Haiti Trip Report: Part 4

Tuesday, February 23

- We got up early to get to the airport around 5:30. Our Haitian cab driver came and picked us up, and when we got to the airport, he gave me several little cards with $20 credits and his name and phone number. So, if I’m ever back in Santo Domingo, I’m calling him to come drive me around! I wish we’d gotten Dmitri’s number, too, but oh well.

- We got to San Juan, Puerto Rico at 8am and went through customs and immigration. We still had about 4 hours until our flight to Fort Lauderdale, so we went outside to see if there was anything nearby to do. Kery asked a guy standing on the sidewalk if he had any suggestions, and he said that we could take the bus to the beach (about a 5-minute drive) for seventy-five cents each. So we did . . . When we got off the bus, we walked down to the beach and walked by the water for a few minutes. It was very pretty.

- We went to a little diner for breakfast/lunch. I was feeling rather terrible by this point (I got a cold just about the time we arrived back in the DR), and so I downed two glasses of cranberry juice in the hopes that it’d help my throat. After we ate, we stopped by Walgreens so that I could get some souvenirs from Puerto Rico—cough drops and Kleenex J Then we got back on the bus and went back to the airport. We had a momentary little panic when we first got on the bus because the bus clock said that it was 1:10pm. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 1pm. Fortunately, we quickly discovered that the bus clock was wrong; it was really only 10:30am.

- We got back to Fort Lauderdale around 3:30pm. Kery went off to his flight to Ohio; I hung out down near baggage claim for an hour or two while waiting to find out when my flight would be and where I’d be staying that night. I ended up making a reservation at a Best Western near the airport and then took the shuttle to the hotel. The shuttle driver was very nice, and we ended up having a really good conversation about Haiti and how God is faithful even (especially!) in hard times. That was really neat.

- We got to the hotel, and I went in to check in. However, they couldn’t find my reservation; turns out that I was at the wrong Best Western. Apparently this happens all the time; there are two Best Westerns near the airport, and guests from the one hotel always end up at the other, and vice-versa. So I had to wait for the driver to come back and take me to the other hotel. I was so ready by then to be done with traveling for the day and just be in my room, but it wasn’t a big deal. It actually ended up being really cool because the driver and I got to continue our conversation about how God is working in our lives. So that was encouraging.

- The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. A guy that my dad works with used his frequent flyer miles to get me a flight back to Texas on Wednesday morning, which was wonderful. Paul picked me in Houston, and we got back to College Station late that afternoon. And let me just say, after over 48-hours of traveling, it was so good to be home!

- Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all of you who have been praying for me and encouraging me! Please don’t stop; I’m heading back to Haiti and to Notre Maison March 10^th! J I really appreciate all of your prayers and support; I am completely serious when I say that this trip was only possible because of your willingness to participate from a distance! I’m so thankful and in awe of the way God has brought so many people into the working-out of all the details of this trip!

o Kery, thank you for taking time off work and on such short notice to come with me on this crazy little adventure. Thanks for being willing to help “wherever needed” and for all you did to figure out where we needed to be and how to get there; I couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks for putting up with me—and for refraining from telling me I’m crazy the many times I said things that never really ended up making sense!

o Marci, you’re amazing, and I’m so thankful God put us both on that team in August! Thanks for suggesting that I contact Kery about this trip, and thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement and support. You are such a blessing to me!

o Lonnie, thanks for helping with all of the travel arrangements and for your encouragement!

o Kelsay, thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to drive to FLL to give us the money for Gertrude and the phone! That was incredibly helpful; thank you!

o Liz, thanks for driving me to Austin at 3:30am J You’re fantastic.

o Leslie I., thank you for your prayers and your support!

o Leslie C., Anna, Jennifer, Cindy, Caitlin, Caroline, Paul, Christy, and the many others of you who have been praying, again, THANK YOU!!!

o All of my coworkers, thanks for covering shifts for me and for helping make it possible for me to go; y’all are wonderful!