the first few days

we're in Haiti! together!

I have a ridiculous problem when it comes to blogging about ongoing events/trips: I tend to start writing, go way too in-depth, get overwhelmed with how much [I think] is still left to write about, give up for awhile, try again the next day (by which time I'm even farther behind), give up again, try again (again), etc, etc.  Sometimes I manage to finish and get these posts up on the blog...sometimes not so much.  The latter appears to be the case for the post that I started writing on Friday...continued on Saturday and Sunday...looked at on Monday...and am giving up on today.  If anyone really cares about all the little details of our journey to Haiti, I'll email it to you.  But for everyone else (and so that I actually post something), how about a much shorter (yes, believe it or not, this is shorter), less detailed update:

thursday/friday

shortly after arriving in FLL

- Paul and I left CS around 3pm and arrived in Fort Lauderdale at 1am ET.  We "slept" (ha) for the next 4 hours on benches in a freezing cold baggage claim.  Shortly after 5am, we headed over to another terminal to re-check our bags for our flight to Haiti...only to be told that we were too late; check-in had closed for that flight.  Yes, we did indeed manage to miss a flight when we'd already been at the airport for multiple hours. Embarrassing, and rather disappointing, to say the least.  We were then put on stand-by for the next flight, which was at 1:45pm.  Fortunately, that was a pretty empty flight, so we didn't have any trouble getting seats.
- We landed in Haiti at 3:30 and actually had a very easy airport experience, for Port au Prince.  Immigration and customs were both easy, we found our bags quickly, and we didn't have much trouble with red caps wanting to "help".  And as soon as we got out of the airport and made it down the long walkway, we saw Asher (Heartline's current driver) waiting for us.  All in all, one of the most painless PAP airport experiences I've ever had.
- When we got to Heartline's guesthouse (run by the fantastic Ryan and Melissa), we discovered that we were the only guests for the night (for the next several nights, actually). We spent that evening at Ryan and Melissa's new apartment playing a hilarious game with several other Heartline-associated people, which was a lot of fun.

saturday

Petionville (this photo's for you, Everly!)

- Paul and I met up with our friend Jenny, who was kind enough to come into Port from Grand Goave so that we could see her.  We didn't really have any sort of plan for what we'd do once we met up, but after a bit of discussion we decided to taptap up toward Petionville and find somewhere for lunch.  We ended up at Muncheez and had just enough time to enjoy some pizza before heading back down to the place where Jenny was meeting up with another friend to go back out to Grand Goave.  Though we spent most of our time together in transit, it was fun to get to see Jenny again and catch up a bit.
- After we left Jenny with her friend, Paul and I decided to walk over to Notre Maison.  Normal people probably would have taptapped, but we walked.  It really wasn't that far, and it didn't really seem worth the hassle to take three different taptaps just to go a couple of miles.  Plus it was fairly overcast and relatively cool, so it wasn't bad.

with my Ti Nina

- We were able to spend about an hour at the orphanage before we needed to head back to the guesthouse.  It was so good to see the kids again!  I may or may not have held my Ti Nina the entire time (while visiting with the other kids, too, of course)!  It was kind of strange to be there for such a short time and then leave, but at least I knew I would be back.
- The most exciting adventure of the day occurred right before we got back to the guesthouse...  Clercine Road, which leads to the neighborhood where the guesthouse is, has some major flooding going on, especially right around the neighborhood entrance.  This means that getting in and out is rather difficult, as going through on foot is not ideal, and a lot of vehicles are too low to successfully make it through the "lake" (maybe "river" would be more accurate--it has a current, after all).  So I wasn't sure if we'd be able to get a ride into the neighborhood.  I ended up asking one of the motorcycle taptap drivers if he could take us in, and he said yes.  We hopped on, and off we drove toward the lake/river.  When we got to the edge of the worst part, he stopped, and I was sure he was going to say we had to get off and walk the rest of the way.  But after a minute, he kept going...right into and then through the murky/disgusting/don't-want-to-think-about-what's-in-there water.  It was pretty epic.  And it was also Paul's first time on a motorcycle.

a view of the Clercine lake/river from
the neighborhood entrance

sunday
- We started out the day by going to the first service at Port au Prince Fellowship.  Originally the plan was for Paul to leave from church to go to Cazale to work with Real Hope for Haiti for the week, but it ended up working better for them to pick him up from the guesthouse later in the afternoon.  After we got back from church, we pretty much spent the next few hours just sitting around reading, which was super strange but super nice after how hectic the past several months have been (especially for Paul).  As great as the concept of "rest" sounds, it can be surprisingly hard to actually put that into practice when given the opportunity!  I'm so used to always being busy or having things to do that just sitting still was a bit hard.  But it was definitely a gift to have that time where I literally had nothing I needed to do, so gradually I was able to enjoy and appreciate it :)
- Later that evening, Melissa came over, and she, Allison, and Asher taught me how to play Monopoly Deal, which may not won't likely end up on my list of favorite games, but it was fun nonetheless.  Maybe if I were more competitive...

to be continued with monday and tuesday...

Thanks to all of you who are praying!