After months of preparation, our Haitian Vacation (trademarked by Pat) finally has begun. Twenty three walking traffic cones(our new team shirts) gathered bright and early at O’Hare Airport. We made it smoothly out of Chicago. Ironically, the flight attendant kept saying we were landing in Fort Myers but we were supposed to land in Fort Lauderdale. As it turned out, there were storm clouds hovering above the Fort Lauderdale Airport preventing our scheduled landing. The pilots decided to circle the airport several times, however the storm took its sweet time and we needed to refuel so we had to land at Fort Myers. While in Fort Myers, we received word from Mr. Keefer that American said we would not be making it to Fort Lauderdale in time for our connecting flight to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This casted a cloud of anxiety over the team of twenty three “Soccer Beyond Borders” missionaries. But have no fear, the Lord is here!
Luckily, we swooped into Fort Lauderdale just in the nick of time. Fortunately, the gate we arrived at happened to be right next to our connecting flight’s departure gate along with an Italian fast food stop. Throughout our travel, our orange shirts were great conversation starters. One couple in particular was with us the whole way, traveling from Bartlett to Haiti for the first time since 1979. When compared to the changes we see after just one year away from Haiti we are excited for the couple to see the changes in their home country after thirty plus years. We shared our past experiences and future plans and wished each other good luck on the rest of our trips. Full of pizza and high hopes, we boarded our plane to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. One of our team members, who shall not be named (LAUREN!), prematurely stated that our trip had been uneventful thus far. Little did we know, we were in for a doozy.
Although we were pleasantly surprised with the drastic improvements at the Port-au-Prince International Airport, the organization did not suffice. As Murphy’s Law states, “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.” After collecting all 45 of our duffle bags of donated supplies we ran into trouble at Haitian Customs. Our convoy of carts was making out of the airport, but not before a Customs employee decided to check one of our duffle bags. They started with one and then they wanted to see them all. They would take a bag, empty everything packed in it, inventory it, and then attempt to repack the bag which they did with little success. We were constantly being asked how much we had paid for all the gear and we tell them it was all donated, however anyone could guess that there was a language barrier. The employees were asking us to pay a tariff for all the equipment we were bringing to Haiti. After three hours of this chaos, we called Bill Plaza and Miriam for some help. Eventually, they swooped in and saved the day. Unfortunately, we ended up having to pay a tariff for equipment that was free of charge to us and will be free to all the Haitians we will meet this week.
It has been exciting to experience Haiti for the first, second, or third time depending on the person. The culture shock never fails to shock us and it was cool to see the newbies take it all in the first time. We finally made it to New Life where we were greeted with full smiles and helping hands. Our bus was unpacked in no time! We quickly wolfed down dinner leftovers in order to join the children for movie night. We snuggled up with old and new friends while eating popcorn and enjoying Jack the Giant Slayer. Sadly, it is time for bed but we are excited for the adventures ahead of us this coming week.
Goodnight world, peace and blessings to you all. Port-au-Prince out.
Yours truly,
Lauren, Emily, Austin, and… Jake?
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