With Love From Haiti

After over fourteen hours of travel, we finally arrived in Haiti. The cool breeze of the airplane AC immediately turned into a heavy, stagnant, oppressive heat. After minutes we had already begun to sweat through our clothing. The airport was an absolute zoo and we waiting at the baggage claim for over an hour waiting for our luggage. My mom's suitcase never came and we're not sure whether or not it will come tomorrow, so she's scavenging for clothes.

The first thing I noticed about Haiti was the smell. It was the same smell of Africa and I felt at home. As we stepped into the public street we were constantly assaulted by beggers, taxi drivers, and the sound of beeping horns. The roads are covered in mud and adorned with pot holes and the trip from Port Au Prince to our compound was a bumpy one. The beautiful landscape is severely contrasted with the pitiful, crumbling homes and clumps of refugee tents. Tents stretch as far as the eye can see, squashed together in a community of suffering. But most pitiful of all were the make shift tents made of sticks and worn sheets.

The rules of the road were simple, the same as in any third world country: there are none. Motorists and cyclists weave in and out of traffic in heavily congested areas and dodge speeding cars on the side of the road in the more rural areas. My dad apparently thinks he is quite the racing ace and I thought we would surely collide with on coming traffic or squash a passerby multiple times, but we somehow made it back to the compound in one piece and with no body parts attached to our van. (Ok Dad, I give you props you're a pretty awesome driver)

With ocean on our left and mountains on our right we reached the compound at around 6:45PM and the sky was already black. Fortunately, the heat had become tolerable but Rebekah and I fear the morning sun. Rebekah and I are staying in the dorm room which contains about thirty bunk beds. We both vowed not to leave the others side and have pushed two bunk beds together so we can be as close as possible. The lights remain on and the heat is dulled slightly by the giant fan we placed in front of our beds. My mom and dad are staying in a tent which is air conditioned and sectioned into private rooms with a desk and shelves for their convenience. (Can you tell Bekah and I are slightly bitter?)

The food here is not bad, and we have fresh mango at every meal which is absolutely delicious!!! Breakfast starts at 6:30 and goes until 7:00 so we must get up painfully early every day. For me, the spoiled teenage homeschooler, this is a really big deal.

The extreme poverty and chaos as well as the rough living conditions have placed us a bit out of our comfort zone, but it has made us realize how blessed we are. I am so grateful AND excited for this opportunity to get out of my little selfish and comfortable world and be confronted with real suffering and poverty. Its going to be difficult, very difficult, but life altering. Hallelujah thank you Jesus for the blessings you have given me.

With love from Haiti....