Friday, October 12, 2007

So I was up for most of the night again with intestinal issues, and I do not like it anymore. Oh well though right, grin and bear it. After breakfast I just kind of putter around and hung out in recovery, helping the ladies. At 10, 9 Americans and 2 Haitians headed to Port-de-Paix for the day so that they could see a little bit of the town. We got together and walked down town to the square to catch a tap tap and I thought it might have been wise to split the group up to experience the ride a little and I did not think that there would be a truck available to house us all. As it turns out I was wrong, and the first truck we saw, could handle all eleven of us. The ride to PDP was very amusing because this driver had speakers in his cab for his passenger and when he picked up 11 blancs, he changed the station from the local Haitian music to sappy early 90s love songs, and we were singing karaoke. It was really fun to be the “veteran,” so to speak, in that I got to educate the others on what they saw and some construction, etc. When we got to our get off point, the seven-eleven, we went in and got drinks and snacks, and recharged because it was time to walk. I had quite the hike planned for them and they started off energetic and excited, and quickly moved to excited but tired. We pretty much took the roundabout way into the back of PDP and they got to see some gorgeous views of the county. Once we got into town, we headed for Ares’ because it was about time for lunch and the Americans wanted to eat. When we got there however, we found out that they did not have the supplies they needed off the boat yet, so the restaurant was not open. So we walked to another place nearby and found that it was too expensive there, but the third place we went too, I had been to before and it was a good price and we were hungry so we ate there. It was quite the experience though because, we ordered the chicken meal and got goat, they messed up most of our drinks so it was confusing to try and fix that, but we made it through and got food, WOO-HOO. After lunch I had to boys take them to the market and walk through it to see what it was like to shop in a Haitian market, MISTAKE. There were so many Haitians and only 2 interpreters and myself (who speaks virtually no Creole), and a lot of Haitians selling things and begging, so it was a chore to keep them away. We browsed the market until about 2 and then headed back to the Orphanage to show them that facility and hang with the children a little while. We got there around 3 and stayed there playing with and loving the children and left around 345. This part of the story will be amazing to those of you who have been to Haiti before. I was planning on walking back down to the tap tap center because usually by the time they get to the 7-11 they are full and 11 people never would have gotten on. So we walked for about 2 minutes and an empty one passed that picked us up, we only made it about 5 minutes though because we got a flat tire and had to get out. Coincidently, there was an empty truck right across the street from where we got the flat that was ready and able to take us to St. Louis. We got back about 515 and got around for dinner, relaxed, and shared our day with the people that did not go. Dinner was amazing again, and devotions were really good. After that we entered into relax and fellowship time until bed time. We had a portion of the group leaving in the morning so we all hit the sack early so that we could get up with them. I stayed up for most of the night, working on internet stuff, and hanging in the recovery room. I also did not have a bed because I gave mine to one of the members leaving since he packed his up and it was more important for him to get good rest than it was me. I passed out for about 90 minutes from 230-4 and one of the couches, which was really comfortable. Peace.