Bonjou Haiti!!!

The past 24 hours have gone by so quickly. Where to start? I guess the best place to start is at the beginning!

Yesterday we woke up at 4:00 am to get to the airport for our 7am flight. We ran into a slight ticketing issue with some visas, etc but got it all solved and the dog checked in. HUGE relief to get the dog checked in because American Airlines won’t take animals if the temperature is either below 20 degrees F or above 85 degrees F on any part of the journey. Thankfully Indiana weather cooperated and stayed above 20 and Miami and Port-au-Prince cooperated by having forecasted highs under the limit... phew! Although we got to the airport about 2 hours before our flight, after the checking in and special TSA screening for the dog, we literally had to RUN to our flight. We flew through security by going thru the family line (which you have to ask for before they let you go that way) and our TSA agent led us right up to the metal detector. Thankfully there were not chosen for body scanning or the “enhanced” pat down. As we sprinted up to the gate, the doors closed right behind us. We said goodbye to Indiana and enjoyed a view of the snow covered landscape as we headed upward and toward Miami.

The flight was uneventful but tiring. Has anyone ever flown with a squirrelly 2 year old and spent 3 hours trying to keep him from kicking the seat in front of them and keep them sitting down? If you haven’t, lets just say its pretty rough. Layover in Miami was a good 4 hours and uneventful. We ended up sitting on the plane at the gate for an hour waiting on some maintenance log, whatever that is!? No problems on the flight after that. Once we arrived in Port au Prince we got off the airplane and then I realized I left the customs form in the seat pocket on the plane. Oh well, surely they will have more in the airport right? Wrong. We couldn’t find another one or anyone who knew where one was. Oh well, turned out they never asked for it anyway. Not only that, but some woman handing out the other forms we needed decided we were a special case and took us in a room where we could all sit down while we went through immigration. I guess 3 kids paid off that time.

We waited for our luggage. And waitied, and waited. It never came. Correction... the dog and one bag came...the one containing surprise Christmas presents. But not the rest. Then Aaron stood in line at the luggage counter while I watched the kids, changed a dirty diaper, took Syd to the bathroom.. twice, and tried to figure out what the customs guy wanted to know about our dog. He didn’t speak English, I don’t speak Creole. Luckily our friend Steve is down here for the week and worked his way into the airport to find us and help me out! The whole time the guy wanted to see proof of Kofe’s rabies vaccine which I had already shown him but he couldn’t read it because it was in English. We were literally the last people in the airport. They even turned out the lights as we left. Thank goodness for Steve or we may still be there! So we loaded up the truck and headed to Pastor Pierre’s house. It was only 7 by the time we got there, but it seemed much later.

Kacie and Aubree had set up our guest room (even with M&M’s on the pillows) and a huge welcome sign! It was awesome and made us feel right at home! It was a pretty uneventful night and we turned in pretty early. This morning we woke up early (it gets light sooo early) and ate some breakfast before heading out to Chambrun. Once in Chambrun, we walked around and checked out some of the new campus building going on and attended church. When we walked in to church every eye was staring at us (which isn’t rude in the Haitian culture). We had to go up on stage and introduce ourselves. Sitota grabbed the mic and yelled out a huge “HI” which got the whole crowd laughing. Leave it up to him to provide comic relief! The kids were a HUGE hit. All the Haitian kids wanted to touch/play with Isabel and Syd. Isabel was really into it but Syd got quite overwhelmed. That surprised us...we would have bet it would be the opposite. It was fun to watch Sitota running around as he was making himself right at home. I got to help prepare lunch (thanks Cooper!) by making green bean casserole and chocolate oatmeal cookies. Well, really it was mostly Isabel, Syd, and Lemi who made the cookies. It was like Thanksgiving! We had roasted chicken, Stove Top stuffing, and green bean casserole for lunch. YUM! After lunch we walked around the campus to look at our future house (which should be finished in February) and a temporary house we should move in to by the end of this week (pray everything goes well this week).

Overall its been a great 24 hours. Not to brag (well, maybe just a little), but the weather is PERFECT! Beautiful sunny blue skies with a nice gentle breeze. It is the perfect Caribbean weather!

After lunch, Aaron dropped the family off at Pierre’s house and made the airport run to fetch our bags. They all made it!! Praise to God. And we were also able to deliver a package we were carrying for a young lady who is here from Ft. Wayne. Lemi made a new friend in Kofe. He pretty much ran him until his tongue was hanging on the ground. Kofe is doing well, in case you were wondering (maybe the Gibbs, that’s all).

After some dinner, we gave cold baths (Isabel is NOT a fan), took the weekly dose of anti-malaria meds, and the kids are now snug in bed. All things considered, the kids have done AMAZING. We have pushed them very hard, and they have done amazing! We are so proud so far.

One last shout out for Steve Clark. Steve is here to help us this week, and he has been awesome to have so far. We are hoping to get our housing situated out in Chambrun this week, and Steve is going to be a huge piece of getting that done. Big thanks to Steve.

More to come (I wanted to load pictures but can't for some reason... will try again tomorrow). Thanks to everyone who is following the blog and praying!