Safe and Sound



MSP crew....pre-coffee



Somehow we managed...with the bulk of the team meeting at MSP at 3:30am, Alli and myself making it in from DEN the day before, and Mike and Becky from PBI a few days before that, we all connected at MIA (which thankfully does not reflect anyone's status as of this evening's post-dinner count).  After decending through the clouds, and most of us seeing the Haitian landscape for the first time, I think we were all struck at the topography before us.  I certainly was not expecting mountains (sorry, but my middle school geography project was on Newfoundland and Nova Scotia), nor did I realize how desert-like it would be...but that is a story for another day.



Getting ready to board in MIA



Meeting up at MIA



I also did not expect the chaos at the Port-au-Prince airport.  Yet through the mass of bodies around the single luggage carousel, we were able to retrieve all of the bags (even the ones which had to be checked plane side despite the ample room onboard the plane).  It was amazing to see 20-something odd suitcases strewn about, each as intact as when they were packed.  Based on others' experiences, I was fully prepared to have to provide some sort of token to to the customs officials to make it out of customs with the balance of our items, but we managed not to endure any such silliness.  We are thankful for God's presence in our midst and granting us safe passage through what could have been a tremendously difficult situation.

We then proceeded to create a luggage train and made our way through the gauntlet of helpers, each more vociferous than the next.  Especially entertaining was the confrontation between our Haitian airport guide and a second, more aggressive helper...apparently the relatively few number of flights into PaP creates a rather competitive atmosphere between the luggage handlers.  At one point things seemed to slow down a bit as the two men shouted at each other as to whom was the leader of guiding our luggage train to the bus.

Getting ready for the luggage gauntlet

Is this one of ours?

 Thankfully calmer heads prevailed and we made it to the bus unharmed.  We then split up, 2/3rds in the bus and the rest in a pickup for a dusty ride to our accomodations.  After unloading, we celebrated our safe travels with delicious Haitian taco salad (basically taco meat, fixings, and tortilla chips, but so much better than Taco Bell) along with Prestige beer, Cokes, and limonade.  Our meal was completed with passing around a couple cartons of ice cream until they were no more (cause hey, no need to take up freezer space with ice cream).  We are grateful to God for his guiding hand in uniting us all to achieve His plan.  We are blessed to have made it with all of our gifts and packages for the Haitians, and can't wait to see what He has in store for us tomorrow. 



Giving thanks for a great day!