We arrived!!

No problems at all with the flights. Layover in Miami was interesting...lots of people watching.

Arrival in Port au Prince (PAP) was chaotic. Getting luggage was interesting and thankfully all of our bags showed up. As soon as you walk outside, you are met with a lot of men trying to "help". We had quite a few start arguing over who was going to help us. It was pretty much what I expected though having traveled out of the country before.

We loaded the luggage onto a tap tap (truck with rails on the bed used as a taxi) and followed in the van. Two people rode the tap tap to get anyone from jumping on and taking our bags. Going through the city was much worse than I had anticipated. There were people everywhere, sometimes what looked like mobs completely lining the streets. The roads were huge holes basically. You came out of one and hit another. We saw families with young children on the side of the road with small pans of water, completely naked by the way, bathing.

It started getting dark while we were still in the city so I didn't get alot of pictures today. As it was getting dark, the people started building small fires we assume to cook on. It definitely isn't cool enough to need a fire for warmth, at least not to me!!

I saw quite a few roaming cows, dogs, and pigs all in trash piles looking for food. The trash is unbelievable. Never seen anything like it.

Our house is about a 20 min ride (of course that is on really bad roads) from PAP in Titayen (the city of the mass graves). We went through 2 security gates to get in and we are surrounded by wire on the bottoms and tops of the fence and several guards with AK 47. Immediately when we got in we had to wash our hands in water with clorox. We also had to rinse our shoes and leave them outside to dry.

During orientation I found out there are tarantuals here. I even learned how to get them out of their holes. I'll definitely be getting pictures before I run away!!

Accomodations are a little better than I had expected. Small house packed into rooms, lots of stepping over stuff but this isn't exactly the Hilton. Curtis and Joyce Thrift (worked with them in Gulfport twice before) are our hosts and cook our meals. We had a great meal of chicken pie, left over beef stew (they said it had rat meat in it while teasing me), green beans, and some cake. We spent last night sorting over 900 dresses that will be delivered to an orphanage along with some little boy clothes too. The medical team sorted alot of medicine as well.

I have a family practice doctor, thoracic surgeon, ER doctor, medical student, 2 Haitian doctors, an x-ray tech, paramedic, and several nurses in the house with me. No worries about getting injured and not having care here!!

That's all for now. Internet is extremely slow in the evenings with everyone trying to email so I may have to get up early and do most of my updating.

Love to all