Haiti Mission Trip: Traveling

Haiti mission trip: July 5-13, 2013

This series of posts is mostly for our memory, but I'm going to break them up into days so it's not so much to read in case you are interested in our trip!

 

This was our first mission trip out of the country, and we were chaperones. gulp. Thankfully we had a great group, and knew we wouldn’t have any problems from them! There were five high school students: Emily, Madison, Tyler, Maygan, and Austin, two recent high school grads: Josh and Scott, three college students: Katie, Hannah Lee, and Kevin, and Mrs. Tanya, Josh, Leslie, and myself.

We left for New Orleans on Friday night on a BCM bus so that we could catch our flight early the next morning. We were all excited that this week had finally gotten here after planning this trip for nine months! We went to dinner together at Acme Oyster House and stayed at the Baptist Theological Seminary.

On Saturday we woke up at 2:30 am to get to the airport with plenty of time before our flight. We flew from New Orleans to Miami and then from Miami to Port Au Prince, Haiti. We were in first class for both flights, and we were definitely spoiled! I’d never gotten a meal on a flight or had seats that go to “sleep” position. Both flights were about two hours long and were easy flights. We had three students with us that had never flown before, and we warned them not to get used to first class treatment!

Reclining in first class

I had heard a lot of things about Haiti. It was poor, hot, humid, and even dangerous. But no one told me that Haiti is also beautiful. I was surprised flying in to see so many mountains and clear ocean water all in the same place!

Sorry for the bad quality plane photo...

We got off the plane and got through customs relatively easily. I learned quickly that it really does pay to try to learn at least a few words in the language before visiting. We were greeted by the missionaries from the Hands and Feet Project and we all loaded in a van to make the two hour trip to Grand Goave. We rode with the windows open and experienced all of the new sights, sounds, and smells.  We learned quickly that driving is very different in Haiti! There was a lot of honking and passing whenever someone wanted. There were very few personal vehicles, and most people in colorfully decorated “tap taps” (trucks that were built for people to sit in the back of that you tapped if you wanted to get in for a ride) or on small motorcycles. Leslie quickly noticed that there are very few road signs there, so you better know where you’re going!

Tap tap!

We drove through towns where there were marketplaces and many people walking through the streets trying to sell things. While we were stopped people would walk up to the window to try to sell us things. I realized quickly that smiling gave boys the wrong impression after I got some unwanted attention- oops!

 

Goats and chickens were seen everywhere on the side of the road, up in the mountains, and even on the beach later on! They seemed to be everywhere in Haiti.

 

Most of the buildings were colorfully decorated. It seems like everyone there is artistic! On the way there I did not notice too many homes, more stores and marketplaces and scenery. It was overwhelming and wonderful to be in a new place.