Haiti Day #2
It was an early morning! We arrived at our hotel in Miami around 9:00pm, and then showered and hopped in bed! 3:00am comes early!
Ashley and I spent some time praying for the trio before going to sleep, but my mind just kept on going. I don’t think I will ever forget how abundantly God provided for Garett and I to go on this trip in 2021. I am so thankful for Rogers willingness to chauffeur kids, make meals, watch the dogs, and keep everything moving along, as well as work a full-time (or more) job. I am so blessed to be married to him. His quiet faithfulness and kindness remind me of how good God is to me. The mercies of the Lord are new every morning!
It’ll be an interesting day today. We arrived at the airport around 4:15am, and made it through security without a hitch. Then the quest to find one last cup of good American coffee began! There were not very many options this early in the morning, but at last we found an open coffee shop. Yay!
Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 6:00am, so we thought that we’d have plenty of time to get coffee, fill water bottles, and use the bathroom. But by 5:26am, the crew was making the final boarding call! Josh was still in line for a bagel, when the final boarding call came. The lady took the bagel out before it was finished, but Josh made it on the plane! It was kinda crazy though because then we sat on the plane until 6:00am to depart!
When we arrived in Port-au-Prince, we had to pay the fee to get into the country. Then navigate through customs after picking up all our bags. We’ve been praying that all our bags will arrive and that we will clear customs without any problems. While in the customs line, a lady was taking everyone’s temperatures. She then asked me if I had a Covid test. I replied, “Yes, but not recently.” She wanted to see proof that I had had a Covid test, but of course I couldn’t produce it! She then proceeded to ask me my telephone number so I rattled it off, and then she replied, “Go ahead”. I was completely baffled, and it totally caught me off guard! Haiti is not requiring Covid tests for entry, so I’m not sure what her purpose was in asking if I had one. Oh well! Anyways, we navigated that hurdle and then on to baggage claim.
We had met up with the rest of the team in Miami so we had twelve people and over 24 bags-each weighing close to 50lbs! After collecting our bags, I noticed that I was missing a suitcase....not again?! While nothing of extremely great need is in that suitcase, I don’t bring stuff to Haiti for the fun of it-we need it! That particular suitcase contained my pillow, sleeping bag, nutritional meals for children, and food!
After a few moments of chaos and confusion one of the baggage people came over with the suitcase. Thank you, Lord! Of course the baggage man needed a tip, so I gave one to him and his friend quite gladly. Then Grandpa Falde told me that he also had already tipped the man! Oh well!
We made it through customs with only one bag being pulled- a bag full of vitamins! The custom agent wanted Hannah to produce a paper saying that the vitamins weren’t expired. Hannah had brought along one, but she didn’t know which bag it was in. Hannah told them that the vitamins weren’t expired (truth) and that she was bringing them to children (truth). She also produced her nursing license certificate that is printed on fancy paper and lots of English words, and that was good enough! On our way again!
Next step was to load all the bags and people into one large dump truck for the five minute trip over to the MAF office. The trip was uneventful, and we arrived at the MAF office safely. There we unloaded everything and everyone. Everything and everyone had to be weighed. And then we waited...and waited... We needed to take two flights to Jacmel to get everyone and all the bags there. Eight people went on the first flight and lots of luggage too. Then some of us (myself, Garett, my dad, grandpa Falde,) waited for the next flight. Our Haitian nurse joined us at the MAF airport to join us on the second flight also. It was kinda a long morning, but we all survived. Around 11:45am, the plane came back from its first trip, and shortly afterwards, we were on our way. It was a very windy day, and kinda bumpy, but we made it. In fifteen minutes we took a flight that is normally a three hour drive!
Some of the team had already left for Seguin when we arrived in Jacmel as they needed to get started with sorting out the medical supplies. There was supposed to be two dump trucks to take us to Seguin, but only one truck was there...a small one. It wasn’t big enough to take us all up to Seguin. It was not big enough for the five of us that had been on the plane, plus the two ladies that had waited for us in Jacmel, and two Haitian cooks and their stuff too! The truck was a small one with a welded frame (like bars over the pickup frame). I hopped up into the pickup bed to help load the bag. I turned around and smacked my head right on that welded frame! Immediately I felt the warm and sticky substance of blood on my face. The Haitian man that was helping me load the bags immediately gave me his handkerchief to put on my forehead. Another Haitian dumped water on the wound and applied pressure. No one was wearing gloves, nothing was sanitary or overly clean, but they jumped in to help an ditzy American. Jackie (one of the ladies that had gone on the first flight) had some bandaids, so we slapped two of those on my forehead, and carried on. I had a very bad headache, like the kind you feel like throwing up from. But there was no time for resting, and I’ll survive! I drank some water, took some meds, and started up the mountain. On the back of the small dump truck was myself, our Haitian nurse (Samuela), two Haitian cooks, and two other ladies from the team (Jackie and Amanda). My dad, Garett, and Grandpa Falde waited in Jacmel for another dump truck to take them and the rest of the bags up to Seguin. We made good time in our little dump truck and it only took us 2 1/2 hours to get up the mountain.
When we arrived, I helped to put away stuff from the many bags we had brought. Some sorted clothes to give away, some worked on other jobs, etc. We worked on emptying out bags and suitcases, and we realized we had a problem. We had acquired a bag that didn’t belong to any of us! Somehow we had managed to get a bag at he MAF office that didn’t belong to any of us! Someone was missing their bag!
Oh but wait! So were WE! We realized that we were missing two suitcases! That same suitcase that had been missing in port-au-prince was missing again! And Hannah was missing one of her medical bags that she needed for clinic! Perhaps the bags were left on the second flight that MAF took? We didn’t know...we just knew that we had had ALL the bags when we arrived at the MAF office so the confusion happened somewhere there. Pastor Falde tried to call the MAF office but they were already closed for the day. Where were those bags? On someone else’s mission trip? Stolen? At this point, we have no idea! It sure would be a bountiful blessing if we could get those bags back!
Tomorrow we begin our first clinic in Seguin @ 6:30am. It’s sure to be a busy and full day. We don’t have as many medical personnel as a we usually do on these trips, so those that are medical people or know what they are doing will be kept very busy! It’ll be exciting to see how God works through me in the next few days. God is good!
But now, it’s almost 10:00pm, and I have 25, 000 steps. I have a major headache, and I’m going to bed. I’m thankful that there was an extra sleeping bag at the mission house, and that some dear Haitian lady washed this sleeping bag. It doesn’t smell moldy, there is no rat poop on it, and it smells like fresh air- Thank you, Jesus!
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