Reality Check

I am rich.

And so are you.

Don't think so? Drive through Port-au-Prince sometime. You'll think differently.

We left Chicago early on June 22. Both of our flights went very well, except for one small delay. As soon as we landed in Port-au-Prince, we realized that there was no turning back. As you leave the terminal, you are taken by a bus to customs, which went really smoothly (especially considering the two sisters on the trip accidentally used each other's passports!!). Baggage claim was a chaotic mess, since we had 48 bags (half of which being supplies and tools we were bringing with us). After all of the bags were counted, we realized we had lost three. But thankfully they were not anyone's personal bags. Just another lesson that we need to be ready for the rules to change at any minute.



Then the craziness really began. We had a caravan of luggage carts overloaded with our bags, and we had to push them to our truck, which meant going through a crowd of people and over a rocky path. One of our carts kept falling over, spilling the bags out, but we eventually got everything loaded up and we got into the vans. The highlight of this day for me was seeing Gerard, a missionary and friend whom we have been praying for. He lost his house and all of his belongings in the earthquake. It was very emotional for me to finally see him after we have been praying for him for so long.

The drive through Port-au-Prince is indescribable. The area surrounding the airport was not really affected too badly by the earthquake, but as soon as you get close to the city, all you see is devastation. About every other building is just rubble. It was hard to take it all in, especially since we were driving quickly and the sun was going down. The one image that will stay in my head forever was looking at a little girl, who couldn't have been much older than Noel, filling a bucket with water from a mud puddle and using an old shirt to strain it. I realized that she was gathering water for her family to use.

And I complain when our power goes out for an hour.

After our ride, which was about three hours and included going over a mountain, we arrived at L'Abri, which is the house HCO has rented for Ginny (one of the missionaries) and any missions teams who come to work. It is a really nice house, with room for everyone to sleep. We were given our first taste of local food with some Haitian spaghetti, which is kind of like our spaghetti, but with hotdogs and a thinner sauce. We had a short orientation and got the house put in order for the night. I don't think I've ever slept so hard in my life.

All in all, our first exposure to Haiti was a reality check. All of the pictures and videos we'd seen over the past several months were now right in front of us, and we would never be the same.