Day One of Trip Two

I'm writing this from my Blackberry, as I will all of the posts from here in Haiti.

The day was long and actually started sometime yesterday at home as I packed up the rest of my things (and mostly donated things). I checked an additional bag and found out that my flight from LAX to MIA had been rescheduled, instead of leaving LAX around 7 pm, we'd now be leaving at midnight. Our flight, that meant wouldn't be arriving in Port-au-Prince until around noon today.

That complicated things for everyone but Abby and me. Poor Darla, a nurse practitioner from New Brunswick, expected to find Abby and me waiting for her in the baggage claim. We were supposed to be there an hour before her, but instead we ended up arriving an hour after her. Darla still managed to find the driver and waited for us after contacting the mission and expertly navigated the chaotic and intimidating airport international arrival gate.

I met a Haitian born New Yorker on my flight from MIA to PAP who was travelling with his wife to visit his family. He asked me why I was going to Haiti, I told him, then, as if screening those who were about to serve his country, he asked "you have Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?"

I told him I did, we acknowledged our brotherhood and just chatted like we'd grown up in the same neighborhood for the rest of the flight.

The airport was chaotic as usual. Tee, Abby and I couldn't find our luggage for the longest time. As I was shouting to tell Abby over the cavenous cement block terminal echoing with the voices of hundreds of fellow passengers also baffled by the disappearance of their luggage, I heard some yell, "are you Zach?" I spun around and didnkt see anyone at first but definitely didn't recognize the voice.

Then suddenly in front of me was the visibly relieved NP, Darla. I introduced the three of us to her and went on the hunt for our bags. We finally found them and fought through the crowd of much too assertive "helpers" who thought the deserved 20 dollar tips for trying to rip my bags from my hands repeatedly as I walked a half mile to the awaiting SUV.

Abby held her own, although visibly intimidated by the experience. I did my best to laugh about it as they harrassed us all the way to the truck and rolled my eyes at the "helpers". They were, in fact, just trying to help, kind of...

The long drive (less then 30 miles that takes about 2 hours) to Fermathe revealed some progress in clean-up of the rubble from the earthquake but not as much construction as I hoped.

We stopped to get some cereal on the way to the mission at a Grocery store, then our driver, Wilson, stopped to give some bread to a woman walking down the road with about 20 kids in tow. Maybe a teacher?

Arriving at the BHM, Dr. Sorg was somewhat suprised to see me and Abby. Our introductions were short and we went straight to work sorting and classing meds taking only a short break to walk around the mission and have some Tuna caserole provided by one of the full-time missionaries here.

We talked about our plans for the week and Abby set out to completely re-organize and re-label the formulary (we were all pretty impressed) as the rest of us counted out children's vitamins.

We're all pretty much exhausted and excited to start the day tomorrow with more work on the pharmacy, a chapel service and a Bible study with the full-time staff here.

At this point, I'm just beat and I don't have the strength or energy to nail out the week's worth of encounters we had in the last 9 hours. Its tough to have to pick and choose which experiences to write about because, I know that the one's that I don't will fade from memory. Its like when you meet someone while waiting in line for a booth at a restaraunt or are seated next to someone at a wedding reception and you hit it off. You think, "man, we could really be friends with this couple!" Then their name gets called for their booth or they have to leave early to pick kids up from the sitters and you never see them again. Yeah, these memories are like that. Ah well, se la vie.

Well, its pouring down rain outside and I need a shower, BAD! More updates tomorrow, so check back.

Zach
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