Arrival

Sunday, June 15, 10:00PM, Haiti Time

Layover at Miami couldn't be easier. The gate I got off and the gate I got on where only about 30 yards apart, and I arrived a few minutes before boarding time, so everything happened as planned.

When I arrived at Port-au-Prince, a cab driver called Nadar was supposed to meet me and take me to the domestic flight terminal. I was to hold up a sign that says "OMS" and he would know that it's me. Everything went as planned... except that Nadar didn't show up.

So I had to talk to a random chauffeur who told me he knows Nadar, but he usually doesn't work on Sundays because he goes to church. I borrowed his phone to call Gavin (the Irish doctor with whom I'll be working), and Gavin told me that Nadar had called to let him know that he won't be able to make it. Great. So I just went with the random chauffeur to the domestic flight terminal. The ride took about 15 minutes, and I arrived at the terminal around 8:45AM.

Nadar was also supposed to have reserved a ticket to Cap-Haitien for me, but since he never showed up, I didn't have a reservation. Incidentally, I ran into two missionaries from OMS Cap-Haitien who were visiting P-au-P and flying back today. They were hoping to get a ride on the 9:00AM flight. Since I didn't have a reservation, the ticket lady said the earliest available flight is 1:30PM... Well, what else could I do? So I just said I'll take the earliest flight. Then just as she was making the ticket for me they opened up a spot on the 9:00AM flight, so I got on 5 minutes before it took off.

The two missionaries I met at P-au-P who were on the plane with me were Amy and Julie. Amy is an RN from Canada, and Julie is a physiotherapist (physical therapist in US English) from Ireland. So I'll be working with them as well. It was really nice to meet them at the airport since I was getting nervous about the fact that Nadar didn't show up.

Gavin met all of us at the airport. He had come to pick me up, but he didn't know Amy and Julie were coming as well. Anyhow we all got a ride to the OMS compound together, everything turned out to work really well.

After lunch I took a nap and had dinner with some of short-term missionary team members. They are medical volunteers from all over the US, mostly college aged. Among them were Tim (lab professor and leader of the group), Christina (sp? Tim's daughter), Mary (lab technician) Anna and her sister Carly, Beth, Emily, We were also joined by Junius (a Haitian-American doctor who is staying in the same building as Tim and I) and Laura (med student from Ireland). It was a lot of fun talking with them, and it was a very relaxing evening. I'll talk more about them later since it's getting late.

I don't have access to internet right now, so I'll probably post this tomorrow, hopefully. I'm pretty impressed that they have electricity for most of the day. It went out just as I started writing this entry, but it seems like I won't have to worry much about keeping my laptop charged.

Thank God for a day of safe travel!