This trip was Olivia's first experience being in a large airplane (and large airports), and her first time out of country. She had a window seat in each plane and I enjoyed watching her experience so many firsts. The twelve us us flew out from Reagan National in DC early on July 4. We had a lay over in Orlando and met up with the last two members of our team, they had flown in from California. We arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti late in the afternoon on July 4. It didn't take long to get to where we were staying from the airport.
We spent our first evening getting settled. Our focus this trip, in addition to ministering, was to host volleyball clinics at three different orphanages in Haiti. While the rest of the team went to the nearby market to pick up supplies, Olivia and I stayed behind and got things ready for the next day. We inflated volleyballs and beach balls, got the volleyball net and cones gathered up and made sure we had everything in one central location to load.
Once the team was back, we had our fist Haitian meal (beans, rice and goat) as a group. We had a group devotional and then had the evening to relax. The guest house we stayed at had a wonderful, guitar shaped pool out back, so that's where we all headed.
Thankfully, the place we were staying has added air conditioning to several of the rooms. The 6 bunk room that Olivia and I were in was one with AC. Our shower didn't work, so the 14 of us shared the two remaining showers. A cold shower in Haiti in July is a wonderful thing!
Day 1 was pretty low key. Don't let that fool you, in less than 48 hours everything changes.
Oh I bet that A/C was a life saver in July.
ReplyDeleteIt was lovely. Although, the heat is different there than here, it's not as humid or something.
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