Safe Arrival!

Arrived safely in Haiti this afternoon from Boston via Miami!  I’ll start with the journey… 

Nellie flew with me to Miami and my sister picked her up outside the airport before I flew on to Haiti.  We survived the flight together, although Nellie was on a 5 minute ADD cycle, which meant that she required pretty much constant entertainment.  In-flight movie (The Avengers) – 5 minutes, coloring – 5 minutes, listening to music – 5 minutes…you get the idea.  So I was able to nap, read, work, etc., as long as I could fit it into Nellie’s 5 minute ADD cycle.  At least she wasn’t running up and down the aisle banging seats…Cameron did that once when we tried to ‘put him out’ with Benadryl (apparently one of the side effects is extreme hyperactivity in children).  After I dropped Nellie off, I had a nice lunch with my travel partner and then proceeded to lose my wallet, right before the flight line-up started.  I ran the halls of the airport frantically looking for it, and ended up in the bathroom where I found a cleaning lady who seemed equally agitated and on her phone with airport security.  She spoke Spanish, and I spoke English, both of us manically trying to tell each other something.  I’m embarrassed to say that after one year of high school in Spain and another semester of college at a Spanish university, all I could manage to utter to bridge the communication gap was ‘walleta’?!  Fortunately, there were plenty of other women in the Miami airport bathroom who translated my mangled Spanish and the cleaning lady produced my wallet and I safely boarded the flight to Haiti with ALL of my belongings.  For those of you that don’t speak Spanish, FYI…walleta≠wallet. 

Arrival in Haiti...  Wow, what a difference a year makes!  The airport looked like an actual airport, pretty much all brand new.  The crashed plane was finally off the runway.  You could still see the tent cities on the far side of the airport fence, but they were better hidden this year than in previous years.  Although the airport was much improved, our driver was late.  In most places, waiting curbside at the airport is no big deal, but in Haiti, we were bombarded by packs of ‘drivers’ and what I not so fondly refer to as ‘the gauntlet’.  It’s hard to describe how exposed you feel when you’re overwhelmed with people shouting and pulling at you, and fifteen minutes of ‘no merci’s’ felt like a lifetime.  Fortunately, our driver did eventually show up, and the ride to our hotel took about a third of the time it usually does because of the road improvements.  The flowers are in bloom, the weather is gorgeous, and we arrived at our hotel to be greeted by some old friends for drinks and dinner. 

We stay at the same hotel every year.  During our first visit, it had just reopened after literally ‘pancaking’ during the earthquake and was still very much in the midst of rebuilding.  The hotel has made a lot of improvements and changes over the last three years, but the faces are always the same.  It’s strange how seeing the same waiter year after year brings comfort amid the chaos.  I watched a beautiful sunset over Port au Prince, enjoyed a delicious Creole buffet despite all the health warnings, and was bitten by at least three mosquitoes (thank goodness for malaria meds).  My room feels like a honeymoon suite, although the canopy over the bed is intended for keeping the bugs out and not the romance in.  I have satellite cable in the room, but a massive rainstorm wiped out my dream of watching Game of Thrones in Haiti.  I’ll have to catch up when I get back.

Tomorrow starts the real work...