We Made it but Barely

Oh what stories to tell about our experience traveling to Haiti. All went well until just before we landed when the stewardess announces the forms we were to fill out are for the wrong country. Every passenger on the plane was issued a form as we walked off the plane causing a huge backlog to form. By the time we finished the bags were being delivered to the baggage area and everyone rushed down to claim their bag. After all the bags had come through we were still short one. Rachel started walking around the room and found the bag, someone else had claimed it. Funny but we thought that was the hard part, nope this was just the beginning. When one exits the airport at Port-au-Prince there is a huge mass of people waiting to jump, all trying desperately to get your attention. Charles our Haitian helper told us he would help us find our driver Vilo. We were trying to stay together but 5 of us started following the wrong Haitian and went through the gauntlet of people. Rachel saw what was happening and gave the old Meister WarWoop causing the other 9 heads to whip around to see what the problem was. We were pleased when we found Vilo and all luggage loaded, then into the van we packed.Mike asked the driver, "how many hours did it take to get to Joan's?" and the driver didn't understand. He couldn't speak any English!! We didn't care, the van had airconditioning. Port-au-Prince is actually shocking, the tent cities, the extreme poverty and the garbage. Garbage on the streets, garbage piled along the roads, mounded high with people, chickens and dogs picking through.

The streets are full of traffic that doesn’t seem to follow any kind of rules, just go go go. If the traffic was slow on one side of the street, just jump the medium and drive on the other side, who cares if there is on coming traffic, it will get out of the way (hopefully). At one point we are driving up a steep winding hill, all of a sudden cars and trucks are coming at us telling us to turn around. There is no place to turn so our driver has to back down a steep winding hill IN TRAFFIC! I think at that point it was Diane that said, "just think of it as a computer game. It seemed we traveled hours getting through Port finally got on the one road to Les Cayes. It was narrow and pitch black. Suddenly we came to a screeching halt around 6:15pm. Protesters were angry at not having electricity and barricaded the road. They began yelling at our driver and our driver seemed worried. We couldn't ask him what was going on because he couldn't speak English. Finally a protestor that new a little English told us we would not be allowed to pass. Our driver called Joan and explained we were a good distance away from the angry mob but may have to wait until the police arrive but that could take several hours. Our first concern was were we safe. Joan told us to stay in the van and we should be fine. The problem was almost everyone had to go to the rest room, it had been at least 7 hours from our last restroom visit and we were over heating because the driver shut the van off and left to sympathize with the protestors. We were sweating and whispering so not to escalate the situation. The protestors had surrounded our van and were peering into our windows. Our driver called Joan! Amy told them all you just wait until Joan gets here, you are IN TROUBLE. well after 2 and a half hours excruciating hours of sitting in hot van Joan and Tim came to rescue us. Tim called a pastor from the community to rally support from the local church people. The towns people from the local MEBSH church walked towards the blockade with our vehicle following. We got to the area and discovered the protestors blocked the road with several disabled vehicles. They had disabled the vehicles by flattening the tires and had broken glass all over the area. At that point Tim had to wait in his van with the van running in order to not anger the protestors. Joan told them we wouldn't attempted to cross their barricades if they would allow us to transfer our suitcases where Tim was waiting on the other side. She offered to pay them to help carry the suitcases and then they allowed us to haul all of our luggage across the barricaded area. (money is an universal language) While we were loading the suitcases on to the roof of Tim's vehicle the soldiers from the UN finally arrived with their big military truck carrying machine guns to disperse the protestors and cleared the barricades. But by then Joan and Tim had everything well under control.

We had to unload the one van, haul all the suitcases, you know the ones that were exactly 50 pounds each, across the blockade of trucks and buses and of course garbage, crossed the bridge to the Reinhard’s vehicle. That was loaded by the guys and Joan getting all of those heavy heavy suitcases back on top of a vehicle and climbing in. Here we are loading in the dark under police guard.

Then off we went squeezed in like a can of sardines, the quarters were so tight we had to take turns on moving our legs. We arrived shortly before midnight, Bethany had a nice meal prepared, all enjoyed a cool shower and off to bed. So thankful to have arrived safe! We were awakened by the crowing of roosters. Joan has a full day planned for us so pictures will be down loaded later.