Wondering who is on my mission trip team? Kim and Mike Hatfield are our team leaders. Their son, Johnmark, who lives in Chicago, is on the team, too. There is one more Hatfield on the team - Elizabeth Hatfield, aka Liz. She's a teacher in Pontiac, but is not related to Kim, Mike or Johnmark. Then, there is the Wilcox family - Todd, Deb, and their son, Jared. Tim Thul, Kevin Jones, and Alyssa Garvin are also on the team. Tim Miller, who we call Arizona, is on our team. Can you guess where he's from? Meghan and Brian Ernst are on the team and Meghan's dad, Paul. And me. That makes 15.
Our team's motto for this trip = "Be Flexible."
It's about 5 pm here in Cap Haitian, Haiti. I think. Things here don't seem to run according to clocks. We were up early at the hotel in Miami for breakfast. I don't think I slept more than an hour or two. Mainly, I think, because of the Dr. Pepper I drank on the flight from Chicago to Miami. Also, because of all the noises, an uncomfortable pillow, and anxiety. Well, maybe not anxiety--maybe anticipation is the better word.
We had breakfast and got to the airport. The flight to Port-au-Prince left at 10:10 am, and it was about a 2 hour flight. Uneventful. I listened to Haitian people sitting nearby. The airport in Port-au-Prince was different than any I'd seen. Straight out of the plane, off of a ladder and onto the tarmac. I felt like a President. A Haitian band was playing just inside the airport doors. We went through customs and had to fight for our 34 bags of luggage. Many adult men wanted to "help" us load up. They'd grab a bag from my hands and say "no problem, no problem." I had to hold on tight and continue to refuse. Otherwise, we would have had to pay all of them.
We got everything loaded and onto a small shuttle that took us from one part of the airport to the other. There was a large crowd of Haitian people standing behind a rail watching us. The called me "missus" or "blanc" (white). So, the bus took us to the other side and we stood around while security people poked through our bags. In the end, they decided they couldn't fit all of us AND our 34 bags onto the small prop plane we were taking from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitian. So, we boarded and most of the bags stayed. They'll be brought to us in Cap in a day or so. Too bad I left my bug spray in one of those bags.
The plane was the smallest one I've been on and we didn't fly very high. Just enough altitude to get over the mountains. The view was beautiful and the ride was bumpy. When we went through the clouds, my stomach would flip as the plane pitched up, down, and side-to-side. At one point, I thought I was going to throw up, but it passed quickly. I sat by the window and watched the big city of Port-au-Prince disappear. Slums and tightly packed streets gave way to countryside, rolling hills, and then mountains. Patchwork quilts of fields and meadows where goats and cows and pigs grazed. Not big herds as one might drive past on country roads in Illinois, but half a dozen or so animals dotting the landscape here and there.
We landed on an airstrip that looked like it ended in the ocean. There were Haitians standing around watching us again. A group of three boys offered to let me take their "foto" for "one dolla." I passed, and then they asked for food. A bony, three-legged, mangy dog hobbled by. I think he must have lost that leg pretty recently. We immediately boarded a "tap tap." It was a truck with benches and rails to stand and hold onto. I found out why it's called a tap tap. Because if you want the driver to stop the truck to let people get on or off, you tap on the top of the cab. I was glad to be standing in the truck - the ride sitting would have left me with a sore backside.
...to be continued...
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