My day started by getting up at 3:45 AM on Saturday and arriving in San Jaun before noon time. After sitting in the airplane on the runway for 2 hours in the wonderfully cool (sense the sarcasm) Puerto Rican weather, we were finally in the air flying over the Dominican on our way to PaP. 75% of the plane was full of various health care workers and volunteers from different churches all going down to lend a hand in Haiti. As we made our descent to the airport, you could see polka dots of blue below.
As we got closer, you soon realized that it was the many tent cities that have sprung up since the earthquake. They were too numerous and scattered to count. Roofs and walls were collapsed on a majority of homes and buildings. Finally, after much of my own prayers and that of family and friends, we touched down in Haiti!
As we got our carry-ons and made our way to exit of the plane, you quickly felt a blast of hot and very humid air. We were soon packed into a "shuttle" like sardines and taken to the terminal to retrieve our luggage. This was a surprisingly quick process as I found my one bag immediately and was on my way through customs. As I was standing there in the airport, I had a fleeting thought that I just arrived in Haiti by myself, without a cellphone, and only knowing 2 words of Creole. Thankfully it was a quick thought as customs involved a few words not understood by either party with me ending by saying, "I'm from America." With that, he waved me on and I made myself to the outside of the airport. As I was exiting several people try to "assist you" with your luggage in hopes of a tip. I was fore-warned about this and continued to make my way outside. To my pleasant surprise I immediately noticed Kevin standing there like a sore-thumb being a 6'6" white guy with a florescent green shirt on.
We jumped in the truck and Miguel (our driver who is a native Haitian believer) navigated his way through traffic worst than I've ever seen coming from Center City Philly. Our home (The Haitian Queen) is only about 15 miles west of PaP however, it took us nearly 3 hours to make this journey. Part of that was because of traffic and the other part was because of the terrible condition of the road system. It reminded me of riding the Phoenix roller coaster at Knoebels which is a wooden and bumpy one. After living in New Orleans for a time, I thought I saw the biggest potholes I would ever see. That was proven wrong very quickly as we came across a "U-haul" type truck that was literally stuck in one of these man-eating potholes.
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