Day One - Airport Friendships

My 16 year old son Nick and I arrived by ourselves in Haiti as we were on a different flight from the rest of the group.  The plan was to have someone pick us up and bring us to the guest house to wait for the other 10 to arrive at 4:00. We wound our way through to immigration, down to baggage claim and outside expecting to see the logo'd shirts of our drivers. Imagine looking out into a sea of people who are trying to get your attention, vying for your "business" all the while schlepping four huge suitcases and backpacks.  Unfortunately, our drivers, due to a scheduling mixup, were a no show. During the next four hours,  Nick and I were blessed to meet the most amazing men that took us under their wings, tried their best to help us out and watched over us to ensure we were safe and sound while we waited for either our ride to show up or the rest of our group to arrive on the later flight. I had a fair amount of anxiety but as the afternoon went on, we had made some pretty awesome connections with the Haitian airport workers.

With a sense of relief we were thrilled to have the rest of our group land in Haiti, and we joined them for the trek out to the Tap Tap (open air bus) for our ride to our new home away from  home, Healing Haiti's Guest House #2. The ride to the house was filled with overstimulation of every sense. Blaring horns of rush hour traffic. Vans, trucks, motorbikes all trying to fight their way to somewhere and no traffic lights wreaks havoc on traffic management. The roads littered with potholes, garbage, chickens and lined with people. Smells of fresh rain, food cooking, and the faint smell of flowers and sewage. Bright faced children running after us, waving and yelling "Alo!" Sensory overload times 10. 

After arriving at the Guest House and with our bellies full of a fantastic meal prepared for us, we met on the rooftop patio for a team meeting to discuss the plans for the day tomorrow. We will be working the water truck, delivering fresh water to Cite Soleil. With the fresh rain today, business may be less than usual for fresh water but there is no doubt we will have lines to serve.  

We will be providing basic medical care to those that need it, playing with children, helping carrying water buckets, and deliverying the backpacks we collected to Terra Promise, the school in Cite Soleil.  Our leaders warned us that we may get easily overwhelmed and encouraged us to step back when needed, but to know that the anticipated range of emotions we will experience is normal. I don't know what normal is here in Haiti. We are assured to find out tomorrow.

Sandy Zarembinski