Day Five in Haiti - Port-au-Prince (1/9/10)

Our plan for today was to wake up at 7 AM, eat breakfast, meet Erick, drive up to Petionville (a ritzy suburb of Port-au-Prince), stop by an ATM to reload, and then take a three-hour bus ride down to Jacmel. Well, between last night at 9 PM and this morning, plans have changed. We were both pretty fatige (exhausted) from yesterday’s long journey, but had hoped that 10 hours of sleep would do the trick. Unfortunately, Adam couldn’t sleep longer than 20 minutes at a time until about 6 AM this morning. We’re not sure what’s going on with his body, but we know that it won’t be able to make a three-hour long bus journey anytime soon! I’ve contacted the school in Jacmel where we will be volunteering next week to let them know we won’t be there until Monday afternoon and we’re having Erick give Adam a blessing to help his body heal and recover. Adam and I have been eating the same food and drinking the same water, but he does have a history of a weak immune system, so we’re hoping that I stay healthy and that he recovers quickly. Until then, we plan on staying in Port-au-Prince and mainly at our hotel. On the bright side, we will be able to attend church this Sunday in Port-au-Prince, which will really make our week. Plus, I think both of our bodies could use the break. It’s been a very busy week so far.

We had tried to call Erick from our room’s phone, but discovered that we could only call the front desk with it. So, we asked them to send him up to our room when he got here (since Adam didn’t think he could walk all the way to the front desk to call Erick himself and I don’t speak Haitian!). During this time, I went downstairs to eat some breakfast and bring some food up for Adam. It was a breakfast buffet with coffeecake, bread and toast, peanut butter, jelly, fruit, and cornflakes! I enjoyed another tall glass of Haitian orange juice, but figured Adam wouldn’t really want anything too acidic (I was right).

When Erick got here, he was able to give Adam a blessing. It was all in Haitian, so I could only understand a small part of it, but Adam translated it for me later. It was a simple and comforting blessing and we both know that Adam will continue to get better and we will be able to continue our adventures in Haiti! Erick was also kind enough to leave and pick up some medicine and drop it back off at our hotel. We don’t know what we do without him! Since then, Adam’s been able to eat some solid foods, drink plenty of fluids, and finally get some much-needed rest! I’ve been napping, reading, and exploring the hotel. I also washed another round of clothes (these were pretty nasty from our hike in the rain!). In the middle of rinsing, the electricity went out (it’s done that on and off since we’ve been here). So, I just continued in the dark since the water still worked!

Lunch was an interesting experience. Adam was still sleeping and wasn’t feeling up for going down to the restaurant (and he still had food from breakfast if he got hungry) so I braved the dining room alone. Service is very laidback here, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just very different from the American waiters who pounce on you to fill up your water the moment after you’ve taken a sip. And for an indecisive person like me, I appreciate that I have plenty of time to study the menu and decide what I want without having to tell the waiter three times to give me more time. Most of the sandwiches were written in English, so I decided to go with a grilled chicken sandwich. That was easy enough to order – I could just point to it! For my drink, it got a bit more difficult. I was really craving the limeades we had last night (they mix Carnation evaporated milk in them and it makes them SO good…it’s in a cookbook we have at home, so we already have plans to recreate them – they taste like you are drinking a key lime pie…SO good!). Our waiter spoke about as much English as I spoke Creole, so my description in English, combined with hand gestures, was understood by him as lemonade. Though it wasn’t what I had envisioned, it was still good.

Meanwhile, back in the hotel room, I (Adam) was falling in and out of sleep. Not long after Karen went for some food, I heard an ice cream truck that drove by on the street below us and it was playing the immortal theme from the movie Titanic, Celine Dion’s “My heart will go on” in a very simplified high-pitched melody. Despite the poor condition of my body, my sense of humor was still intact and I had a good chuckle about that. Then, not long after that I was in the bathroom with the door open. The door to the bathroom and the door to our room are directly facing one another and with the power out, I had to keep the door open to avoid being in a dark cave. It was just my luck that during my bathroom visit, one of the hotel employees opened the door and was about to leave towels for us when I quickly reached to pull my pants up and yelled “Pita!” which means “Later!” and then she speedily closed the door and yelled through the door, “M’ap vini pita, wi!” which means “I’ll come back later, alright!”. I’m sure it gave both of us quite the shock. Talk about being caught with your pants down!

On a positive note, I’m feeling much better now. My body can tolerate solid food now and I’m getting some more energy now that I’ve slept most of the day away. Karen and I watched “The Bourne Supremacy” on my computer and walked around a little bit outside to get some fresh air. In our exploration of the Hotel we found that Mick Jagger has a room with his name on it. I never would have thought someone like Mick Jagger would come to this hotel, much less come to Haiti at all. I still feel weak but not near as bad as 6am this morning. I felt like I was going to die! The prayers of our friends, family, and the blessing this morning are really working. Thank you everyone!

Well, we ordered up room service and thanks to Adam’s amazing language abilities, I was finally able to get that key lime pie in a drink. It’s only 7 PM, but we are going to watch “The Bourne Ultimatum,” check our email, and head off to bed. You know, just a typical Saturday night for us. Only this time – we’re in Haiti!

We're famous!

So...a photographer that we are planning to meet up with next week in Port-au-Prince let us know that he came across our blog on a Haitian news site. I started doing a little investigating and it's true! I guess this is proof that anything posted on the internet is fair game (something my Dad would always remind my younger sisters when they freaked out about us reading their Xanga journals...).

More exciting news to come later tonight!

Day Four in Haiti - The long road back to Port-au-Prince (1/8/10)

This is probably the first vacation where we have been waking up earlier than we normally do during the semester! After being spoiled by our 7 AM alarm yesterday, we were back to the grind this morning at 4:15 AM. We quickly packed up our laundry, shoved everything in our packs and then went out to the veranda to wait for Michel to pick us up. He was going to pick us up at 5 AM, so we started getting a little worried since our bus started loading at 5, would leave at 6, and we had prepaid for our specific seats. I wandered around the hotel grounds while Adam called his cell phone. I discovered that the front gate was padlocked, while Adam learned that Michel had a flat tire, but was on his way. We were able to find an employee to unlock the front gate for us (he then locked us out of the hotel grounds…now that’s faith that Michel was going to come soon!). Right before Michel came by, there were two men walking up the path – one was singing a spiritual and the other was preaching very, very loudly and passionately. All of this was happening at 5:30 in the morning with no one else in sight. I definitely got a kick out of that.

After Michel picked us up, he stopped by a friend’s store to pick up our breakfast – bread, cheese, and tropical juice. We made it safely to the bus station, found our bus (named “Noah’s Ark, which makes the joke from yesterday even better), and Michel helped smash our bags into the inside luggage rack. He stopped by again to bring us bananas and hard-boiled eggs and to let us know that he had told the driver to look out for us. We were sad to see him go, but are glad we have his contact information for future visits.

After leaving us on the bus, a man came and, like always, was asking people for some money. He obviously noticed the two blan that were sitting at the front of the bus and started talking to us, first in Creole, then in French, and finally in English. He was telling his life story and was asking for some money to help him and his family. I tried to ignore him but he kept talking to us. He finally gave up and started talking to some other people further back but I overheard him saying something to the effect of, “You see those white people up there at the front of the bus, they’re cheap. They’re tighter with their money than Haitians.” He used the word chich, which translates to “cheap” but is more offensive than just calling someone cheap. We continued our wait as we ate our breakfast and the man came back to the front of the bus and kept telling the people around us that we were chich. It was about that time that I got frustrated and broke my silence. I told him, in Creole, that I wanted to speak with him about what he’d been saying. I explained that I didn’t have any problem with him calling us cheap or any other bad things, but I didn’t appreciate that he was singling us out because we were white. I asked him if every Haitian on the bus had given him money and he said only a few people gave him some small change. I asked him why he wasn’t calling everyone else chich as well and he agreed by yelling, “They’re all cheap!” which got a few laughs from the people that were listening to our conversation. I explained that just because we had white skin did not mean that we were rich or that we had a lot of money to just hand out to people. I illustrated my point by reminding him that we were traveling back to Port-au-Prince on the bus, not a private taxi or an airplane like people with money. That also got some nods from other people who were agreeing with me. He finally left. In reality, yes, I do have more money and resources than the vast majority of Haitians, but far too many Haitians see the White Man as the answer to all of their problems. Since to most Haitians we look more like Lincoln, Hamilton, and Jackson on the $5, $10, and $20 bills, they think we should be handing out “our portraits” like it was a senior picture or something. This little exchange really shows how frustrating it is to constantly be begged for money. I would love to give back to the wonderful people of Haiti, but not just the ones that beg for money on the streets. I would love to determine the root of the problems, not just throw money at the symptoms. I’m stepping off my soapbox and handing the laptop back to Karen now.

Our tickets said that we would leave promptly at 6 AM. We’ve discovered the word “promptly” can be quite flexible – we finally started to leave around 7 AM. After driving down the block, we stopped. We’re still not completely sure why. Some more people got on, some people got off, some got back on, there was some shouting, lots of confusion, etc. Adam and I just chilled at the front, patiently waiting. After about 15 minutes, we finally headed out. We had been told that the reserved bus was nicer than the one we had taken to Cap Haitien, but in our experience it wasn’t really. One of the hardest parts of the trip was the huge backboard that was dividing our seat from the front of the bus. Adam had exactly enough space to sit with his knees smashed into the board. After all of yesterday’s walking, we were pretty concerned about how his knees would hold up during the trip back. On top of the confined space, this driver blasted music the entire way. I have been to rock concerts that were the same volume, but this was coming out of a speaker directly across from us in a school bus. After enduring it for a few songs, we got smart and put our headphones in to soften the blow. We could still hear the music loudly, but it didn’t feel as damaging as without any protection at all. And the music! Man, this Haitian loved his Enrique Iglesias and Celine Dion! We had a hard time not laughing when “My Heart Will Go On,” “Bailamos,” and “Hero” came on a couple times. But, we would take that over the hard-core rap they blasted every now and then.

To be honest, there’s not much to say about this bus ride. It was longer than the first, more uncomfortable, and we also had car trouble at least every hour. Every single time the bus slowed down, we tried to prepare ourselves for another 20-minute stop where 10 men would look at the engine and hit parts with tools or fill valves with liquid. I honestly have no idea how in the world that clunker made it the entire trip – I for sure thought we would be stranded, have to hike home, hitchhike, or try to get someone to pick us up. The benefit to these breaks was that we could stand up and stretch for a little bit. However, we often didn’t have time to get out and walk around, so we could just stand at our seat and try to get comfortable. As a result of the longest bus ride ever (as well as our 14 km hike and all day bus ride before), my legs now look like I have elephantitus! I’ve never been a fan of cankles, so I really hope that they don’t become a normal occurrence this early in my pregnancy. I’ve had my shoes off and my feet elevated for a few hours now and they still aren’t back to normal! Adam too is suffering from swollen ankles, but not to the same extent as me.

About 35 minutes before we arrived in Port-au-Prince, we got a hold of Erick, a Church member from the Centrale Ward. He had originally thought we were coming tomorrow, but he was still able to pick us up. When we arrived at the station there were a lot of taxi drivers offering their services and we were very excited to turn them down. After waiting about ten minutes, Erick called to let us know he was still a few minutes away (we had borrowed a girl’s phone to call him and she was kind enough to hand it back to us when he called back). Right after we hung up with Erick, the bus driver started driving away with us on it! He explained he was just moving it a little bit, but it turned into a couple of blocks! We were clearly worried that we would miss Erick, but the driver let us call him and we finally got to meet our knight in shining armor! As soon as we saw him, we were so relieved and happy. He and Adam had a good time getting to know each other and discussing our plans while I happily elevated my feet in the backseat.

Before Erick to us to our hotel, he stopped by the meetinghouse in Port-au-Prince (which is about eight blocks from our hotel). It was the best thing we have seen all week! The grounds were open and well-manicured (not typical in Port-au-Prince) and instead of the typical basketball court, there was a soccer field with lots of local kids playing on it. We met some other members of the ward that were at the church and Adam enjoyed making connections with them (the Church is the same in Haiti! As soon as you meet someone, you immediately start figuring out who you know in common). Erick then gave us a tour of the building. It was very simple, but was beautiful. Tile floors with gorgeous Haitian wood. As we walked past the classrooms, we peered in one and saw two missionaries teaching a lesson. Keep in mind that since 2005, only native Haitians are able to serve missions in Haiti. When that policy first happened, there were only 73 missionaries. Now, there are 122 full-time, volunteer missionaries serving in their home country of Haiti! It was so amazing to see. We ended our tour by walking into the chapel. It was so peaceful and beautiful – complete opposite from the city that surrounded it. We cannot WAIT to attend church in Haiti!

After the best tour ever, Erick dropped us off at our hotel (Hotel Oloffson). It’s a pretty historic, happening spot! It’s this huge, sprawling, Victorian mansion that has been around for a long time. Each room has the names of people who have stayed there. We didn’t recognize anyone from our room, but down the hall there are rooms that Ann-Margaret, John Barrymore, and Alvin Ailey stayed in while they were here. There’s even a name plaque for Bryant Freeman, an emeritus professor of Haitian Studies at KU! He compiled the Haitian-English dictionary that Adam relied on as a missionary (and that we are hauling around with us on this trip – it’s pretty thick AND a hard-back). Adam met with him for a couple hours before our trip and he highly recommended this hotel as the place to meet the Who’s Who in Haiti. So far we haven’t met too many people, but mainly because we’ve been pretty antisocial. After the past few days, our bodies definitely need time to rest, so after we grabbed dinner (which included some amazing fresh limeades!), we decided to get to bed early. We saw at least eight other Americans staying here and it was definitely weird to hear their accents during dinner. We’ve become so accustomed to being surrounded by Creole that it was quite the shock for both of us! We’re hoping to talk with them during breakfast to learn why each one of them is in Haiti. Everyone seems to have their own unique reason for coming here!

Day Three in Haiti - Cap Haitien (1/7/10)

Today has been the best day yet! We got to sleep in until 7 AM (a step up from our previous 5 AM wake-up calls), didn’t have to take showers since we had the night before, and took our time getting up. We were meeting a chauffeur/guide and another couple for the day at 8 AM. We weren’t quite sure if we were going to have breakfast AT 8 AM or leave at 8 AM, so we got to the hotel’s restaurant at 7:45 to play it safe. If we were supposed to leave at 8, they could wait for us and if they were planning to eat first, we’d have plenty of time! We were excited to see that breakfast was included in our room price, so we both ordered Haitian orange juice and oatmeal. I’m not normally a big oatmeal person, but Haitian oatmeal is divine. It was exactly what we needed for our big adventure today. We were trying to multitask and check our email as we were eating (we can’t get the wireless from our room, so we have to go to the lobby or restaurant), but poor Adam knocked over his orange juice all over our table (but luckily not on the laptop). I felt so bad for the man who cleaned up after it, but he was very kind and really quick! Before we knew it, we were back to our breakfast. We also enjoyed some good Haitian bread with grapefruit jelly, which was a-maz-ing! It threw us off because it almost tasted like honey.

Our guide, Michel, and the other couple arrived for breakfast as we were finishing up, which gave us time to check our email and post our journal entry from yesterday. At about 9 AM, we headed off to start our day! We were traveling with a young Haitian couple. On our way out of town, we stopped quickly at a market so the girl could buy tennis shoes (she was wearing high heels when we met her). There is absolutely no way that she would have survived today without those tennis shoes!

Our reason for travelling north to Cap Haitien was mainly to see the Citadelle. It is a huge fort built in the early 1800s after the Haitians kicked the French out of their country and gained independence. King Henri Christophe (hence, the name of our hotel) took 14 years to built a huge palace, Palais de Sans Souci, with the Citadelle built high in the mountains seven kilometers away. The fort was there in case the French came back, but it has never been used. It is almost completely intact, even to the piles of cannonballs and bombshells lying in huge piles. But, we’ll describe more of the Citadelle later. We had also hoped to see the beaches at Labadie, which is where all of the cruise ships stop. Most people who have visited Labadie probably weren’t even aware that they were in Haiti. Since we only had one day and couldn’t fit in both trips, we decided to pass on the touristy beach and try our luck at hiking to one of the eight manmade wonders of the world.

After driving out of town on bumpy dirt roads going only 10-20 mph, we finally made it to the Palais de Sans Souci. It was beautiful. The majority of the walls are still in place and you can even see the foundation for the swimming pool and connecting fountain! When we arrived, there was a huge group of people to greet us. Women immediately came up to us trying to sell us straw hats, wooden masks, and necklaces. We were wearing our baseball caps and explained that we would be fine. A man also tried to persuade Adam to buy a brightly colored painting of the Citadelle, but I told him we would wait until after we got back from the Citadelle. We had to pay a bit to tour the palace, but that fee also covered our trip up to the Citadelle and the company of our sweet tour guide, Jacques. He was a reserved older man with one eye who took special care to explain everything to me in broken English since everyone else spoke Creole. He always made sure to hold onto my arm as we were climbing up or down steps and along slippery paths. We really grew to love him over the course of our day.

While we spent some time exploring the palace and ruins, the majority of our day was spent walking/hiking. That’s right, from the palace, there is a 10-foot wide path zigzagging up the mountains, leading to the Citadelle seven kilometers away. We had trained for a 5K this summer, so we felt pretty confident that we could be fine with an additional two kilometers (we also glossed over the fact that our training was 6 months ago and the reality of the steep incline!). As we began our ascent, we soon had quite the following! We had the six of us (including Michel and Jacques), plus about nine men and boys and five horses. For about $40 USD each, you could ride a horse up to the top of the path. They actually have a clever business plan – ride alongside you for the first mile or so, which also happens to be the toughest and steepest part of the climb. However, we kept explaining to them since I was pregnant, I couldn’t ride a horse, so none of us were going to. I don’t think they thought we could last, but after a mile or so, they offered one last time, then turned and headed back down. I can’t tell you how many times during the rest of the hike I wished the horses were back (although…let’s be honest. I am way too cheap and way too proud to have ever gotten on those animals – pregnant or not)!

Rather than give a long, drawn-out description of the next six miles, let’s just say that there was a constant incline with no way of knowing how far we had hiked or how much longer we had to go. We constantly had to be looking at the ground right in front of us to prevent slipping. The path is made up of uneven rocks with a very rough cement as mortar. About two thirds of the way up it also started raining, which added to the slow pace and added anxiety. The further we climbed, the more often we stopped. We were incredibly grateful each time the path leveled out, even a little bit. We also enjoyed the people that we met along the way. We were the only ones hiking up the path as tourists, but all along the path were actual homes and women were hiking up and down, many of them barefoot, with huge bowls of laundry or fruit on their heads. They put us to shame! We also enjoyed kowosol (soursop fruit) that a little toddler sold us during one of our breaks. The little Haitian children were probably our favorite part of the climb. They were running around, barefoot, and often in just a t-shirt with their bottoms hanging out while others were in Easter dresses! As we would pass by, we would hear little voices shouting “Hallo! Hallo! Hallo!” They would then run out in the road to stare at us, not saying a word. As soon as we were a safe distance away from them, they would then scream “Hallo!” and just shout. It was pretty cute. We also passed several horses, goats, pigs, and cows tied to small trees on the side of the road outside of the respective owner’s home. Several of the residents along the path also tried their best to sell beads, flutes, wooden masks, and a number of other small things but we had to say no to all of them.

After being told “We’re almost there!” about 20 times, we did finally arrive at the marvelous Citadelle. It truly is a massive and incredible piece of architecture. The Citatelle is situated on top of a mountain that’s 3182 ft (970m), which may not seem that high until you realize that the ocean is only 10 miles away. The last third of our ascent we were literally walking in the clouds. Our view of the Citadelle was limited to only about 25ft in front of us at best because of the clouds. When we arrived, we ate some very ripe bananas and bread with some amazing Haitian peanut butter. Haitian peanut butter is very similar to the natural kind that’s runny but it has some hot pepper mixed in so it has a little kick to it. It was an added bonus since it was already around 2 PM and our goal to make it back in time for lunch had quickly disappeared. After stopping briefly to eat, we made our way to the fort’s entrance. It was locked. They had closed it because of the rain. Luckily, another group was there as well, so someone unlocked it for us and we were able to explore the inside of the massive structure. We had to bust out our mini flashlights (thanks again “Santa!”) for part of the tour because there is no electricity (obviously). Jacques showed us around and we saw a lot – the aqueducts that are still in use, the three buildings entirely dedicated to storing gunpowder, the stacks of cannons and empty bombshells lining the hallways, and of course, the cannons that the Haitians stole from Napoleon himself. In fact, we saw some cannons that were identical to the ones at the Palais des Invalides in Paris where Napoleon’s tomb is located. One our favorite parts of the tour was when Jacques showed us where the bathrooms were. There were three stalls lined next to each other with toilet seats on stone (the toilet seats were not the original, obviously). When we lifted the lid and looked in, we saw a 200 foot drop into the jungle below. Let’s just hope there were never any innocent bystanders back in the day that were in the wrong place at the wrong time (Bombs away!)!

We then left the Citadelle and the lady who sold the food to us followed us down as well since the rain was going to prevent any more tourists from coming up the steep and slippery path. We made our way down the path slowly and carefully. The slippery rocks kept us on guard the whole way down. We made much better time coming down than we did going up and Karen said she preferred the way down while I liked the way up better. Going down is constant strain on your knees and my history of knee injuries has always made me apprehensive to do something like that. The good news is we made it all the way down, this time recognizing little landmarks along the path which let us know approximately how much further we still had to go until we reached the bottom. The rain stopped in the middle of our descent but picked back up again when we got closer to the palace. Before leaving the palace, an American stopped us and wanted to know what we were doing there. Turns out he was a student at the University of Miami-Ohio who was an International Business major collecting research on tourism in Northern Haiti. He was intrigued to hear that I was fluent in Haitian Creole, that we had taken the bus from Port-au-Prince, and had walked the whole way up to the Citadelle. He asked for some suggestions that would make the Citadelle and Palais de Sans Souci more tourist-friendly and we were more than willing to add our two cents worth. We walked to our car and were greeted again by the determined artist who wanted me to buy one of his paintings. He once again lowered the price and we were more willing to pay for this souvenir that we would actually enjoy. We hopped into the car, said our goodbyes to Jacques, and headed back to Cap Haitien.

Michel stopped to get some really good treats made from frozen milk and chocolate sauce. It was such a relief after a long hike. We continued on our way and saw a horrible wreck with two huge Mack trucks where one was rolled over and both were terribly mangled. Wrecks don’t happen often but when they do it’s pretty bad; especially when it involves two big trucks that were likely driving about 30mph. We finally made our way through the traffic in the rain and fortunately, Michel’s SUV had two functional windshield wipers! He did his best to avoid the massive pools of water that were larger than our car but there’s only so many places you can drive. As he was driving, he was also busy making phone calls, one of which he phoned a restaurant to make a reservation for all of us – he told them we were “very special guests” to him. We got to the thing (literally. The name of the restaurant (Bagay La means “the thing.”) and were about to go in when we saw a painted sign on the outside – no cocaine, pills, guns, knives, sandals, or blan (white people). Okay, so that’s not what the picture of the white person meant – it was referring to the casual dress that the cartoon was wearing, but we got a kick out of it. When we arrived at the thing, nothing was really set up, so Michel ran around trying to get service and hassle the kitchen staff to get our dinner out. Adam and I decided to take advantage of the much-needed bathrooms and were surprised when there were no lights. Luckily, we still had our handy flashlights with us (thanks again, Santa!), which solved that problem. There was no solution for the next. In the women’s restroom there were three stalls. Behind Door #1 was a toilet without a seat that didn’t flush. Behind Door #2 was a ridiculously dirty toilet with a toilet seat and lid with a dirty bucket on top of it. Behind Door #3 was a toilet with a seat that was even more disgusting than all the others…and had already been used (and didn’t flush). Not ideal. However, after hiking and holding it all day, I couldn’t wait until we got to the hotel, so Door #1 it was! I apologize for the next person who has to make that same choice since I just made the decision even harder.

Back at our table, the lights still weren’t turned on and our food was starting to come out. At 6 PM it is pretty dark here! Luckily, I married an Eagle Scout who was able to string our mini-flashlights over our table to provide some romantic ambience (thanks AGAIN, Santa!). We all had a good laugh about that. They kept flipping on lights in other parts of the restaurant, but never where their only customers were sitting. Oh well. We all had diri kole legime ak kabrit (vegetable and goat stew with mixed rice and beans), salad, and boiled plantain. We finally felt like we were eating a real Haitian meal and it definitely hit the spot (and only cost about $5 each!). After dinner, Michel was going to take us to the bus station to reserve a spot for our bus ride back to Port-au-Prince tomorrow morning (yes, we are enduring another seven-hour bus journey….our bodies will hate us, especially after today). To our surprise, the car wouldn’t start! All of the guys starting poking around the engine and Emanuella and I sat in the car to sit down while we waited. The lights could turn on, so we knew it wasn’t the battery, but that left the problem pretty open-ended. After a while, Michel had a taxi take us back to our hotel. Later, Michel came by with his cousin to take us to the bus station to buy our tickets. Adam had fun talking with some of the locals playing dominoes inside the station. The first thing they asked him (only in Creole) was if he and I were coming to Haiti to save all 14 million of them like Noah and his ark (since it was still raining outside). Adam got a kick out of that and told them it wasn’t us, but it might be some other white people. Everywhere we go, everyone just falls in love with Adam – he is a tall white boy who loves joking around in Creole! We booked our seats and somehow got lucky enough to have the front row again – that makes us excited. Michel is even picking us up tomorrow morning at 5 AM to take us to our bus AND bringing us breakfast since the hotel’s kitchen doesn’t open until later. All of this – for free! That’s right. We have a friend (one that we paid $100 to drive us to and from the Citadelle and hiked it with us). But, he also bought us some fruit along the way, the amazing Haitian Icees, arranged for an awesome Haitian dinner, paid for our taxi back when his car broke down, picked us up and helped us get our bus tickets, and is picking us up way too early and packing food for us! He has some awesome ideas for bringing more people to Haiti and wants to keep in touch with Adam for help. Plus, he’s already offered to take us around the next time we come to Haiti when Adam focuses on his photo documentary.

It’s been a very long day, but a very enjoyable one. We loved meeting all of the people that we did during our long hike up and down the mountains, as well as the company we had doing it with us (who I’m sure would have preferred the horses, but were willing to walk with the pregnant girl – that’s sacrifice). After some more negative experiences in Port-au-Prince and travelling to Cap Haitien, it was just so refreshing to be surrounded by good, honest people. We love Haiti! Thanks again for your prayers and thoughts. Boy, are they working! Now let’s just hope Adam doesn’t get malaria – he swallowed a mosquito as we were coming back home! Between that and the spilled orange juice, it’s been quite the day. Luckily, we can laugh at it all!

Day Two in Haiti - The long road to Cap Haitien (1/6/10)

After getting to bed around midnight, our iPod alarm woke us up five hours later so we could begin our day. Adam got up to take the first shower while I started eating my breakfast of French toast, syrup with raisins, and Haitian orange juice. Adam wasn’t in the bathroom too long before he came out, grabbed a knife off of the breakfast tray and headed back to the shower. It turns out our shower head didn’t really work – it just dribbled out water. Seeing as we only had limited time before our driver picked us up and knowing that I can’t stand showers that aren’t full force and steaming hot, I opted to just braid my hair, get dressed, and call it good. Since we’re living out of backpacks, we realized we would be wearing a lot of the same clothes a few times before we wash them by hand, but who knew it would start so early! Luckily, I’ve discovered that the bag of Tide I packed gives my entire backpack (and everything in it) a fresh, clean smell. Besides, Western ideas of hygiene just aren’t the same here, so we figured we’d do our best to blend in.

Julma picked us up at 6 AM to take us to the bus station. When we first turned out of the hotel compound, I was surprised at how quiet and empty the streets were. Once we turned onto the main road that was no longer the case. Hundreds of people were already hard at work or getting transportation to get to their jobs. We passed by a huge industrial park where they have employ hundreds of Haitians (mostly women) to work in the clothing factories. Most of them work all day for less than $5 American. They must work from about 6 AM to 4 PM (we drove by the day before as the factory was closing). The bus “station” is located a few blocks over from Cite Soleil, which has been made famous (or infamous) for its poverty and violence. The UN once called it “the most dangerous place in the World,” so we were again grateful for the safety that we experienced in our private taxi. We’re not going to lie, we are really tired of paying so much money to be taken just a few miles, but at the same time, we’d rather spend the money to be cautious…this is one instance where my frugal upbringing is put on hold.

The bus “station” wasn’t really a station at all. It’s just a place where a bunch of buses are parked at a big intersection. The final destination of each bus isn’t very well marked either. Our bus was an old school bus that had been repainted in bright colors and designs. The steering wheel wasn’t on straight and the shifter was actually a long stick with wires, a plastic “handle” and some sort of plastic weaved around it all. We paid $12 each for the seven-plus hour bus ride to Cap Haitien, which is the first decent price we’ve paid for anything. We were one of the first ones on the bus, so they had us sit at the very front, which turned out to be a bigger blessing than we fully realized. Many people tried to take our bags to put them on the top of the bus, but our driver insisted that we hold on to them and put them inside. We were able to find a spot on the indoor luggage rack for our backpacks and then we kept the camera bag and daypack on our laps. We had been told that the bus wouldn’t leave until it was full, but during the hour and a half we were on there waiting, we couldn’t really tell how they knew it was full or not. There were constantly people getting on and off the bus. Many were selling sunglasses, books, candy, perfume, etc. They would stick them in our faces and Adam always had something clever to say in Creole that would make them freak out that he spoke their language. One of them insisted that he was really a Haitian (Adam doesn’t take it as a compliment because he says they have no one to compare his language to….I guess my broken Creole doesn’t even count!). We both had a good laugh when a man hopped on the bus right outside my window wearing a KU Jayhawks baseball cap. There was also a man wearing a K-State polo on our bus, as well as a University of Nebraska hat. A lot of used clothing finds its way down to Haiti so it’s not surprising to see random T-shirts that were made for a cross country team in Kentucky or a High School Prom theme that was “Night Under the Stars”.

We were told we wouldn’t leave until the bus was full. The word “full” has new meaning for us. Full means 3 adults and baggage or a small child on your lap on a two-person bench. Full means the luggage racks inside are packed to the brim and have things falling down on you. Full means the front door never closes and 5 Haitians are packed like sardines into the entryway. We were excited to have a seat near the front so we could see the beautiful countryside out the front and side windows, but with people standing in front of us the whole way, we were only able to see out the side window.

The bus finally was deemed full and we started on our way. Several people tried to get on the bus at the last minute and only after being yelled at and pushed and pulled in all directions did they get off. We drove maybe half a mile before we stopped in front of the Cite Soleil police station. Apparently a few other people had slipped onto the bus and were told to get off. The police didn’t come onto the bus but a shotgun and a uniform are good motivators. While stopped in front of the police station, we had a good view of the slums that make up Cite Soleil. We tried to think of how best to describe it and settled on this description: It’s like a lot of ruins with corrugated aluminum roofs on most of the “homes”. It’s like an old city that hasn’t been inhabited for 100 years but now has people living in it. Unfortunately, that’s how it was built. Trees even grow out of some of the houses. There was a pretty distinct smell coming from piles of burning trash and the dogs and pigs picking through the trash. Broken glass, rusty metal cans, and plastic bottles can’t be burned so they line the walkways and fill empty lots between the homes. I’ve seen a similar village of slums in Nassau, Bahamas but it wasn’t near this big and didn’t have the same reputation for crime.

Despite the bumpy ride, we really enjoyed our bus ride (well, at least for the first two hours or so). We were able to see the city, small towns, farms, and of course, the huge mountains. There was always something interesting to see outside, so we had a hard time doing anything but take pictures and stare outside, trying to soak everything in. Granted, halfway through our trip we were wishing we could fall asleep or get up and move around, but the seven hours were fairly interesting. About once an hour, the driver would stop the bus and almost everyone jumped off to relieve themselves on the side of the road. I was curious as to what the women would do, but soon learned that on bus trips you wear a skirt or dress and just squat. After that realization, I said a quick (and incredibly sincere) prayer that I would not have a case of pregnancy bladder and would be able to wait until we got to our final destination to use a real bathroom. In that same prayer, I also asked that Adam and I wouldn’t get too hungry until we got to Cap Haitien. We brought some almonds to tide us over and bottles of water, but seven hours is a long time and the food they were selling on the side of the road just wasn’t safe to eat. It was quite the balancing act of eating almonds, getting thirsty and drinking water, but making sure not to get too full (spoiler alert: our prayers were answered! I will never take a modern bathroom for granted ever again…or gas station bathrooms for that matter).

The road continued up through the mountains and by the ocean and took us through several small cities. One of the upgrades to the school bus was a train horn. This horn let everyone on the road that we were coming through and not stopping. It never ceases to amaze us how these drivers maneuver through traffic and narrow roads. I’m also amazed at how much abuse these busses can endure. The driver grinds gears on nearly every shift and as long as there aren’t cavernous potholes in the road, it’s full speed ahead all the time. Everything rattles and creaks on these old buses and even though we’re packed in shoulder to shoulder, we still are bumped and jostled around. We finally made our way up to Gonaives which is nicknamed “Villle d’Independence” because that’s where the Haitians finally kicked the French out and declared Haiti an independent nation on January 1^st, 1804. The city is also known for the devastating landslides caused by Hurricanes. The deforestation in the surrounding area is so bad that any amount of rain causes massive amounts of erosion. It’s also here in Gonaives that our journey became a little more interesting. While driving through the packed streets our bus side swiped another car and just kept on driving. Then about 10 miles down the road a police officer stopped our bus and had a long chat with the driver. We were stopped for about an hour and we never really found out what the result of the wait was, but after the driver was taken by the police into a nearby city and brought back everyone got back on the bus and we headed off again. Past Gonaives the road heads into the mountains. The road switched up and down the mountainsides in hairpin curves and steep inclines. Another 10 miles up the road we pulled over to let one of our passengers rejoin us after he hired a motorcycle to catch up to the speeding bus when we left him at our long stop.

At that point, we were about halfway done with our bus ride. Every time we looked at our watch, the clock hand seemed to have barely moved. Every five minutes or so we would try to slightly alter how we were sitting to alleviate the pain that comes from sitting in such close quarters on such a crazy road. We also attempted to do a few leg stretches and foot exercises to keep our blood flowing, but that only took another 10 minutes. Finally, we started to enter Cap Haitien. Right at this moment, it began to rain. Only one of the windshield wipers worked, but at least it was the one in front of the driver! We began to stop quite often to let a few people off. Each time we stopped, we looked around to see if this was the final stop where we would have to fend for ourselves to find our hotel. Each time we continued to drive, we were slightly relieved. Finally, we drove up to another bus “station” and everyone started getting off in the rain. One of the drivers told us to just wait and he would take care of us, which we guessed meant we would be paying for his “help.” He called a taxi, told us how much it was, and helped us get in. He paid the driver for us, but only half of the price he had told us, so he kept the other half. Adam was still packing our bags in the back, so he didn’t see the exchange and the man reminded Adam of his help, so we had to pay him a little more! So, within our first five minutes of being in Cap Haitien, we had already paid more for one five-minute taxi ride than for our entire seven-hour bus ride!

We hadn’t been able to get a hold of the hotel we were planning on staying at, so we figured we would just take our chances and see if we could get a room upon arrival. We were, but at a much higher price than was quoted on Lonely Planet. Again, what could we do? We had just driven through the entire town and knew there weren’t too many options. We were glad the hotel took our Visa because we were using our cash a lot more quickly than we had planned on. The Hotel De Roi Henri Christophe is actually quite beautiful, even when raining. It has open corridors, high ceilings, colorful Haitian paintings, plenty of picturesque seating and free wi-fi! We immediately took advantage of our newly purchased room by taking a much-needed nap until dinner. We ate on the porch of the hotel’s restaurant and I got spaghetti bolognaise (Haitian specialty) while Adam ordered seafood crepes. We were pleasantly surprised by the portions and taste of our meal and finally were given some real Haitian bread! We also met a Haitian American who was here from UC Berkeley as part of her MBA program. It was fun for Adam to speak in English for a while and for me to actually understand a conversation that was going on!

Once we finished dinner, we finally took amazing showers. After seven hours on a dusty, bumpy bus ride, we welcomed the chance to use soap and shampoo to feel completely clean. This hotel’s showerhead worked a lot better than the Palm Inn’s had and it had a lot of hot water, so we were in heaven. After cleaning ourselves, we decided to go ahead and wash the clothes we have already used. That was quite the experience! We put a little Tide in the sink with water and began the long process of hand washing everything we had worn. I washed, Adam rinsed, and then we found creative ways of hanging up our clothes to dry. We had brought rope to create a makeshift clothesline, but also took advantage of the wire hangers in the closet. We had started to hang our wet shirts in the closet, but the overwhelming smell of body odor from the closet inspired us to find someplace else to air our now-clean laundry.

Now as we are preparing to turn in for the night, we are enjoying the music of a nearby Pentacostal church singing, preaching, and shouting loudly in the distance. Keep in mind that it is already past midnight here and this has been going on for over an hour. We are excited to “sleep in” tomorrow until 7 AM! We’ve decided that it makes the most sense to shower at night rather than the morning, so that gives us a little extra time in the morning to work with. We were also THRILLED, GRATEFUL, and ECSTATIC to get a hold of Erick (brother to a Church member Adam knew on his mission) who happens to be in the bishopric of the ward we’ll be attending in Port-au-Prince. He has already offered to pick us up on Friday from the bus station to take us to our hotel, find a ride to and from church next Sunday, and take us to the airport on our last day here. We can’t even begin to describe how grateful we are to have heard from him. We are really looking forward to both Sundays that we are here so we can attend church and feel at home with the Haitian saints. The gospel truly makes us all brothers and sisters and we are so grateful for the generosity we have already been shown. The long bus ride and constant fear (and reality) of being taken advantage of has made both of us start to wonder what we are doing here, but we know this is an amazing opportunity that we have and one that will change our lives. We’re grateful we have each other to rely on and also the prayers of our family and friends (along with our constant prayers!). We really have been watched over and realize that it’s more important to be safe and cautious then to ensure that we aren’t being overcharged.

Day One in Haiti - Port-au-Prince

Adam and I have decided to keep a fairly detailed account of our trip to Haiti. We will write each day and post updates when we have internet access. Since we will be experiencing so much in the next two weeks, we figured we would post it as it happens, rather than try to summarize the entire trip for our family and friends. Just to warn you, we both take turns writing this and often switch writers in mid-paragraph, so you might get confused as to which “I” we are meaning (this is Karen right now). We’re also hoping to include some pictures and videos, but the majority of those will probably be shared when we get home. Enjoy!

After an uneventful flight on Air France, complete with a much-needed nap for both of us, we arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As we walked off the plane, a five-piece island band greeted us – we were very excited. After trying to figure out the French/Creole form for immigration, we discovered that we had filled out the wrong side. Sure enough, when we flipped it over there were also instructions in English! We were one of the first off the plane, but the last through immigration because of it, but that’s okay because we had plenty of time to wait for our baggage. There were about three flights arriving at the same time, two baggage carousels turning without any luggage on them, and one door where employees were making a line of baggage. After taking turns walking back and forth between all of the possible baggage areas, we finally were able to find our flight’s luggage. Keep in mind that nothing is really posted as to which flight is assigned to which carousel, so there were a lot of confused people. We easily found our bags, strapped on our backpacks and headed out. We went through customs, but hadn’t received a form to fill out, so the guard just waved us through. Even before leaving the customs room, we were immediately asked by a man if we needed a taxi. Our hotel had mentioned they were only two minutes away from the airport and we had a map, so we had been tentatively planning on walking, but during our indecisiveness, the man just had us follow him and we decided we might as well get to our first destination quickly. Boy, are we glad we did! As soon as we walked out of the airport, we had to walk through at least 50 other taxi drivers offering their services. On top of that, on the wall outside of the airport, a huge group of locals were waiting to observe all of the goings on at the airport. We had a hard time maneuvering the parking lot, so it was a smart idea to get a taxi since the roads aren’t exactly clear to understand (our map would have been pointless and we would have been lost).

We were dropped off at a private taxi that Julma was driving. While public taxis cost about $0.75 a trip, private taxis start off at $20 one-way. This was after Adam haggled them down from $25, but he wouldn’t budge from $20. And to be honest, what can we do? There’s no way we can get around on our own and we certainly don’t understand the bus and public taxi routes, so we have learned to kiss our Andrew Jacksons away fairly quickly. Julma was immediately impressed by Adam’s Creole and shocked to hear that this was his first time in Haiti. I was able to show off the few things I know by asking him the time and how old he was (he just turned 58 in August, but he looks like he’s in his early 40s!). As we drove through the maze of roads that makes up Port-au-Prince, we were again very grateful we weren’t walking. The main roads are paved and have 2-3 lanes of traffic. I use the term lane loosely because nobody seems to stay on a designated route on the road. Taxis, buses, and tap-taps (small trucks with very limited covered seating/standing room) weave in and out and all around. Pedestrians and stray dogs do their best to avoid being hit. The horn is a very useful driving tool here. It is used to let pedestrians know they’re in the way, large trucks and buses that they’re driving too slowly, and to say hello to your cousin. Julma explained that very few accidents happen here because everybody hates when the flow of traffic has to go around a big accident. I would be surprised if drivers even stop if they hit each other and both cars can still drive.

Speaking of cars, our “taxi” is actually a jerky manual transmission diesel engine SUV of some sort without any seatbelts in the back seat and a speedometer that is pegged at 5mph. The ride is fair considering the massive potholes the size of wading pools and constant dodging of the car or pedestrian who cuts out into traffic. The driver also had to watch out for the hogs, goats, and chickens that occasionally cross the road (and yes, we made jokes to each other about why it was crossing). When we finally reached our hotel, our driver honked loud and long for the security gate to open up. The Palm Inn Hotel is basically a compound, but a very nice, pretty, relaxing one, complete with swimming pool, hammock, restaurant, and baby foot (we’re not quite sure what that is either, but it’s listed under their amenities on the website, so we figure it’s gotta be pretty good!). We paid for our room (they charged us $20 more than was listed on their website…again with the Andrew Jacksons), dropped off our backpacks, and hopped right back into Julma’s taxi so we could exchange our money and have something other than $20 bills.

After another bumpy ride, we made it to a bank. Once inside, we were scanned with a metal detector and Julma led us straight to the counter, past about 25 Haitians that were already waiting in line. The woman at the counter curtly told us where the line began and we got there! We hadn’t really wanted to jump ahead, but unfortunately Haitian culture still tends to privilege lighter skin. We’re glad the bank lady treated us as equals. So far, I’ve seen only four other white people in Port-au-Prince (and three were in a passing taxi), not counting the strong UN presence that is in the city. At the bank, there were two UN peacekeepers from Brazil and a truck with their colleagues waiting in the parking lot. After waiting in line for 15 minutes, making minimal progress, Julma got tired of waiting and had us go next door to another bank (he explained that they are the same bank, just with different names, but we still have no idea how that all worked). Adam was able to quickly exchange some of our money after very little wait and we headed once again to our hotel. The ironic thing about exchanging our US dollars to Haitian gourdes is that everyone is asking us to pay in US dollars and quoting US prices. We downloaded a currency converter application for our iPod to prevent any “misunderstandings” with the exchange.

We decided to try out our hotel’s restaurant for lunch since we hadn’t eaten since 7 AM. It’s an outdoor veranda with beautiful scenery and no one in sight. That’s right. We’re pretty sure we were the only ones checked into the hotel (although we think more have arrived now). We were slightly disappointed to see the menu items and their lack of authentic Haitian dishes and even more sad to see the prices. But, we ARE at a hotel and one thing seems to be universal with hotels – overcharge. We both ordered club sandwiches, which consisted of four layers of Always Save white bread slices, fried egg, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, ham, and slathered in Haitian ketchup (it’s much sweeter than American). We practically had to disengage our jaw to get even one bite of this stacked sandwich. When we were finished, we got overcharged for lunch (we hadn’t downloaded our handy currency exchange app yet, so we figured out after we got back to our room).

Since we’re leaving Port-au-Prince tomorrow, we wanted to take advantage of the afternoon and see the historical sites of Port-au-Prince. After a failed attempt to get a hold of a guide that Adam’s old mission companion recommended, we decided to cough up the Jacksons and call our new friend Julma to take us around. He was able to not only maneuver the roads, but also pointed out different places of interest and would stop in the middle of the road for us to hop out and take pictures. While we normally like to take our time to explore, we quickly learned to jump out, snap a picture, and hop back in. At the National Cathedral (our first stop), we had a couple people come up and speak quickly in Creole (Adam later translated what they were saying to me – “Give me food or money instead of pictures”), but because I didn’t understand I just learned to sadly ignore them and jump back in the car. Our grand tour included the Palais National (the Haitian White House) and several statues of significant figures in Haitian history. Our driver was also quick to point out buildings and other projects that former President Aristide started but did not finish (Julma wasn’t a big fan of Aristide and was glad to see him ousted from power in 2004). Our tour also took us through several neighborhoods, many of them in various stages of decay. We do need to remember that Haiti is a 3^rd world country so seeing things like people bathing on the side of the road and piles of refuse in the street are to be expected. My visions of what I thought Haiti would look like and what I’ve seen today are different. They aren’t drastically different, but it just makes me sad to see how so many Haitians live in such difficult circumstances. The sewage in the streets and hogs near our hotel really took Karen by surprise too.

Since we got back earlier than expected and didn’t really know where else to go or want to pay the extra money to go anywhere else, we decided to do what we do best. Nap. The weather here is perfect and in the upper 80s, so we decided to take advantage of Palm Inn’s hammock and sleep the rest of the afternoon away. Sadly, that was not in the cards. Adam got in the hammock first, which immediately lowered to about three inches above the ground. After I climbed in, we had to carefully situate ourselves to get comfortable, which never really happened. Add to that hungry mosquitoes and we decided we’d stick with our bed in our room. That meant having to get out of the hammock, which was another ordeal in its own right. Still, we managed to get a good two-hour nap in before heading back to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner.

While the lunch selection had been anything but Haitian, it got a little better at dinner. Adam ordered Shrimp Creole and I got Chicken Creole. It came with rice that was grown just north of here (and the best tasting rice EVER!), French fries, a “salad” (lettuce with carrots grated on top of it), and that same Always Save bread from lunch. Service is always a bit more laidback we’ve discovered in Haiti and our meal took about an hour and a half from when we ordered to when we paid. Since we were in our hotel compound, we had the restaurant all to ourselves…until the cats came. That’s right. As soon as our food came about four stray cats came out of nowhere and began to purr at our feet. For about two seconds it was cute, until they began hissing at each other, starting fights, and starting to climb on my chair (I think they knew that I had no idea what to do around animals, so I became an easy target). Adam tried to rescue me by kicking the chair next to us and stamping his feet, but they just moved away from him and closer to me. Right as I was envisioning these crazy cats fighting at my feet, getting caught in the cross-fire, and having to rush to some Haitian hospital for stitches (yes, I have an active imagination), an employee came to our rescue, stomping at the cats and clapping. That did the trick and I was able to enjoy my chicken without any worry of an angry cat attack.

Since we’re leaving for the bus station at 6 AM tomorrow morning, we had to order our breakfast tonight. French toast with Haitian orange juice – it’s just sitting on our counter waiting for the morning! Our hotel’s website had mentioned specifically that breakfast was included in the price of the room, so we made sure to remind the restaurant of that when we ordered and they went along with it. I have a feeling we may have had to pay for it had we kept our mouths shut. One of the hardest parts about this trip so far is that Adam has to be the sole communicator. Talk about pressure! Normally, we make a pretty good team when it comes to haggling or saving money. It makes it even harder that I made a lot of the reservations and am familiar with what the prices should be and what’s included, but that can be hard to communicate through Adam when everything happens so quickly and in another language. Haggling is also difficult in Haiti because we aren’t completely sure what something should cost. It’s hard to distinguish a price that’s targeted to native Haitians versus White American Tourists. We also know that the people here don’t have a lot of money and we don’t want to be too stingy, but we definitely don’t have the kind of money they think we do! This trip will definitely cost us a lot more than we had originally planned.

That’s been all the excitement for today. We are happy to be here and to experience such a different way of life, but hope that when we travel to Cap Haitien tomorrow we will be able to explore a little more freely (and cheaply). We are definitely looking forward to our time in Jacmel next week where we will be in a much smaller town and working with a school that is just down the block from our hotel!