Lessons to Be Learned

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfqigNTNRsw

Today I arrived in Haiti at 1:40pm. I was the first to get on the plane, and first to go through the entrance gate for my stamp! I got motion sickness on the runway, which is my staple reaction to every place that I visit. At the airport I was bombarded with a Haitian wanting to carry my bags for me. I was like, “No, no it's okay!” He kept walking with us to the Samaritan's Purse van so I thought he was with SP, until he asked for money for helping him. There was no way I was going to whip out my money pouch, with all of my cash to get him money. The woman that picked me up had some dollars on her. Lesson #1 Never let a stranger carry your bags.

On the drive over we went by the tents, and a rough rough road. I'll uploaded a clip of the road trip above. People are mad drivers around here, since there are no road laws and no traffic tickets. I was oriented to the compound, only to find out that I will be going over to the JAX resort compound tomorrow. Currently there is an air conditioned tent with a tv, food, and internet service of which I am able to do this. There is a mountain on the backside I'd be able to hike up if I were to stay.

Then we got our orientation tonight! I knew it was unsafe here, but I didn't realize how unsafe until the talk. Lesson #2 Be much more scared, because it's more dangerous than previously thought! Corruption is so corrupt that there are things that I have never even thought of! For instance, the security officer was saying a SP woman hit a motorcycle driver who pulled out in front of her. The Haitians started slashing the tires, and it was a situation in which she had to escape. He said it's next to impossible to get a driver's license here. The government is corrupt. There is kidnapping for randsoms. A simple situation such as a boy playing with a ball can turn into an escalated situation. But no worries, they take measures for top security. There's informants out in the community with the organization that report back where anything wrong is happening, so they can alert the volunteers to get out if something dangerous is going on nearby. There are also Haitian guards with rifles at the entrance of the compound and stand outside our tent at night.

The alarm bell will be going off at 5:30am, and I am super tired, so now is the time to get my body on that schedule and go to bed now.