Haitian Diaries: Arrival

Monday, March 26, 2007
Our team arrived at Port-au-Prince at 7:30AM. When I got off the plane, it was like being back in Freetown, Sierra Leone, except it was at night back then. The airport in Freetown was quite chaotic compared to the one here. It was bigger and cleaner, and no one was shouting to get your attention to be your "guide." The road outside seemed cleaner than Freetown, but it's still quite a mess. I was surprised that no one solicited us when we made stops near the airport. Many of the team members were complaining about the car pollution, but I almost didn't notice. I suppose I had gotten used to it in Kenya.

The House of Love, which is where we're staying, is only about 15 minutes from the airport. The orphans and the Bible college students that are training there can speak and understand some Korean, which surprised me. People called the lady pastor (Pastor Baek) who runs the place "mok-sa-nim" ("pastor" in Korean), and kids around the village called everyone one of us "mok-sa-nim," probably because Pastor Baek had ministered to these kids.

We went to a place called Fontain, where Pastor Baek is building a new orphanage. There were about 30-40 kids around, and we made them balloon figures (I made dogs and flowers most of the time) and gave them some bread.

Afterwards, we went to a clothing factory (called Willbes) run by Koreans. It was mainly to meet some of the managers there. It was quite interesting to see how they mass produced these shirts destined for Target in the US.

The kids here at the orphanage are so adorable. I just wish I could speak more French/Creole. I picked one up knowing that I would have to pick up every single one after that, but it was worth it. I love kids. I've started practicing my French with some of the students. They're pretty cool. Some of them are around my age and speak bits and pieces of Anglais. Must practice. I want to be fluent in French and Creole before I return to the States.

Tomorrow we start the clinic. Getting up at 4:30AM for early morning prayer. The electricity here is very scarce. I hear that they get 2 hours a day on average. I thought it was a scheduled 2 hours, but apparently it's kind of random when it will be on. I only have 25min left on my laptop battery, so I suppose I'll just have to leave it plugged in tomorrow and hope that it gets charged sometime during the day (and not get blown up during the process).