Day 1 - T.I.H. *This Is Haiti*

December 26, 2010
Day 1 - T.I.H. *This Is Haiti*

A view from the plane.

A video of the drive to our compound.

The U.N. and the nicest building you will see in Haiti.

I'm finally here!!! I made it to Haiti and boy has it already been an experience. I got off the plane and you get shoved onto a bus with about one hundred other people and taken to a small warehouse that is customs. I had no idea what to do and I couldn't understand anything the people were saying because they were talking in French. Thankfully after a few minutes of panicking, I met up with two girls from my group named Teasha and Natalie. They have been here before. Unfortunately, our troubles didn't stop once we met up. We had to go through customs three times. The first time we got sent back because Garry didn't give us an address to write down. The second time we wrote in green pen. The third time we finally got through and saw Garry. Once we met up with Garry we moved into another room where everybody's bags were just thrown on the floor. You had to go through the huge pile to find yours! After we got our bags and supplies, we loaded everything onto carts and made our way through the crowd to the outside.

Once we stepped outside, BANG! We were right in the middle of a mob of people in downtown Port Au Prince. People were around you everywhere you looked trying to take your bags so that you would have to pay them money to get them back. Garry instructed us to just hold tightly to our stuff and push through the crowd. Once safely inside of the car we made our way to our compound which is breathtakingly beautiful. I didn't expect us to be staying in a house, let alone a mansion!

The alley to our compound.

Our beautiful house!

Once we got to the house we put our things in the "girls bedroom" and we went downstairs to meet the rest of the team. People are from all over the states and even the world here. We have a doctor, Bagdhen who is from Holland and a lady named Leanne from Bermuda. Luke, Mikall, and Ben are from Utah. Sean is from Boston. Tony and Chris are from Washington D.C. and go to Georgetown. Dr. Anita is from Washington D.C. as well. Teasha is from Arkansas and Natalie is from New Jersey. Brian is a third year medical student from Vanderbilt University. We gathered for a quick meeting and introductions and talked about what our days are going to look like. It sounds like we are going to be super busy and in the middle of all of the action! I can't wait!

After our meeting we had our first experience with Haitian food. I have to say...not a big fan of goat and I'm pretty sure I'll be steering clear of all meat products this week. They don't eat cows here, they are sacred animals. They make this amazing spicy coleslaw and absolutely amazing fruit. We had fresh pineapple and guava juice. I could live on those two things alone for the next ten or so days I think!!

After dinner we started bagging up medications to hand out and then just spent the evening meeting everyone. The boys started an intense game of soccer in the courtyard and are screaming at each other in French and Creole, it is pretty entertaining. We also have acquired a rooster who everyone already hates. We are trying to convince our group leader Garry to kill him and let us eat him...he doesn't seem so into it!

Donations!

 This is called a tap-tap. We all lovingly nicknamed it the "death trap". It takes you where you need to go. When you want off, you bang the sides of it and the driver stops.

I can't wait for this experience to begin. I am definitely prepared. Mind, body, soul and spirit!