Saturday---

Arrived to a very busy Port Au Prince airport  with people fighting over carrying our 23 pieces of luggage because we are from North America.  Bobby, the Mission of Hope driver found us and loaded all luggage into a wire sided truck.  The frenzy felt like I was back in Ethiopia when I got to pick up my sweet grand girls December 2011.  After the luggage we were loaded into the truck.  Wow quite a welcome ride!  Made the overnight discomfort of Spirit airlines a distant memory.

We arrived at the Mission of Hope campus in Titanyen just about 1 hour north of the airport.  We began to unload all our donations which totaled approximately $4K worth of supplies to be used at the Medical Clinic,  the school,  the orphanage,  and in the kitchen to feed us and the other teams expected that day. Thank you Mountain View Church for all you gave to us to bring.  We also had gotten clothes from Journey Church left over from the flood distributions.

We had a brief orientation from Elizabeth, lunch and a brief settling in hour before we were loaded in a van for some Village time.  We went to Cabaret a town of 80K a bit to the north.  Our job was just to talk to people and love on them.  Each foursome was given an interpreter and we set out.  We felt like fish out of water but soon found some boys wanting to sell something.  We had already in our brief orientation been given some info.....#1 RULE..DO NOT GIVE MONEY or YOUR PERSONAL ITEMS no matter how cute or needy!  We then spotted two girls carrying water.  We did not know what they were doing so decided to talk to them.  They were shy but shared they were carrying a 5 gallon bucket of water to their home.  I volunteered Steve to help out:)  Steve said it was too heavy for an old man.  I was worried but joined him and thank the Lord there home was a short block away.  They shyly thanked us and we later spotted them getting another bucket full. That bucket weighed between 45-50 lbs!  We asked them if they liked school and they enthusiastically said "YES".  Evidence that it is a privilege in Haiti to be able to attend school.

We also talked at length to an older looking woman(oops 53).  She was a grandmother of 2.

Johnny our translator that day lives in Port Au Prince.  His English was much better than our french/creole but I wonder how much really was translated but not understood.  Johnny was driving during the earthquake with his brother.  His brother died and his Dad was seriously injured and died later. He continues to live with extended family.

One of the translators speaks 5 languages.  He directed his group to pray with those they met if they desired it.  The people were very warm and relational.  A beginning to know Haiti experience.  I wonder if we wandered the streets of Greeley if anyone would talk to us.