I wrote this on 8/1…
So our first official travel day to our second month of ministry was pretty eventful I must say. We made it safely across the boarder for one, yayyy. The instant you cross, there is a definite difference from the DR. For one the paved road turns into rocks, but also spiritually I immediately felt this peace fall over me.
I haven’t had much sleep in the last 48 hours so I’m gonna try a new blog. close your eyes (but read this too ha) and picture yourself traveling in my shoes :]
4AM- wake up call to finish packing and clean the house.
5AM- the two buses arrive to take all 46 of us and our packs the opposite way of Haiti to Santo Domingo.
5:15AM- uh oh. we’re short 2 seats because our luggage is taking up most of the room.
5:20AM- Stacey, Josh and me volunteer to play “hot potato woody”
5:30AM- the bus takes off with me in stacey’s lap :]
6:30AM- stacey can no longer feel her leg… it’s time to switch to josh’s leg.
6:40:AM- I realize I left my water bottle in the freezer, sadface :[
7:30AM- my bum is num so I stand up, for a bit.
8ish- we pull over on the side of the road for a bathroom stop, I decide I can squeeze on top on all the luggage in the back and ride flat.
8:30ish- plan successful!!!!
9AM- we arrive at the bus stop and early too
9:10- Megan has my water bottle :]
10ish- we hang out and take turns guarding our mound of packs while getting yummy cappuccino, waiting for our bus to depart.
11AM- we load an amazing huge comfy air conditioned bus. annnd we’re off on our way to Haiti!
12:30PM- we get fed an amazing lunch of rice, beans, dominican potato salad and chicken with a side of COLD coke. wahoo.
1:00PM-4:00PM- sleep and read time.
4ish- Shannon begins to explain to me how to properly use the word “dodge” like they do in Ireland… I don’t understand her crazy foreign words yet again.
5:00ish- we make it to the boarder!!
6:00ish- we finally get to cross after getting our passports stamped and exchanging money. After some of the team leaders and financial people (tommy and I included) almost got left behind by the bus driver… oops.
6:30PM- we make it into Port-du-Prince!!
7:30PM- still not moving in traffic in Port-du-Prince…
7:45PM- still not moving in traffic in Port-du-Prince… so Shannon and I, starving, decide to eat a PB&J sandwich made the day before. it was the grossest PB&J we have ever had. this brings on the conversation that Shannon thinks she has a worm because she can’t stop eating, but yet is loosing weight. I concur and we name him bernard :]
7:50PM- Shannon says she can feel bernard eating the insides of her stomach.
8:00PM- I kid you not, the second sentence in the 5th chapter of the book I was reading just then says: “We were so hungry that it hurt to drink water and we felt cramps in our guts. It was as though something were eating the insides of our stomachs.” ha weird.
8:20PM- I turn to Shannon and say “hey we should get up for the sunrise on the beach tomorrow!” she immediately looks and me with a glare and says “I’d rather die” …shot down.
8:45ish- we finally make it to the bus stop were we split off into teams and say our goodbyes until next month in Ireland :[
9:00PM- Team Transformers has loaded all our packs onto a small short school bus only to find out it won’t start.
9:05PM- we attempt to push it up hill so we can go down hill to get it to start.
9:15PM- still no luck in getting it to budge. so we recruit more men.
9:30PM- yay, we’re off and going! we’re told we should be to Grand Goave, where our contact’s home is… in 2 hours.
10:00PM- we’re at a stand still in more traffic.
10:30PM- 7 americans just stay sitting in a small school bus, listening and singing worship music while UN police walk up and down the streets.
11:00PM- we’re finally moving!
12:30ish- we finally arrive at our contacts house
12:45ish- we eat cold canned ravioli and rice and beans for our dinner. food had never tasted so good in my life.
1AM- finally off to bed! to be told church is at 7:30 in the morning and one of us will be giving the sermon… lol ahh race life :]
