Haiti, Part 1

Well, this is all of us with all our stuff getting ready to enter the airport in Seattle. We were 4 hours early, but it was a good thing because one of us didn't have a seat and it took over an hour at the check in counter to get her one (a total of almost 2 hours to get everyone checked in). One of the girls (our family's regular babysitter) says to me about an hour in that she thinks the one lady that checked me and a couple other girls in looked familiar. I pointed out to her that it was probably because she'd been staring at her for the last 45 minutes!

Obviously I didn't take many pictures on the planes. We were pretty worn out. We had a red eye that left Seattle at 10pm and then from there we went to Charlotte, NC and then Miami, FL. Then to Haiti! These people are Eric and his wife, Bethenny, our leaders.

We were encouraged not to take pictures. Haiti isn't like EVERYWHERE in America where everyone has their phones out constantly and taking pictures of themselves or each other. This is the airport. And the very cramped and small parking lot.

Our bus driver, Mono, was an amazing bus driver. From now on, when a bus driver here tells me he can't drive there, I will tell him "Mono can." More than 10 occasions we were within inches of other cars. It took us about 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot because it was so tight and there was a lot of maneuvering. That in the background that is very colorful? That is a 'tap tap'. You will see many of them in my pictures. It's like a taxi.

These next few pictures may be a little lopsided because I'm trying to be discrete. All of the umbrella area is people selling items.

This is a house. Most structures I saw were made of concrete.

They also use motorcycles as taxis.

That's all trash in the water there. There was trash everywhere. I'm sure other pictures will show it much better later.

Yes, someone lives in that building.

And this van was PACKED!

This is toward the end of the city to head up into the mountains.

Well, this isn't a very good picture, but I'm hoping you can see the pants they have hung trying to sell as well as a myriad of other items.  A lot of the items I saw that they were trying to sell were used. One of our translators, Elizabeth, said that a lot of the used items come from America and then they try to resell it. There's also a lady in the foreground carrying items on her head, a common way to carry things there.

Along with merchandise, they sold lots of produce.

This is all trash in the street burning.

This was all stuff people were trying to take to the market to sell.

All those buildings on the side of the mountain are homes.

I don't know French but that, to me, looks like a pharmacy store with cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

This was up in the mountains. Haiti (except for the cities) was very agricultural.

Huh. This was the only wooden home I saw, I think. That black thing on the side is for water.

These roads were paved (for the most part) but very windy and hilly. Think lake roads. And just wide enough for two passing cars. That's one thing. People used their horns here to communicate. Like, "HONK! I'm passing you," or "HONK! I'm around this tight corner and I'm big so beware." And the horns were LOUD. I think they made them louder than what they were manufactured with. More honking here than New York City. Serious.

Another motorcycle taxi. You wouldn't believe all the stuff they carry on these things.

Homes.

And laundry.

Businesses?

 

So, this is the road to our homestead for the week. It was very...rudimentary?

This is the wall around the home.

This was fruit growing right next to the steps up to our guesthouse. This is the Guyabano Fruit Tree. It grows on a tree about 8-20 feet tall. It also can be called a Soursop.

This is where we ate all our meals.

Our first meal.

Starting with the rice and around clockwise:
Rice and beans
goat
salad
Acra (it's fried yuka root and the finished product is Acra)
bread and butter
fresh mango
fresh passion fruit punch
It was all really good!

More tomorrow!