First Look
Our stomachs were churning as we stepped off the plane. We gazed at the hand-painted sign informing us we had landed at the Port-au-Prince airport in Haiti. We made plans to travel with Jackie, the administrative director for Christian Haitian Outreach based in Miami, but itineraries had gotten mixed up and we were now on our own. We have traveled quite extensively the past few years, so it wasn’t the flying that we were thinking about; it was the “International” part we didn’t know about. Jackie told us she would be waiting for us right outside the double doors, what she neglected to explain was there were 3 sets of double doors once you exit the plane! I know our eyes had to be showing how green we were to this.
After getting our luggage and going through customs, we headed toward the exit sign. Out the final set of double doors we went only to be bombarded with people yelling things in Creole, English and probably French and trying to take our bags. Where was Jackie? We had seen an old picture of her but no one was looking familiar – at all! Then we heard it, “Heather, are you Heather?” It was music to our ears - we were saved. We hadn’t had any fear whatsoever because we grounded ourselves in the Word of God long before we even decided to go. However, we were very cautious as to whom we would speak to and ride with. CHO had warned us not to take any taxis or go with anyone that couldn’t prove they were with the ministry. Jackie let us know later how big our eyes were and how we looked like a couple of lost kids looking for their parents.
We studied books and many Internet articles on Haiti, the culture, the people, the poverty but, there wasn’t anything that could have prepared us for this. The next 90 minutes propelled us into a world we didn’t know existed. We had seen photos of areas where people lived in shacks on or near garbage heaps with all of their belongings fitting in a 10x10 space. What the photos and stories didn’t share was that a large majority of people in Port-au-Prince live that way. In an hour and a half of driving we only saw a couple areas that didn’t look like that. Most of these were the government building areas. Jackie shared with us about the wealth of the government and a select few, but we experienced the other 98% first hand.
The sites, the smells, the mass amounts of people everywhere. I am still amazed we didn’t hit anyone with our car. It is all about honking and swerving and hoping the other person moves. It really put our taxi ride in Mexico in 2000 to shame. We weren’t emotional or moved physically, but we did realize it took about 2 days to realize the impact of it all. It showed us how blessed we all are here in America. GFMI
