Made it to Haiti...FINALLY!

This is a blog post I wrote yesterday. That is what I will be doing, writing a blog post at the end of the day but posting it the next day so keep that in mind as you read. Also, blogger is in French since I am in Haiti so that complicates things slightly   but I think I figured it out! Enjoy...

5/21/2012

Wow. What a 24 hours it has been. I boarded the plane last night with all my luggage. One backpack. One suitcase for me. One suitcase full of diapers, dictionaries and baby vitamins. And One duffle bag full of the same as well. I saw a glimpse of God’s goodness in the first few minutes of my trip. I thought I would have to recheck everything again in Miami and go through security again because I was changing airlines (one source of stress that I was not looking forward to). And, the lady made it work so that my bags went all the way through from Seattle to Port-au-Prince. Praise God! 

The flight from Seattle to Miami was rough. I have never flown overnight before and I can see why so many people don’t like it. Even with taking a Benedryl I had a hard time relaxing and getting in a comfortable enough position to sleep. There were a couple really cool things about flying overnight though. 1) STARS! Everywhere I looked there were stars. All over the place. Left and Right. Up and down. It was one of the most beautiful things ever! 2) Lightening storms! We flew just south of a serious lightening storm for about 30 minutes or so and the entire time I just was in awe of God’s power. It reminded me of the song ‘At your Name.’ As already being a person who enjoys the thrill and sheer awesomeness of a good thunder and lightening storm, the fact that I was flying so close and seeing it right in my face was amazing! 3) Sunrise! (See picture below) We flew into Miami just as the sun was rising and it was a gorgeous welcome sight. The amazing beauty of the flight truly reminded me just how awesome and near my God is. Suddenly, I had an incredible amount of peace knowing that He is with me...for good...no matter what happens. I was able to walk off that plane this morning incredibly groggy yes, but with a new found confidence and peace that God was going before me. 

Fast forward a long 4 hour layover in Miami and it’s time to board the flight to Haiti...FINALLY....it’s here! Because I am me, I made a friend in the waiting area. His name was Nicholai. He is a flight attendant for a different airline but wasn’t working the flight I was on, so he was able to tell me stories, give me advice and even though his ‘advice’ wasn’t the most encouraging and restful, his thoughtfulness of attempts at being helpful were a God-sent. 

I made it through the flight just fine filling out customs and my temporary visa paperwork. We landed and were bused to a huge warehouse where we would be passing through customs. Everything went smoothly and it was time to grab my bags. Knowing from Ryan and a few others about the craziness of this moment, I was full on ready to say, “No, No Merci!”... as many times as I needed...and hey, it works! :) I found my large amounts of luggage and braced myself for the walk out of the ‘airport.’ My first few steps on Haiti soil. Just me and God. 

Let me tell you, walking out of the door of the ‘airport’ is nothing like I have ever experienced. Me being a young white girl, was quickly surrounding by Haitian men asking to ‘help’ me so that I would tip them. I imagine that those watching would have thought it was like a single crumb hitting the floor and ants fighting to get whatever they could. That’s what it probably looked like and that’s what it felt like for me. Totally surrounded by dozens of Haitian men in red shirts and red hats. Again, I pulled out my strong, “No, No Merci!” And again it worked like a charm. A few seconds later a smiling Haitian man (who WASN’T in a red shirt) held up a sign with ‘God’s Littlest Angels.’ - That was it. He was the man that would get me from this mess to where I was supposed to be. He was there. And I was all good! 

Turns out there were 5 others on my same flight who were also going to GLA so we tracked them down and headed to the car. Now, driving in a different country is a whole nother story. There were cars darting in and out of each other, motorcycles going crazy, no one turn signaling, no ‘oh be nice and let him in,’ no street lights, no observation of stop signs and one HUGE difference: It seems like the horn is the favorite part of the car for every Haitian driver. Left and right someone is honking at someone, and, it isn’t a nice honk, it’s a “I am coming now, so move it or lose it’ kind of a deal. 

The poverty of the country is seem left and right and it is really hard to deal with. It isn’t too much different than Tijuana, Mexico. It is just more so, and everywhere you turn people are on the streets or in shacks for homes. Our driver told us it was going to be 45 minutes or so to the Orphanage from Haiti. Well, that 45 minutes turned into 2 hours of dodging cars and honking at people and break slamming. 7 of us, in a 7 passenger van, with all of our luggage. If this isn’t the real ‘missionary experience,’ I do not know what is! 

After we finally arrived at the Orphanage, we were given a tour and then told to just ‘pick a baby and play!’ There are two main homes here at GLA. One is the infant & baby home which houses about 48 babies under 2 years old (this is where I will be working). Then there is the toddler home which has about 68 children from roughly 3 - 8 years old (I am staying at a ‘dorm room’ at the toddler house). I am bunking with 5 other female volunteers who are all working with me at the infant home. Everyone picked their babies and Holli showed me my assignment titled, ‘Jennica’s Littlest Angels.’ I have 6 babies whom I will start to take care of tomorrow. Each has their own needs and I get to just help them out and play with them and I could not be more excited to get to know each of my babies. 

We played some with the babies and then ate a Creole Chicken and rice dinner (which was FABULOUS!). Then celebrated the birthday of one of the staff guys, and we sang and had cupcakes. I am now settled into my room and am going to read a little before I go to bed. It has been an exhausting 24 hours but God is good and I have compete trust that he is going to work everything out for his glory in my trip to Haiti. 

The picture to the right is a picture of the street side in Port-au-Prince. Most of the city looks just like this with trash everywhere. More pictures to follow later. 

Pray that God would give me continued strength as I now adjust to a new schedule and time zone. Pray that God would give me more love than I can imagine to pour into my babies. And pray that I can develop good friendships with the other volunteers that I get to serve with. And Praise God with me for his provision and hand of guidance over the first leg of my journey, I know that He was with me and he was going before me!