Haiti Trip

The convention center and Haitian country side.

As many of you know, I recently embarked on a preaching trip to Haiti. I refer to it as a preaching trip, because I was preaching at a convention. It wasn’t so much a missionary trip, as I didn’t spend time learning the language, customs, building houses, delivering medicine or anything like that. I just preached at a convention. Much like I would in America, but, in a different country, with a translator, where I was the only white person for miles around. (at this point everyone mentions that not only was I the only white person…but that I’m a REALLY white person…blonde hair, etc…)

Anyhooo… so here’s some snippetts of my trip.

Nathan and I had a breakfast at the airport, consisting of Starbucks coffee, and a cream cheese pastry. We joked that after viewing the living conditions of the people in Haiti, Nathan would never be able to buy me a 6 dollar shake, as he had in NYC, ever again. (Haiti is a rather poor country)

On the first couple of flights, I spent my time preparing my notes, and going through my sermon in my head. I really started getting excited at this point for the meetings.

Ah yes, word of warning for anyone in the Miami airport eating pizza for lunch. The container for the parmesean and the container for the garlic look IDENTICAL on the outside. The pizza there is rather zesty! I had to buy a pack of gum at the news stand after that one.

The next thing worth noting is how I felt as the plane took off from Miami. It really hit as I could feel the wheels fold up into the airplane. “Too late now, no going back, you are going to Haiti.” It was kind of a sinking feeling, I wasn’t sure what awaited me there. I wasn’t sure how the conditions were going to be. If I was going to be constantly fending off mosquitos, or half starving, or a whole host of fears that pop in your brain having never been to a third world country before.

Haiti from the air reminded me of Tucson, AZ. Port au Prince is a basin of sorts, that according to the book I was reading on Haiti for this trip is a more dry arid region, surrounded by mountains. That really fits the description of Tucson as well. The mountains were very pretty.

I felt like a real green horn going through the customs area. The first question was “what’s the address you are staying”. I didn’t know. Thankfully, I had the invitation for the convention with Bro Tanis’ number or I don’t know what I would have done. They were able to call him, and get the needed information. Praise God. “Your first visit to Haiti?” she asks. “Uhm…does it show?”

Thankfully, Emanuella came into the airport to pick me up, or I’m not sure how long it would have taken me to find them. Haiti is a CROWDED country. There are people everywhere. Port au Prince must be the size of NYC. We weren’t really attacked by too many people trying to carry my bags for a few dollars, I guess it’s because there were plenty of us together. One guy did realize we were Christians and shook my hand and said “God Bless you”. After I got in the car, he knocked on the window for me to give him money. I didn’t really feel what he did warranted anything. I’ll save my charity for people that actually look like they need it.

The traffic and driving in Haiti is VERY different. They drive on the right side of the road (most of the time), but passing is done in insane fashion sometimes. The motorbikes come so close to the other cars and dart between vehicles. I can’t believe they don’t have more wrecks than they do. Still, the people there are used to driving periously close to each other and just honking when you expect people to get out of the way. Honking isn’t rude there, it’s a necessity to alert other drivers where you are.

Public Transportation in Haiti – “Top top”

The accomodations at Bro Tanis’ house were very comfortable. He had bottled water available, as well as 7-up, Coke, and other bottled drinks. He even went out and bought treated ice every day so we could enjoy cold drinks.

Some peculiarities of course, that the modern American won’t realize really. They only get electricity for 2 to 4 hours a day (maybe). This mostly happens in the evening that it is turned on, but can happen really any time. It’s completely unpredictable. This helps them keep their freezer somewhatly cold, and their big car battery network charged. The rest of the time they use an inverter off of the car batteries to power the light bulbs and various things.

The other thing is plumbing. When the electricity turns on, a pump can get water from the well to a tank on the top of the house, forming a personal water tower of sorts. It works well enough to flush toilets and let water run out of the spigots.

This brings us to the topic of showers. While there, my morning showers consisted of a 5 gallon bucket of water being filled from the shower spigot. Then, I would take a smaller bucket, submerge it into the 5 gallon bucket to fill it, and dump it over my head. There was no water heating, but the temperature in Haiti rarely dips below 80 I think, so even if the water was cold, it was refreshing.

After showering, because I didn’t want to be bitten by ANY mosquitos, I would usually dress and then spray with bug spray. That was very disheartening, get all nice and clean and then spray off all over your arms and face. Better than malaria I’m sure. Actually the mosquitos weren’t near as bad as I feared, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

The food was pretty good as long as you like rice and beans and fried plantain. That was the staple. Otherwise we would have goat meat or chicken along with it. They always served a mildly spicy red sauce that was pretty decent too. Thankfully nothing ever really disagreed with my stomach. One time they bbq’d chicken with sugar cane used as the wood for the fire. They let the chicken smoke over the sugar cane wood. It was quite good. Quite good indeed.

The services were fine. Speaking through a translator was challenging, but I fell into it readily enough. I preached the first service of four, and there was someone who sat next to me and translated the other 3 services for me. After preaching the first service, I played my saxophone for the other services and hung out with the music people. They liked the same style of music I do, and we got along wonderfully and had a very nice time of praise and worship.

Speaking through a translator

Working in the fields

The 2 mile ride back to the main road from the convention center. 15 or so in the back of that truck.

This little girl was staring at me while her mother was talking. So I took so pictures and then would show them to her on the display. Most of the kids were rather awed by me. Probably never seen a blonde guy before.

Well, I need to get to bed for now. I may post more later.