Traveling To Port de Paix

After saying goodbye to Jacques (blah). We waited in a small airport in Port au Prince to catch a tiny airplane to take us to Port de Paix. We met up with Stephanie's new family and two interns that were going to be staying and working with them. Much to my delight one of the young interns was the daughter of my friend. I was so excited to meet her!

We had a crummy thing happen while waiting. I did not witness it because I was at the ticket counter but I guess a couple of men started harassing Stephanie and making threats to do things to her. When Dr. Bernard caught wind of this he went and confronted them (wish I could have seen that part!). When I returned from the ticket counter I saw that Dr. Bernard was talking with a security guard but thought nothing of it figuring it was someone he knew. I had no idea of the ruckus that was going on. Once I learned of it I was so glad to get Stephanie on the plane and away from these men.

Once on the flight the tension melted (and we melted a bit in the plane too, HOT). That's when the reality of the adventure hit. The flight was beautiful! The following photos were taken from the plane;

I realize that this photo isn't very visible in blog photo size but the very first thing I noticed when we landed was the donkeys hanging out on the side of the dirt runway. We exited the plane and were greeted by Pastor Andy (GREAT man, more later), and several of Keith and Cindy's older boys from the boys home. They grabbed our carry on's for us and greeted us with hugs. Then my favorite part of the entire trip began.

The ride to their home was a BLAST! My bag with my camera ended up in a different car and I was so bummed. Port de Paix was vastly different from Port au Prince. The streets were all dirt and very muddy due to recent rains. There were some suv's and trucks but the most common transportation was little motorcycles. It was very amusing to watch them determinedly navigating the muddy roads. Progress was slow and slippery. I even watched one motorcycle trying to tow another motorcycle behind him but the rope broke. I was also amused at the many donkeys that seemed to be everywhere. You also had a lot of the same things you see in Port au Prince as far as people walking around balancing large objects on their heads, and the sides of the streets covered with people trying to sell things. The feel of this place was just more adventurous, relaxed, and less dangerous then Port au Prince.

While we made it to their home just fine.... our luggage did not. I was under the assumption that when you take a little plane your luggage goes on it with you. Silly me! Turns out that's not the case. Usually when I fly to Haiti I pack a couple changes of clothes and toiletries in my carry on but didn't think I would need to with this flight. Boy did I regret it! In the heat and dust of Haiti I ended up having to wear the same clothes for 2 full days. Yuck. This isn't much of a big deal in America where we have AC, but in Haiti..... Not pretty.

After a short rest we headed out to meet all the children. It started out with the babies that are cared for in Keith and Cindy's personal home. There were four babies in one of the rooms who were cared for at all times. Precious babies! I'll share more about them soon. Then we moved on to their adoption/girls home. Ending out the tour at the boys home. So much more to share about those places and children, soon!

It was such a sweet thing to hang back and see the children at the adoption home greet Keith upon his homecoming. They call him Dad and you can see how much they love him!