This one by far tops it if you ask me. Although I am on a time crunch so the stories might not be as detailed!
First, let me start with a random topic. We had quenefe (no clue how to actually pronounce that) the other day for the first time. It looks like a little lime. It tastes pretty good, but the texture did me in. Right as I put it in my mouth Rachel Lermusik (with her ever helpful comments) stated that the texture felt like snot. Yup, that was the last one I had. Well, until we were in the jungle (which is a story that will come later in the post).
So, on Saturday we went to Port Au Prince with Pastor Millian. He really wanted to show us the palace that was destroyed in the earthquake. But, as always, nothing is as easy as just that. On our drive in, he told us that we needed to stop at a tire store to replace the tire that blew out last week. Made sense. The first place we stopped didn't have the right size or something, so we were on the road again. A little background of Port Au Prince: it is the dirtiest city I have ever been in. There literally was trash everywhere. And the people and drivers were so much pushier that Leogane or Careffour. SO there we are, driving through this dirty city when we pull up to the next tire store. This one at first glance looked much nicer than the other one. But we were in for a rude awakening. As we were sitting there, we noticed a guy holding a huge shot gun. And then another, and then another. Apparently they really don't want anyone stealing their tires. So there we are, sitting inside this tire store, that luckily had airconditioning with men walking around with shot guns. Talk about the beginning of a great adventure. So we decided to make "friends" with one of the workers. Well, we began to ask him what was taking so long. We had been there for atleast 45 minutes at this point. We told him that in America, they would give you a discount at this point. To which he replied "maybe it is taking so long because I like looking at you." So much for that one. Somehow all the guys tend to be creepy here. Well, about 30 minutes later they finally finished, and we all rushed to the car happy to be out of there.
On to adventure number 2 of the day. Pastor Millian took us to the palace. It was in the middle of the city, amongst all the other destroyed buildings. We were just driving, taking pictures out the window when all of a sudden, there it was on our left hand side. Out of no where. Right across from a tent city, just like the news showed. We asked if we could get out of the car, and he said yes. So we piled out, crossed the street and were trying to take pictures when all of a sudden all these kids were surrounding us. We are used to kids, but these ones were grabbing our hands and pulling on us and we didn't know them. I am pretty sure they were trying to hustle us, although the funny part about that is that we really didn't have anything with us. We were out there for less than 5 minutes before we all piled back into the car and were on our way to adventure number 3.
This is probably the least exciting one of the day, but none the less, I will include it. We had to go to some education something of the rather to get some paper signed or something. This is how detailed Pastor Millian's instructions to us are. But we are good little children and just follow. So there we are, sitting outside some building with yet again, creepy men staring at us. This time, there are about 8. Although they are completely harmless, we are still creeped out and holding on very tightly to our backpacks. Which really isn't a big deal, I am used to it from Europe. We have locks on them, and we hold them on the front etc., but add in the heat and the humidity, and it is not a fun combination.
Moving on to adventure number 4. The last post I mentioned meeting that group from San Diego, and that we wanted to meet up with them and help them at the orphange. Well, Pastor Millian called them to see what they were doing, and it is a good thing he did, they were on their way to the beach. We were all so bummed because we were so excited that we would get to go and do some physical labor. Well, we talked Pastor Millian into taking us out there just to see it anyways. Secretly I think we were all hoping to do some work while we were there. On the way he asked if we would like to stop for a soda along the way. Oh, back tracking to the morning, we had spaghetti for breakfast. Which is one of the best things they have yet to give us for breakfast, but none-the-less, not really something any of us wanted for breakfast. So we are all pretty hungry at this point, so we all quickly said yes. So we pull over to the side of the road to get these sodas and to get out of the boiling car. As we are sitting there on the side of the road, with cows surrounding us, but this tv built into some brick structure that if I do say so myself, was rather impressive. So anyways, we are sitting there drinking our pops, when we decided to hand out some of the bracelets we had brought along with us. Not only the kids love these, but the teenagers and adults as well. When, this group of Americans drove up and asked us what we were doing? They asked us if we would like to go with them to put roofs on a couple of houses. Pastor Millian knew them, so he agreed to let us go with them. So we climbed into the back of the truck and were on our way. None of us really knew what we were in for at this point. Had someone told me that we were headed into the "jungle" of Haiti, I probably would have asked to stay with Pastor Millian. But I guess the saying ignorance is bliss worked out well in this case. So we were off. Up hills, down back roads, literally into the middle of no where to put roofs on these prebuilt structures of houses. Samaritans Purse put this on. They send out a crew to build the structure. Then a crew goes and puts on the roof. And then a crew finishes by wrapping it with a tarp. It is a really amazing program if you ask me. And there is even more to it that I can't cover in this post. So anyways, after we put the roof on, we gathered the family inside and prayed with them. I didn't know that the group we went with was even Christians, so it was a blessing. We ended up getting to roof 4 houses. We were supposed to do 5, but the tin wasn't at the 5th one. Adrienne is a beast up there on the roof in case any of you were wondering! Oh, and while we were out there in the jungle they picked us some more of that fruit and kept offering it to us. I ate 1, trying not to gag, but the rest of the girls ate a lot of it.
Now for adventure number 5. The scariest of them all. So, we are driving home. And there is a lot of traffic. It is this 2ish lane road. Lots of pot holes and annoying speed bumps that are not normal speed bumps. So, we are sitting there, and all of these cars decide to speed around us into on coming traffic to try and go around us. This is frustrating to us because they obviously havce to get back over to our side of the road which means that somewhere up the road thy are cutting us off. But not only that, it is plain stupid. So there we are, sitting at a dead stop, watching cars speed around us. When all of a sudden, we see this jeepish car driuve by, Pastor Millian says "oh no," and they slam on their brakes. As they were slamming on their brakes attempting to not hit the girl who was crossing the street, a girl flies out of the back of the car. So not only does the driver hit a girl, one of his passengers flies out the back. I don't think he knew this because he tried to back up at first, and then he tried to drive away. Well, meanwhile a mob was starting to form around his car. I think people were mad that he obviously hit the girl, but because he was driving on the wrong side of the street. Oh, and this whole bad driving thing is not uncommon. So, the police luckily were right there, and what do they do, they write the driver a TICKET! That's it, a ticket! Talk about ridiculous.
Adventure number 6. We came home, after this long day of events and working, hardly having had breakfast, not having had lunch, having sat in a hot car for 2 hours of traffic rather than the 30 minutes it should have taken, to be told that Gustav never told the kitchen that we weren't going to be there for lunch, and to make us dinner instead. So, they made us lunch at 3, and kept telling us that. They graciously reopened the kitchen which was cleaned and everything was put away to feed us. Not that we weren't trying to be very thankful for everything they were doing, but they brought up licorice root flavored cream of wheat. YUCK! We tried to eat it. Most of us could not stomache it. Which is when Adrienne remembered that we had top ramen (which we had been eating raw). SO we came up wit ha plot of how to get warm water and not offend them. We told them that because we were sick we wanted to make tea. Well, the amount of water you need for tea vs. top ramen is quite different. But crunchy top ramen is by far better than licorice flavored cream of wheat. So we ate our half cooked top ramen.
So today, Sunday was a good day. But very hot. We went back to what we fondly refer to as the tent of doom. But we were smart this week and came up with crafts that didn't require much of us. So it was a much better day. Only to come home and be teased by 10 minutes of air conditioning again to have the power turned off. Oh, did I mention we don't eat breakfast on Sundays because we get picked up so early? So we are hungry and sweaty. To be told that lunch would be ready in 2 minutes. Some 20 + minutes later we feasted on rice and beans, chicken and mango. YUM! What a great end to a day. Now we are off to go and prep the VBS for tomorrow and to sort through all of our donations. It should be a really good night!
Love you all, and thanks once again for all your prayers. I can hardly wait to get home and share all of the photos and videos with you and to tell all these stories in so much more detail!
