(Recorded in Haiti by Diane –  March 25-April 1)

I’m struck by just how friendly people are here – the Haitians  – I was very surprised by that. I think we were coming here mostly to do projects like painting and construction, stuff like that, but I like that we’ve been out meeting people, seeing how they live. That’s probably been the most rewarding part. Probably the thing I was dreading the most coming here was just not knowing what we were going to be doing. But that part has been easy to do stuff, easy to get involved, talking to people.  I wish the language barrier wasn’t as big, but it’s still been better than I thought.

Food has been excellent. I haven’t had anything I didn’t like.

I like the transportation. I think we’re still getting away easy compared to what they have to do most of the time with the taptaps. More challenging, more scary. It’s still definitely not how we get around in California. I haven’t been afraid, and I probably should be,  maybe because I’m not driving. Maybe I’m too trusting of the driver.

I went and bought propane. Dropped off two strangers at the cyber café (laughs). Got ice cream. Went up and saw Jean Claude’s school. Has a lot of promise. The school they have now is really in poor shape. It’s just jury-rigged together . It’s kind of impressive. You can tell the kids study there. You can see handwriting and stuff.  Man, our Sunday School rooms back at Memorial are actually pretty good.

What would you wish for Haiti?

Drinking water and stuff, like the basic necessities.

What impressed you?

They were really resourceful with everything. If they didn’t have something they would just make it. It was really impressive, especially as someone who does that a lot. They came up with stuff that even I would never think of. Brilliant solutions. Simple.

How did you feel about what you did?

Good. I think the most important thing was filtering the water but I liked the community building more. I feel like that’s what we focused on the most, what made the most difference in the long run.

I lost: 8 lbs, my selfishness, Haitian stereotypes, my desire to ride inside of a car (and not on top of one,) my anxiety caused by society, some blood to mosquitos, self-pity, stress over meaningless things, and my heart.

I gained: so many good friends, knowledge, confidence, memories, stories, happiness, the ability to love the simple things, strength to carry on each day, unbelievable insight of the devastation of the country, respect for the Haitian people, a nice tan, perspective of what life should be about, an interesting,prospective on America, motivation to work hard, the desire to learn the language of Creole, ways to be resourceful, ways to reconstruct my life for the better, a positive outlook towards Haiti, and the eagerness to go back as soon as possible.

Early impressions from the Newark airport en route to Haiti:

How has the trip been so far?

Teri: Exhausting.

Janette: The team gets along really well so it’s promising that we’ll have a great week together. Good attitudes. I think we’ll have a really good week together.

Corrie: I am excited. In the meetings we are doing business, but now we are actually doing work and it’s fun to be with everybody.

Rob: I’m tired. I’m not quite excited yet, but I’m getting there.

Andy: One thing I’ve noticed is I keep wondering why other passengers in the airport keep staring at me. Then I realize we’re all wearing the same red shirt. Everything has gone smooth. Hopefully that will be a sign of what the rest of the trip will be like.

What are you anticipating for the rest of the day?

Teri: Another long trip. Looking forward to getting to Haiti and seeing what I’ve been looking forward to for months and months.

Janette: Mostly I think it will be an adventure to get where we are actually going to be working. If we do anything beyond that it will be a huge blessing and a surprise. Get to our location and get settled and get comfortable.

Corrie: I’m really tired so I anticipate being grumpy but I’m trying not to. A lot of heat and a lot of sweat. And just a huge world we never knew.

Rob: I’m going to be very tired. Hopefully we won’t have a lot of activities today other than getting to the school. And hopefully, we’ll be able to rest the rest of the day.

Andy: I think to be a little bit shocked by the heat when we come out of the airplane. I think just all the people that will be in Haiti. That’ll be a little bit of a shock, too. Just how many of them there are. Hopefully, we won’t do a lot but get back to the place and prepare for tomorrow and get going then.

There was little to see most of our time in the air, but we could feel the excitement mount when Sara spotted the faint coastline of an island appear in our view. This could be our destination.

We came in low over the outskirts of Port au Prince to a view of a mass of rusted and tarped roofs. The airport was a rush of immigration check points and lugging baggage out into the hot sun where we met One-Arm Jackson who guided us to our transportation.With all our bags and a few people in one truck and the rest of us in the van, we took off through the crowded streets. Our van driver, Johnny, was an expert at weaving his way around and through the lines of outgoing and incoming traffic. Many taptaps drove by with their brightly decorated exteriors and jam-packed cargo – human or otherwise.

Our ride of about an hour from Port au Prince to Thomas took us past too many sites to describe in a few words, but we should be able to include pictures at some point. Just a few of them were shells of buildings, women washing clothes in the river, cows grazing in empty lots, people hauling produce to market on donkeys, bananas and papayas spread out for sale and new bricks being laid.

Our van arrived at the Thomas School where we met Warren McGuffin who is in charge of the Thomas Food Project.He gave us a tour and a quick overview of the project while we waited for the truck to join us. It turned out that it went to the other location that is part of the Project but Johnny retrieved the occupants and cargo. We bustled about unpacking and sorting the 13 bags which made quite a display of pillowcase dresses, toothbrushes, pencils, work gloves and more and more.

Before and after dinner, our first project was to set up our homes for the week. The men bivouac in one of the classrooms and the women have two rooms in the guest house. The guest rooms have newly installed cots and mattresses but the men’s room doesn’t.They set about blowing up the air mattresses we brought and most of the women added them to their beds as well. The occupants of each room met the challenge of installing mosquito netting in their own way. We feel elegantly ensconced in our canopy beds.

Dinner was delicious and a welcome treat after all our travel. Beans and rice, goat meat, beet and potato salad (give us the recipe!), and a spicy shredded carrot salad (namedsomething like pi-clay). We even had real Coke (ie, the kind with sugar, not corn syrup).

We had an inspirational devotional led by Rob. We could only find a Bible in Creole so James read it to us and then interpreted. We sang “Go ye, go ye, into the world” and “Go forth in Jesus Name” and Rob read from Sara’s page in Sue’s devotional book which touched us all. Then Janette asked us to share some of our first impressions. Corrie gave a moving testimony of how much this experience and the people we have already met inspire her and encourage her desire to spend her life in mission work.

Then it was to bed for a sleep that had been on hold since we awoke for church on Sunday morning.