Monday, August 27, 2018

Day 1 - Arrival Day

For most of our group, the alarm went off early enough so that we could all meet at the airport by 4:30 AM.  It was easy to find our group since we were all in our gray Healing Haiti shirts.  One of our words of the day (from one of our leaders Kris) was "smooth."  We agree that everything at the airport went as we had hoped for and before we knew it, we were in Altanta where we connected with Mikayla and Josue (from Canada and New Jersey).   After a short layover, we were back on the plane and one step closer to Haiti.  Our flight was 2.45 hours,  just long enough to fit in two movies and complete our customs forms.

On the way to the Guest House, our team noticed many differences between the USA and Haiti.  The heat is a very different kind of hot.  The roads are part dirt, part asphault, with many potholes and lots of refuse along the sides of the road.  One of the last potholes we drove over almost bottomed out the tap-tap (our transportation).

As we arrived at the Guest House, the staff came to greet us with big smiles and even hugs for those they recognized.  Even the dogs came to greet us. We unloaded the tap-tap, met the rest of the staff and headed to our new home for the week.  We had delicious tacos for dinner and did our "word of the day."  This was a powerful team bonding activity because we were able to reflect, share and listen to each other's perspectives.  It was great!

At this point, everyone was feeling very tired; however, we pushed on; there was a soccer game that needed to be played! We decided that we could muster up the energy to head to the lot next door to meet some of the local boys and check out the families, their homes and the darling little kids (humans and goats) who came out to greet us.  Once the sun went down, we returned to the Guest House where we read our daily devotions and reviewed the day together.

It was a full day and everyone is now ready for bed, but even moreso, we are all eager and excited for tomorrow and everything it has in store.  Until then, bon nwit and orevwa!

Jeanna & Linda