Hey, guess who? It’s Brian again. I am really hoping this will be the last blog I do on this trip. It’s not that the rest of the team is apathetic; they simply want to have something more exciting to write about than travel woes, and I can’t blame them.

So today we all got up and had Patrick’s delicious scrambled eggs and potatoes for breakfast. Then we loaded the van and bid farewell to our new friends Patrick and Vivian, and the Matthew 25 House. It was a blessing to have discovered their hospitality. I think Pastor Fran said it best when he told Vivian, “I pray that we see each other again, but I also pray that it’s not again tonight”.

Last night around the dinner table, we determined the order of our departure should any standby seats open up on the early flight to Jeremie. Steve will go first so he can fix the starter in the truck. He will also need to be there to drive anybody else out to Marfranc. Andrew will go second. He is an electrician and his skills are needed to get the house ready for Steve and Joline to move into. I will go third, since I will only be here until Saturday, and I will be helping Steve with the welding. Thom will go fourth, since he will only be here until Saturday. John will go fifth, since he has never been to Haiti before, but he will be here until Tuesday. Fran will go last, since he has been to Marfranc more times than any of us, and can handle being in Port-au-Prince by himself just fine.

It turned out that this morning, we were first on the standby list, and three seats opened up on the 7:30 flight. So Steve, Andrew and I flew out. Pastor Dave (a friend of Steve and Joline’s here) picked us up at the Jeremie airport. We met up with Joline at the house and immediately set about trying to get the Dodge diesel truck started. We ended up having to jump start it by pushing it down the driveway. This is the only way the truck will currently start.

We loaded the big 300 gallon water tank into the back of the truck and took it down the bumpy road to Marfranc. We were amazed to see evidence of how high the river rose during the recent hurricanes. At two points, you could see where the water was above the road, which is several feet above the river’s normal level. It was good to see that most of the cane crop was undamaged.

We dropped off the water tank at Kay Bo Rivye (house by the river), and checked out its progress. This was the first time I had actually been inside the house. When I was here in July, they were pouring the concrete roof, so the entire interior was filled with support sticks and was impassable. Most of the interior and exterior walls are finished. The smooth, colored concrete floor is done in the master bedroom, bath, and closet. Before the Moore’s can move in, the rest of the griyaj (secure window coverings) will need to be welded, painted, and installed; the electrical system will need to be complete enough to live out of, and likewise with the plumbing. Andrew organized the electrical supplies while the rest of us organized the griyaj parts.

Todd, who had spent the day photographing Jeremie and Marfranc with Vilex, joined us right about noon. Joline then took Todd and I to the caretaker’s house to see her new baby. We got some good photos and video there, and then had a fun camera opportunity with a bunch of boys who were jumping a good fifteen feet into the river below. We grabbed a quick lunch of beef stick and cheese sandwiches, packed up, and headed back to Jeremie.

Andrew and I rode in the back of the truck, in spite of the threatening skies. We took on a little refreshing rain, and then had clear skies for most of the trip back.

Shortly after we returned to the house, Joline received a phone call from Tortug’ Air that the rest of our luggage had arrived in Jeremie and was ready to be picked up at the office. This strucj all of us as odd, since they only have two flights from Port-au-Prince to Jeremie, and the second one wasn’t due to arrive for another hour or so. They apparently made an unscheduled flight. We did notice that they had a huge backlog of checked bags in Port, so they may have just flown one cargo flight—we’re not sure whether or not there were any passengers on this flight. Regardless, we were VERY glad to see all of our bags arrive intact.

We had barely gotten back to the Moore’s house when Steve had to turn around and go pick up the rest of the team at the Jeremie airport. When they returned, we all unwound a bit, had a good Haitian meal cooked by Ertude, and then started planning for tomorrow, and this is where things started getting fun.

Andrew was asking Joline what all needed to be done before they could move in, and how long—realistically—she thought it would take. She said she thought they could be actually moving into the new house within a week or two, assuming everything was completed. Andrew then suggested that he and anybody else interested be allowed to stay out there for the night tomorrow to extend our work hours significantly. Thom and I initially volunteered, and when we called everybody else together to discuss this, John also threw his arm in the air.

So tomorrow, Steve will leave early to pick up 20 bags of cement. We will then all pile into the truck for the trip to Marfranc. At 3 o’clock, everybody else will depart, while the three of us overnighters (Fran has said he is considering staying out there, too) will continue working. We will be bringing out cots with air mattresses, plenty of non-perishable foods, water, a kerosene lantern, and the other things necessary for an overnight trip. I won’t get into any more of the details now, because somebody will likely be blogging about this tomorrow night.

Please be aware though, that tomorrow night’s blog will not appear until Friday at the earliest due to the lack of Internet access in Marfranc.

That’s it for now. Please pray for a fruitful work day tomorrow, and also for our safety as we overnight in the new house. And as always, please keep the Haitians in your prayers as they collectively struggle to climb out of crippling poverty.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Just a quick update. First of all, sorry that I'm the only one blogging so far. That should change once we all get to Jeremie and actually have some better stories to tell.

Second, sorry for the late postings of these blog entries. We have Internet access at the guest house, but not at the airport. But when we've been at the guest house, we've been spending time visiting and planning our next moves. And once this time is over, we go back to our rooms and crash. Since we're all sharing rooms, I haven't had the opportunity to keep a light on to push these out. Again, this should change and we should have nightly updates once we get to Jeremie.

The current status is this: Joline and Todd are in Jeremie. They had some challenges getting house back into living condition (generator, water), but I think everything is up and running there now. Out of the four bags that Joline and Todd checked, only the cooler with frozen food made it with them. We had to haggle with Tortug' Air this afternoon to get two of the remaining three items on the 3:00 plane to Jeremie. One of those two had a frozen ham in it, so now all the perishables are safely in Jeremie. Joline's one carry-on bag is still here in Port. Tortug' did allow us to keep the rest of our checked bags there at the airport tonight, where they were locked up in their storage depot.

Steve, Fran, Thom, Andrew, John, and I (Brian) are back at the Matthew 25 House. When we got back here from the airport, the adjacent soccer field and basketball court that are both run by the same organization that runs the Matthew 25 House were abuzz with activity. John donned his gym shoes and joined the basketball players in their warm-ups and then was picked for a team. Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice Haitian dinner, planned our day for tomorrow, did a little star gazing in the clear skies between the thunderstorms on the north and south horizons, and then we all went back to our rooms. Since John is sleeping on the roof again tonight, and Todd is now in Jeremie, I told Andrew he could have one of the beds in “my” room. He came in and we have been working on our laptops for a while. A little bit ago he stopped to tend his cough (he has a cold right now). He is now snoring on his bed with his laptop still open at the foot of his bed.

As far as tomorrow goes, we will all arise at 5:00 and go to the airport to see if we can get Steve and Andrew off to Jeremie standby on the early flight. We have eight confirmed seats on the afternoon flight, so by evening, one way or another, we will all be in Jeremie.

One of us will blog again tomorrow night.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

We woke up at 5:00 this morning. Maybe I should clarify. We got our of bed at 5 o'clock this morning. Several dozen dogs and countless roosters made sure we were awake well before then. Patrick had breakfast ready for us at 5:30 (pancakes—mmmmm), then we packed up and headed for Aérogare Guy Malary, better known as the small airport at Port-au-Prince.

Once here, we were met at the gate by a couple Haitian men who rushed the van and greeted Steve through the window, saying “I know you, I know you!” They wanted to carry our luggage for us to get tips. Steve replied, “Well I don't know you!” So the men, who were still running next to the van at this point, quickly adjusted their game and looked toward Patrick, who was driving, and said, “No, the driver, the driver. We know the driver!”

I don't even know who ended up handling our bags or how much they got paid, if any at all. That's one thing you have to be careful of in Haiti. At the airport, the baggage handlers will try a variety of tricks to get your money. When I was here in July, I had several one dollar bills ready to give out to the many men who helped us with our bags. One of the men stuck his hand in the van and said, in rough English, “I take it, thank you”. I told him it was for tout moun—everybody. He nodded his head and said OK, and as quickly as I handed it to him, he closed his fist tight and shoved the concealed bills into his pocket and walked away. When the next man stuck his hand in the window, I told him that the first man had his money. I will never again hand all the tip money to one man.

So once inside, Joline got into line at the Tortug' Air counter to get us on the standby list. There were two people on the list ahead of her. As it got closer to the time to leave, she went back up to the counter and asked if there was room for anybody. The lady told her no.

“There's no room for anybody?”, Joline asked.

“No”

“What about just one?”

“Just one? Okay”, she said.

Joline asked if there was room for one more and was told no. After a few more minutes she went back to the counter and somehow came back with tickets for her and Todd.

So that's where we stand right now. Joline and Todd have gone to Jeremie.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

I’m writing this from the roof of the Matthew 25 House in Port-au-Prince. The skies are dark, the stars are bright, and there is a nice breeze that can occasionally even properly be called a wind. It is a very beautiful night her in Port. The grid power has been turned on for the night, which means the neighbor here has power to begin welding for the night. So the night sky is occasionally accented by lightning-like flashes that light up the nearby trees to an almost white color. The sound of the arc welding is accompanied by a constant melody of crickets, the occasional dog bark, and—believe it or not—a rooster. Andrew was up here with me a few minutes ago when the rooster started, and his theory is that the rooster crows when the lights turn on for the night, confusing it for the sun. Sounds like a solid theory to me.

Our travel day yesterday went fine. Those of us from the Plainfield area (Fran, Thom, Andrew, Todd, and me) got to O’Hare and met John, who flew in from Columbus, Ohio. We grabbed some lunch and boarded our American Airlines flight to Miami. That was a bumpy ride. A short burst of pretty heavy turbulence early on, and then another short round of the same as we descended through a thunderstorm to land in Miami. We were no worst for the wear.

At the Miami airport, we collected our 11 checked bags, which included 5 bins. During previous trips, we had heard that there was a way to leave our bins at the airport overnight instead of having to haul them all to the hotel and then back again the next morning. So while we collected our luggage, Thom found a woman who worked in the baggage department. He persuaded her and another baggage handler to come over and process the bins to be immediately checked to Port. Not sure how that happened. I think it involved checking them on an earlier flight than the one we would be on. It was a huge relief to not have to try to transport all those bins to the hotel.

Once we got to the hotel, we checked in, had dinner at Denny’s, then went back to our rooms and crashed for the night.

This morning, we were up at 6 AM Eastern Time to catch the 7 AM airport shuttle. We got through security in fine time and navigated the Miami airport maze to Gate D44 where we met up with Steve and Joline. They had flown all night in from Los Angeles, and when we got to them, Joline was sleeping on Steve’s shoulder. Turns out they had a crying baby near them on the plane that prevented them from getting any sleep. While we were enjoying our leisurely breakfast, we all suddenly started reaching for our ringing and vibrating cells phones; we were all receiving simultaneous updates from American Airlines. It was the first of two gate change announcements we would receive throughout the day. After breakfast, we meandered to Gate D40 to await our 10:25 AM flight to Port-au-Prince. And this is where things started to go awry.

Over the next three hours, we received four separate flight delay announcements due to equipment problems. We were okay until the final announcement put our departure time at 3:00 PM, arriving in Port-au-Prince at 4:16. Our connecting flight to Jeremie was scheduled to depart at 3:00.

Knowing that we would miss our flight to Jeremie, Joline formulated Plan B and called Velix to have him make the series of calls necessary to alert everybody of our changed plans. American was giving out $10 meal vouchers, so we all went ot the counter and got those.

That was a fun little side note. Before the meal vouchers were announced, we had all already bought sandwiches to eat in Port, so with $10 to spend, we had a little fun. I bought a cheese Danish, brownie, water bottle, and banana. When the total rang up to only eight dollars and some change, I threw in a cookie. Nine thirty eight. I proudly stepped aside as everybody behind nodded in approval of my effort to maximize what I got from my voucher. Then Joline stepped up. Her total came to just under $8. She threw in 2 cookies and brought her total to $9.93. We all whooped it up for her as she quickly took the crown for most efficient voucher spender. Fran went to get a cup of coffee, but not wanting to waste an entire voucher on just one cup of joe, he bought the coffee with his own money and then went and spent his whole $10 voucher on cookies! When he got back to the gate area and announced his bounty, Thom said, “I thought you were going to cut back on carbs while you were in Haiti”.

To which Fran immediately shot back, “I did. But we’re not in Haiti!”

We all were willing accomplices in consuming the cookies.

Our plane loaded up and left for Port fine this time, and we landed at about 4:20 Haiti Time (which is currently the same as Central Time in the US). It took us a while to collect our cooler (containing some of the meals for the week) and Steve and Joline’s checked bags. The bins were indeed waiting there for us from an earlier flight.

Patrick, a volunteer at Matthew 25, picked us up. We squeezed all of our bins and bags and bodies into the van and headed up the road. John ended up sitting on his bags. Most of the rest of us had bags on our laps. Todd tried to take some photos on the way, but it was just getting too dark to take very good shots on the bumpy streets.

Vivian and Sister Mary greeted us at the Matthew 25 House, which is very nice. It has a nice front porch, a big kitchen, a dining room, and a gift shop downstairs. In the back area are couple of guest rooms. Upstairs on the roof are four more guest rooms and a bathroom. The upstairs rooms are all very airy, so we all piled into those rooms.

Patrick made dinner for us; we had a very nice meal of spaghetti. After dinner, we washed our plates, shopped, and visited on the roof.

All in all, it was a good day. Yes, it’s a little frustrating to be stranded in Port again, but it was very nice to meet our new friends and find a new place to stay in Port at Matthew 25 House. I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow has in store for us. Please pray that we all make it to Jeremie tomorrow one way or another.