The last days in Guatchupita went really well. We wrapped things up there and headed out EARLY Saturday July 31st. Our day started getting up at 4am to finish packing and clean the house before loading up on the bus at 5am. The drive TO Haiti was uneventful.
We arrived in Haiti around 4pm and had to cross the border. It took a while to get all 46 of us stamped through. Then us finance people had to exchange money – we had to haggle to get a good exchange rate. It was very chaotic and the bus was waiting to leave. My team not able to exchange money before getting on the bus. Thankfully some of the other teams changed more than was absolutely necessary so we were able to exchange money with them!
We left the border and headed to Port-au-prince. There was a lot of traffic so it was slow going. Haiti is in the central time zone and it gets dark early. We finally made it to Port-au-prince at 8pm (central time) where we grabbed our bags, said our goodbyes to our squad-mates, and met with our contacts. We put our bags in back and climbed onto a school bus with our contact, bus driver, and one of their friends for what we were told we be another 2 hour drive. A couple minutes into the drive our bus driver got pulled over and had to exit the bus. Not sure what happened but he got back on and off we went. It was dark out so couldn’t see a lot of Port-au-Prince but we did pass a couple tent cities. We drove west of Port-au-prince into the mountains. The roads were terrible – some parts covered by water and many of the roads filled with holes. The ride was very bumpy. We came to one section where a car was stuck so we had to wait for them to move. During the ride we kept hearing a clanging noise in the back of the bus.
We then came to an intersection that was a very tight squeeze…. There was a semi truck sticking out into the road and a store front on the left with people standing there. It was slow going because it was a tight fit but also for the fact that there was a big drop in the road. The first part of the bus made it through okay. Then we hit the drop. I was praying that our bus would not tip over. The back of the bus did tip a bit as the front of the bus dipped with the road. As the back tipped and we drove through the bus took out the tin roof that was covering the store front. We pulled ahead and had to maneuver the bus to get turned onto the other road (since we couldn’t make a right turn with the semi sitting in the way). The bus driver maneuvered back and forth for a while to get us turned around and once he did then stopped the bus to check out what damage had been done.
All 3 of our contacts went to check it out and left us sitting on the bus. After a little while a group of Haitians were heading towards the bus and they sounded upset (obviously couldn’t understand what they were saying). They opened the door and someone climbed on… in that instant I was scared that they were coming on the bus and going to drag us out or do who knows what. My next thought was to pray that God would protect us and I immediately knew that we were going to be okay because everything was in God’s hands. God brought us all here for a reason and I believe that He still has plans for us. The guy that climbed onto the bus turned off the bus lights and locked the door behind him so no one else could get on. My teammates and I continued to pray as an angry crowd formed outside the bus – I counted at least 25 Haitians. Will went to grab his knife from his bag in the back of the bus. Blake slept through the whole thing and woke up around this time. We all continued to pray as we weren’t sure what was happening to out contacts. Will had a GPS he turned on to try and figure out where we were because we had no idea. Sara called our squad leaders to ask them to pray and get advice from them.
Then the door of the back of the bus opened and a guy jumped on. He seemed to be searching through our bags for something. He then pulled up the pole that had been clanging around in the back and walked through the bus. We weren’t sure who this guy was and if he was for us or not. He jumped out and faced the crowd holding the pole. He was using it to warn the other Haitians that he was going to protect us if they did anything. We continued to wait and pray. Finally the main contact got on the bus and told us that the driver went to get the police. The people are angry and saying that some people were hurt. They not going to let them leave with the bus so our contact had called the orphanage and they sending someone to pick up some of us. Again, we waited and prayed that the crowd would get bored and go home which they did begin to disperse. The team felt more at piece and began to discuss what had happened. Apparently they were all holding knives except for me…. Sara had grabbed one and Blake grabbed a few that he had passed out to Krystel and Michelle.
The police arrived and came onto the bus and we were driven to the orphanage. Apparently the only way the Haitians would let us leave is because the police told them they were arresting the bus. We finally arrived at the orphanage about 12:15am (central time)…. And they showed us to our rooms and then fed us a meal that they had waiting for us for several hours. We ate a good meal and then had to set up our beds and things before we could go to sleep. We were exhausted and finally were back in bed 23 hours later! Our contacts had to take the police back and spend the night on the bus.
God definitely provides and protects. We were completely dependent on him that night. There was NOTHING we could do besides pray. It was dark. We had no idea where we were or how close we were to where we were going. We don’t know the language. We were a couple hours away from anyone else from our group even if we could tell them were to find us. Because it was dark when we arrived it was difficult to know who were our contacts and who were the people in the community. We cried out to God and he answered our prayers. He gave me a peace and complete faith that I was going to be okay no matter what because things were in his hands.
