Days 1 & 2: by Laurel and Melissa
The first thing we noticed yesterday when we arrived in Port-au-prince was the heat and humidity. The airport was crowded and small, and the damage from the earthquake made deplaning and finding our luggage very difficult. After we got our luggage, we boarded a bus and took a tour of Port-au-Prince. The streets were crowded, extremely bumpy, and all the cars were constantly honking and dangerously driving, but the most shocking thing was the amount of tent cities we saw. We met a few people from the city and learned there were 1200 people living in tents in a plot of land the size of a couple blocks. We expected to see poverty and damage, but not that extreme. After an extremely long bus ride on an bumpy road with a broken window, a good amount of traffic, and somehow most of us sleeping on the way through the honking, we finally arrived at the compound. We've never been so grateful to see ceiling fans in our life. We toured the compound and spent time with the Haitian children in the compound before dinner. The water wasn't working so we were unable to take showers but we happily went to bed early despite the heat.
Today we woke up at 4 am to hike up a mountain (before the heat came in) to a village to do VBS. The hike was steep and long (about 2 hours) and somehow we managed to get 20 minutes ahead of the rest of the group and were concerned we were lost. The views were so gorgeous it was completely worth it. It goes from gorgeous mountains to the beach here. When we finally made it to the village, we met with a Voodoo preist before going to a church to sing songs and make bracelets with the children. We hiked back down the mountain, had lunch, and took a nap before going out to the local village to play with more children. They took us to their swimming hole all fighting over each other to hold our hands and shockingly almost all without shoes and most without pants on. After spending a couple hours with the children we had another delicious dinner and are currently attempting to bake a cake for Peters birthday but are having oven troubles. The water is back on now and we can't wait to take a shower! We all sweat an unbelievable amount here and there are a lot of bugs so that makes showers a real treat. We can't wait to see what the rest of the trip has in store for us. Now to go check on the cake!
Today we woke up at 4 am to hike up a mountain (before the heat came in) to a village to do VBS. The hike was steep and long (about 2 hours) and somehow we managed to get 20 minutes ahead of the rest of the group and were concerned we were lost. The views were so gorgeous it was completely worth it. It goes from gorgeous mountains to the beach here. When we finally made it to the village, we met with a Voodoo preist before going to a church to sing songs and make bracelets with the children. We hiked back down the mountain, had lunch, and took a nap before going out to the local village to play with more children. They took us to their swimming hole all fighting over each other to hold our hands and shockingly almost all without shoes and most without pants on. After spending a couple hours with the children we had another delicious dinner and are currently attempting to bake a cake for Peters birthday but are having oven troubles. The water is back on now and we can't wait to take a shower! We all sweat an unbelievable amount here and there are a lot of bugs so that makes showers a real treat. We can't wait to see what the rest of the trip has in store for us. Now to go check on the cake!
Hppy 18th Birthay Peter!
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