the journey began

i spent New Year's Eve with my friend, paul, and his friend, katie, at the O'Hare Intercontinental Rock & Roll Ball. paul was shooting the bands playing (rusted root, breakfast club, too white crew, and michael dermott) so i helped. it worked out that i stayed there and just took the hotel shuttle the next morning to the airport to start my journey to haiti.

i wanted to get there super early so i left the hotel at 830am (flight was at 1130am). i tried my best to get my bag to 50 lbs but it ended up being 60 lbs so i dumped all my waterbottles since i knew that was alot of weight right there. i took that out and put a ziplock bag of clothes in my carry-on and it was right at 50 lbs. everything went smoothly - i was the only one wearing the yellow shirt so another girl, elizabeth, came up to me. she knew a few others that came shortly before we boarded so i met laura (my 'travel buddy') right before we got on the plane.

when we got to JFK we didn't know where to find the shuttle so finally found out we needed to take the airtran. an hour and a half after we landed we were on the shuttle to the hotel. we get to the hotel only to find out that they 'don't have reservations for 8 rooms' for us. we tried every name we could think of including all 25 of ours and they still had nothing. so finally i looked up barb's number & left her a voicemail. she called me back shortly & we talked - she emailed jody, who called the hotel, and it was all taken care after that. at that point i had found out i was the only one who had been - the others who had previously been (which was only 2 girls out of the 24) were coming later, including the girl who organized it. so i think it was good i was there. tho i'm sure they coulda handled it on their own :) i asked the hotel mgr what the issue was when we came, why nothing worked, including jody's name - she didn't elaborate so it made me think it may have been in jose's name (since that's who she was talking to) - very frustrating that the hotel didn't work with us and were pretty rude to me the whole time. BUT it got worked out after an hour or so and we all ate pizza and watched the Rose Bowl. so it was GOOD :)

of course i couldn't sleep that night. i tossed and turned and tossed and turned. finally 4am came and i got up to get ready. the flight to port-au-prince was smooth. as soon as i saw the mountains of haiti from the sky i felt like i was home. i had a huge grin on my face until we landed. when we got to port-au-prince it was way different than the last time i went in 2007. they shuttled us from one end of the airport to the other. went thru immigration. then baggage where it took forever and i almost thought i wasn't going to get my check in bag! 2 people in the group actually didn't and that REALLY sucked!!!!! but they didn't complain. and they didn't get their bags until the day we left haiti. they were troopers!

jacques met us at the airport - we squeezed into a taptap and went from the big airport to the small airport to barely catch the small plane (19 passenger) ride to port de paix.

it felt like the pilot lost control when we got close to port-de-paix. at first it felt like turbulance then it was kinda outta control and everyone looked around at everyone like 'uhhhhhh what's going on'. but then we were flying smooth within 2 minutes-ish. it was kinda scary tho lol so i jokingly said 'the sun must have gotten in his eyes' lol

first person i saw when getting off the small plane in Port de Paix was Joseph! it was good seeing someone i knew! i met him in 2004 when he was security at the front gate of the mission. he and emmano and jack took us all to the bus - jack stayed behind & emmano drove (he's an awesome bus driver for the record). i reintroduced myself to joseph and the journey to st louis du nord began. everyone that traveled with me on that plane had their cameras out and were clicking away - everyone had to take a street shot before they got in the bus and thank goodness there was joseph behind them to tell them to get out of the middle of the street since the scooters/trucks stop for no one lol i didn't get my camera out at all the first day because i wanted to take haiti in. driving down the streets, smelling and seeing and hearing the sounds of haiti was refreshing. i was back. and i was happy and excited to be back. i couldn't stop thinking about seeing john and navius and grant and meeting melonnie and seeing who else was there! it'd been too long and i knew the mission was going to have changed alot and it did!

as soon as we got off the bus, i saw the switched miriam center (used to be known as heaven's waiting room - where john lives - see previous post) and the birthing center. and there was john!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the gate was shut so i had to say hi thru the gate but just saying his name and bon jour was enough to get him laughing and smiling. i pointed at him like i always did since i met him (my way of saying i love u & he does it back) and he just bent over in laughter. i was so happy because i was pretty sure he remembered me at that point. melonnie came down to greet us - i introduced myself. she said she saw my intern application, i explained i spoke with barb and jody about coming in march for a year and my situation. she said we would talk. john was playing with some americans so i went upstairs to put my bags away and get some water. then went back down to see him until supper time.

i love this boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

john photography. this is the front gate of the miriam center looking into the mission courtyard

john photography!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i was so proud john could take photo's then i looked at the photo's and almost cried - they're really good!!!!

i saw grant the first day, met his sister emily who i clicked with right away. grant preached about how it's not about us but about God. and that put everyone's priorities in the right order i think. i know the sermon helped me later that week to make a decision to go to la baie instead of stay at the mission. i will elaborate later as i'm trying to stick to the day by day. i didn't journal alot and regret that, it would have been somuch easier if i could have typed it all out! i'm a slow writer lol by the time i write the first thought i have had 15 other thoughts so it doesn't work too well ;) melonnie told me right before supper the first night that navius lived downtown st louis and his health wasn't doing well - that they figured it was MS (made sense too). so that made me kinda sad. i decided i'd ask maureen the next time i saw her.

all in all the trip there was very smooth and i thank God that He allowed it to be. the first day was good - we were able to get settled and rest and meet others. i reeeeally wanted to sleep outside, but i knew it was going to rain so slept in the cabin - which BTW - they made a new girl's cabin that is AWESOME with new mattresses so bed bugs weren't bad this year i only got a handful on my face :)

they say one day in haiti feels like 3 maybe even 4 or 5 days! and that is a very accurate saying lol especially if u take a nap - u will definitely feel like one day is more than just one day! i only napped one day out of the whole trip tho. i kept busy and on my feet the whole time and enjoyed every moment!!!