We're here! It has been the longest day of traveling. I only slept two hours last night and could not really sleep on the planes. My body feels so exhausted. We're staying at Heartline's guesthouse. It's really nice but there is no AC. Evidently no where in Haiti really has AC. Mosquitos get in so we sleep under nets. Sure enough, we weren't here ten minutes and I got bit three times. Seeing as to how much mosquitos are attracted to my sweet personality, and the fact that Troy Livesay has malaria.... I decided to take malaria pills.
Going from Miami's airport to Port Au Prince's is definitely a shock. No AC and no room for anyone. When we came out men kept trying to take our bags for us like everyone said they would. I thought this would be a big deal and I would feel really bad walking by everyone but I didn't because they were just really rude. I told one guy "no thanks" but he still put his hand on my stuff and tried to walk with me, so I just held on to my stuff and stopped walking and gave him a look. He left me alone. Another guy took Jordana's bags even with all her protesting. Then one man got mad that Jordana wouldn't pay him anything, but all he did was "stop" a car so we could cross. It was already stopped. Talking at supper with people here we all remembered that that sort of thing happens in New York and L.A. too. The short drive from the airport to the house was crazy. There's pretty much no rules with driving. The sidewalks were crowded with people and piles of trash and even goats. What struck me was that everyone we saw was actually dressed pretty nice- like babies had bows in their hair. I was expecting half naked kids everywhere, but I didn't see one. Evidently this is a "nicer" area. There were some vendors selling cool art work from what I could see. But you have to picture it under booths made of scrap material and all this surrounded by trash and pot holes. Still, nothing shocking yet. All the haitians on our flight were really friendly and helpful. I thought people might look down on us and resent americans but I didn't get that vibe. Melissa and Ryan run the guesthouse. They're from Minnesota and have been here a month now. They said they haven't gotten that vibe at all, however a terrified three year old yelled, "blan! blan!" at them in the grocery store the other day. They don't know what that was about. Now I'm going to go cool off in a cold shower. (No choice but cold.) Tomorrow we go to Port Au Prince Fellowship for church. It sounds like a lot of missionaries here go there. For now, please pray for the Livesay family. They have a lot going on without Troy getting malaria. We hope our time here can help ease some of their stress instead of giving them more to deal with.
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