Travel Day

Vince – Monday 3/2

What a long DAY!  Long story short (read to the bottom for all of it), we all got to the airport by 4am and we didn’t arrive at Pastor Voltaire’s house until about 10pm.  It was quite a harrowing experience at times on our journey.

We started with a pretty easy donation distribution into our checked bags.  The problem we had was the sheer amount of donations.  Our congregations and friends were so generous that we checked a total of 18 bags.  All but one was full to capacity.  Most us wouldn’t have needed to check a bag without the donations.  The morning was running smooth.  The Delta ticketing agents came out and started checking bags, but they came out just 20 minutes before our plane started boarding, and we were not the first in line.  I made sure to go through security last after sending pairs of people through once they were checked in.  I found a few of our team members on the tram and we headed to the gate together.  As we rounded the corner, I saw Lynne frantically waving.  They were going to start rebooking the team if they didn’t get to the plane in minutes.  Our last two team members made it to the plane with but 30 seconds to spare before they closed the door.  There was so little room on the plane that our carryon bags were checked through to Port-au-Prince.  That was a little disconcerting because I, nor any of the others with me, have time to remove anything I might need if the bag is lost.  Specifically, malaria meds.  But we had faith that it would all be fine.

We made to Atlanta, relaxed and ate some food.  Everything was fine.  Josie gets paged as boarding starts and is informed that the saxophone we brought was left at the gate we arrived in.  We thought it was checked through as well.  Deborah hustled back 4 concourses to retrieve it while they held the plane.  Luckily, the gate agent was cool and we had plenty of time for her to get it.  They closed the doors once she got back and we got onto the plane.  Off to Port-au-Prince.

The airport in Port-au-Prince is much bigger than Cap-Haitian, but still small by our standards.  There were no problems getting the team past immigration.  We started pulling our bags off the conveyor and lining them up in order and found that a bag was missing.  One of our checked bags didn’t make it.  Unfortunately, it had someone’s clothes and not just donations.  I inquired about for a while and right now we aren’t sure where it is or how it will get to Cap-Haitian.  We’ll have to call tomorrow(Tuesday).

We took our bags outside to find Chris and our bus.  He found us right away and we started our bus ride north through the country.  It was a comfort to see him after the troubles with the flights.  The countryside was gorgeous and the pictures that will come home will not do it justice.  The road took us straight at the mountains and once we got to them we took a left and followed the bay north.  Mountains on one side and water on the other.  As we started to climb the mountains, the road got pretty rough, and narrow.  There were some really big bumps.  I think some of the donated lotions and/or shampoos popped open on the road and not in the planes.  There were hairpin turns heading up and then back down the mountains and big semis we had to go past and pass.  There were some pretty close calls.

When we were about 5km from Cap-Haitian, our bus broke down.  Luckily, Chris saved us by fixing the bus.  We were stuck in the middle of the road with no lights on and no street lights letting other drivers know that we were there.  We were almost hit by a driver who locked up his brakes.  I mean inches away.

But we are safe and secure at Pastor’s house.  God got us here safe and we are ready to serve him and the Haitian people tomorrow.