow but we got comped a night in Miami where we are safe and sound.

After a free dinner at a 5 star hotel which I couldn't take a picture of due to my phone being dead, we got ready for our flights at 6 am 10 am 12pm and 2pm. I will have a lot more to report tomorrow.