Today has been a long and exhausting. With no sleep last night, and being sick, I am so tired ! But it was definitely worth it. We arrived in Haiti around 8:30 a.m today. It was beautiful flying over Haiti. The scenery was outstanding. So many mountains & tin roofs. We were greeted with a wave of heat, vibrant colours, and smiling faces. After we grabbed our luggage (which all arrived, thank goodness!) a bunch of men ran up to us and grabbed our suitcases insisting that they carry them. Jean met us while we were walking out of the airport his "Emily Hime Welcome" shirt. It was a relief to see him. When leaving the airport we rode in the back of a truck. Traffic here is crazy much like in Ghana. We went through the tent city. It is amazing to see how people live like this. Seeing all of the people who lost family, friends, and their property in the earthquake is heart breaking. We arrived at the orphanage around 9:30 a.m. We realized once we arrived that there is an hour time difference. The children greeted us at the gate yelling out my name and singing in French. They are all so adorable. We were given our own rooms. They are very nice.. not what we expected. The children sleep on the floor of the classroom, with only blankets on the bottom. When we walked into our rooms there were balloons and welcome signs. It is VERY hot here, more humid then anything. We played with the children for awhile and then went for a walk to the super market. We were expecting just a market where people sell things but it was actually like a grocery store. We bought lots of food for ourselves and some food for the orphanage as well. When we were leaving the grocery store it started to rain. We are told that it rains here every afternoon. Today It was more like a downpour. We got absolutely soaked !!!! They call this Haitian snow. The cereal boxes that we had bought started to fall apart and it was raining so hard that you could not see. We came back to the orphanage and decided to take a shower in the rain ! It was so much fun. After showering and changing our drenched clothes we ate dinner. We had rice, cooked banana, and something else.. not too sure what it was ! Jean bought us lots of bottled water. They are so kind to us and make sure that we are eating well, that our room is cleaned, and that we are having fun! I feel very safe here. We laid out all of the donations for Jean. He was so happy !!!! We gave the children skipping ropes and some other toys to play with at recces. We went to bed around 9:30 after playing a few games of cards.. we were exhausted !!!! I am sick right now so that doesn't help. As we were arranging our beds we noticed cockroaches running out of them. We spent half an hour trying to kill them but we couldn't even catch one. Sam of course spent the whole time standing on a chair (she is terrified of them since josh told her that they bite haha)
Although I feel safe it is dangerous. Jean will not let us leave the orphanage unless he comes with us. He says that people here do not have good minds. Everyone stares at you. He is trying to make sure that people do not know that we are staying here. I am happy that Jean is being protective ! He has planned to take us to the beach with his family on Saturday and next week we are going to Les Cayes for the weekend. He is also planning a trip to Cite Soleil for me so I can hand out all of the medical supplies.
I am so happy to be here, I already do not want to leave. The children & Jean are amazing ! I feel as if I could live here.
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