We're here!
The plane rides were long and annoying. I confess, around the time of our flight from Miami to Port Au Prince, I began thinking, "I don't want to do this! This is nuts! I could turn around right now!" but as soon as we landed and got off the plane those thoughts all melted away.
Reggi, a Haitian whom we met on our last trip, was just outside of customs waiting for us. I didn't quite recognize him till he smiled. Reggi works at the airport and has been "hired" by Foursquare to pick up teams that are coming in and get them to the staff that are there to pick them up. If that doesn't make sense, once you come out of customs after picking up your checked luggage, you come out of the airport building into a fenced area where tons of Haitian guys are waiting to offer you taxi's or to carry your things for money and they're relentless! Then you walk down a long covered pathway to the parking lot. It's great that the base has Reggi to go and help people get through the chaos to where they need to go.
We got to the base, unpacked, and had some orientations to the base camp.
Today we talked with Mark, and it looks like Stephen and I will both be facilitating teams, which will be fun! Our first teams come in on Saturday. As facilitators, it will be our job to instruct the teams on what they will be doing, where they will be going, and making sure they have the tools they need during their stay. We are responsible for casting the vision for the project the team will be working on, and it's long term impact for the Haitian people.
A big element of being a facilitator is driving the team to and from wherever the project is. That means I have to not only learn to drive manual, but in crazy traffic on barely paved roads!
Today Aaron, one of the other facilitators who's been here for over a year, took me around the back roads by the church and I drove around for a while. I was laughing hysterically, and so where all the Haitians standing in the road watching, as I stalled it over and over again, until finally I started to get the hang of it and drove around for a while. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon.
I'm at a loss on how to end this post so I'll say this, "pa gen pwoblem - (pah geh pwoe-blem)" which means, "No problem" in Creole. :)
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