Thursday, July 11

Thursday was a long day.  We woke up early to get to the airport by 8 for our 10:00 flight from Miami to Haiti.  We got to the gate in plenty of time to watch hundreds of people trying to get on standby for our flight.  Apparently the 10:00 flight the day before got half-way to Haiti and then had to turn around and go back to Miami because of a vibration felt by the pilot.......
Needless to say there were many people wanting to get to Haiti and not happy about their delay. 
Luckily, we got through the crowd and on the plane with out any issues and arrived safely in Haiti on time.
Getting our bags was the first of the adventures to come. 

There are many (maybe 100) men dressed in red shirts that work for the airport.  There job is to "assist" us with our bags and "help" us out of the airport. Nice, yes, annoying, YES!  They want money, and if your tip isn't enough, they will tell you to pay more......

Once we got through that craziness, we met our driver and packed our suitcases into one van and we climbed into another........

We traveled through the busy streets of Port-au-Prince up to the town Petionville.  This is where the American grocery store is.  It was very nice and everything is imported in from the US.  This is also where we first saw armed UN guards. And by armed, I don't mean little pistols on their belts.......

Next we traveled about 15 miles or 45 minutes through the mountians on a windy two lane road, to the guest house in Fermanthe. 

You may have heard me talk about the crazy driving in China,
they ain't got nothin on the Haitians! 

Wow! 

The yellow line in the middle of the road means nothing, you can pass at ANY time as long as you honk, pedestrians must give way to the vehicles, not the other way around, and stopping or standing in the middle of the road, is allowed anywhere and anytime. 

I must say Haiti is BEAUTIFUL! 

The mountains are amazing.  We couldn't get over the lush landscape and beautiful farmland (on the side of the mountain). 

 Sorry, these were taken from a moving car.....

Once we got to the guest house and settled in we went over to the creche about 15 min farther up the moutain in Kenscoff. 
The creche is owned by Chances for Children, the organization we went with. 
They have done some amazing things in this town, and continue to. 

When we walked in to the creche, the first room we went to was the baby room. 
Oh my........they were just precious and ADORABLE!  We were all holding atleast 2 at a time, because once one was being held, they all wanted to be held, and who can turn down those gorgeous brown eyes. 

Within minutes all the children were swarming us and playing and having a great time.  One of the guys in our group, Cowboy, brought balloons to make balloon animals.  We made hundreds of balloons, only to realize the next day that the kids had taken them to their rooms and decorated with them.   

( I forgot to get a picture of this room after we repainted the walls.)


It was a great start to the week!