We Made It...Again!

Short of a short delay in Florida, our trip to Haiti was uneventful.  Shad and I left the house at 6 pm yesterday and, as of 7 pm Haiti time, we are safe and sound at the Guesthouse.  Our trip this time was much different than when we traveled here back in January.  That trip we traveled alone, just the two of us, from home to Port au Prince.  We navigated the airport, customs and baggage claim on our own.  We had a driver pick us up and bring us to the Guesthouse on the last trip, but we did not meet our team leader or the rest of our team until a few hours later.  We definitely had that deer in the headlights look about us as we sat on the upstairs couch waiting for the rest of our team to arrive. 

After leaving home last night and flying for about 5 hours, we arrived in Charlotte, NC.  The flight left at 10:15 pm and, thankfully, the people on the flight seemed to buckle down for a night of sitting up sleep.  The flight was not really eventful, but it was quite bumpy at times.  The descent into Charlotte was especially bumpy and had Shad reaching for the barf bag and removing his sweatshirt as he broke out in a sweat.  Thankfully, he did not need to bag and, after sitting in the airport for about 45 minutes, he stopped looking so green.  Poor guy.  (Speaking of poor guy, he also woke yesterday morning with the sniffles.  Those sniffles became "my head is going to explode" on each take off and landing.  Please pray that the cold passes quickly!)  We only spent about an hour in Charlotte before we headed out again, this time for Fort Lauderdale, FL where we arrived at about 9:30 am today.  This is where the contrast begins for this trip.  We got to meet up with most of our team and even hang out for a couple of hours, getting to know eachother!  What a difference it makes to have a group of new friends to travel with!

Another difference between this trip and the last is that we didn't have to do the Haiti airport on our own.  We were in a group of 14!  Also, our team leader was already at the airport and had a guy that came and got all of our luggage tags from us and had our luggage ready for us by the time we went through customs.  What a blessing!  We sailed through the airport and made it through the sea of folks forcefully wanting to help us with our luggage and to the truck with no problems.  I know it helped knowing what to expect this time, but having a whole team with us made all the difference in the world.

So, we are at the Guesthouse and it's 11 pm Eastern time.  Shad and I began our travels at 6 pm Pacific time yesterday.  It is quite confusing really what day and time it is right now.  Shad gave up and went to bed already.  I got unpacked, got organized and took a nice cold shower.  Never, ever has cold shower felt so good!  I would be in bed right now, but I don't like sleeping on wet hair.  I imagine it will dry fast in this heat!  Did I mention that it's hot?  But, it really doesn't matter.  I am in a completely different frame of mind tonight than I was ten months ago when we were here our first night.  Back then I was so nervous, on the verge of tears and desperate to go home.  Tonight I am pleasantly pooped and hot and so glad to be here.