Today was a day of travel, beginning with our wake-up at 3:00am so we could get to the airport for our 5am flight to Miami and then on to Haiti.
I sat next to a Haitian woman who was beautiful dressed in a silk jacket and dress with a matching hat and purse. She spoke no English and she hummed while we waited for the plane to take off. I could tell she was very nervous and when the stewards handed out the immigration forms, I felt so helpless that I could not explain to her how to fill it out. The Stewards were so busy with handing out drinks and snacks that she finally just asked the people in front of her to help.
She hummed her songs the whole flight – and it was amazingly peaceful.
After landing in Port-Au-Prince around 1pm EST, Alix picked us up and took us to visit his Aunt She served us traditional Haitian spaghetti and surprised me with a cake for my birthday, which I’m not allowed to see until tomorrow. Then we were back in the car to drive to Boileau and what a crazy drive we took – the pictures don’t do it justice. It was like fish swimming in the ocean, but total chaos instead of graceful 🙂 I am still amazed we got out of there without getting injured or killing someone! We passed so many sights that were indescribable – trash everywhere on the roads, broken down homes, people everywhere, dogs, cows, donkeys in the roads, people in tap-taps – these are Haitian Ubers, loaded with people, going who knows where. There were so many people on the streets, it was crazy. We finally got out of the city into the more lush area of the island. The ocean views were beautiful and I can’t wait to actually stop and see it. We made it into Boileau around 5:45. It was so exciting to finally see the village we have spent so many years supporting. Father Ingrid had a feast prepared for us – pork, goat, fried plantains, salad, rice, a french slaw that was delicious and of course a bottle of wine. After dinner we drove down to Martineau to the Nova facility where we are staying in the evenings. We then wrapped up the night preparing for our first village tour (Flamand) tomorrow.
Please keep us in your prayers and ask the Lord to guide us on our mission to find our new village.
– MaryLynn Hilton