Well, mom and I have had our first day at God’s Littlest Angels (GLA) and so far so good. We were warned that the Port-au-Prince airport could be a bit chaotic, and once we reached the baggage claim, we understood why. There were hoards of people trying to reach the Air Canada carousel in what can only be described as a free for all. I set mom up in a corner with our carry-on, and then pushed my way to the front of the line. I am pretty good at making my way through large crowds, and in no time, was at the carousel. My location was not helpful though, as our bags were no where in sight. I left my spot to check on both sides of the carousel, since people were taking bags off and leaving them to the side, but still no luck in finding ours. There were still at least 50 people waiting for bags, although many were waiting for their carry-ons (there wasn’t enough space on the flight to have all in the cabin). Finally, an hour and a half after landing, our bags came, one after the other. We met our driver, who was getting worried that we hadn’t made it, and were led to the van. We were still waiting for Marguerite, a 78 year old, who was on the same flight from Montreal. About 5 minutes after we were loaded on, she arrived. But otherwise, nothing out of the ordinary. Our plane was primarily Haitian citizens (or Haitian born) and the rest of us were either traveling for a wedding, or coming down to volunteer/do mission work. One girl that we met at our hotel in Montreal is coming down for 6 months.

Our drive up to Petionville (Thomassin) was a long one, even though it is only 12 miles or so to the airport. Tim, one of the founders, said it has taken them up to 4.5 hours before to get there. Traffic was pretty standard, but the hills are SUPER steep! You would have amazing legs living here. I am not sure how they manage to move during the rainy season. I can only imagine that the streets would become rivers cascading down the mountain side. And people will walk up to 10 hours twice a week to go to the market! We have learned that Haiti has some very tall mountains, and has more peaks in its small area than the Swiss Alps. The highest peaks reach up to about 10,000 ft. On a clear day, we should be able to see the Dominican Republic (mountains) and the ocean off of Port-au-Prince. Despite its small size, it takes forever to drive anywhere, since the roads are all mountain roads (narrow, steep and winding). Everything is built into the side of a mountain.

There does not seem to be too much damage from the earthquake in our area, but across the way at the rock quarrry, you can see where there was a landslide. At the moment, it is quite dry, as it hasn’t rained since hurricane Matthew. It actually reminded me of driving through the outskirts of Barranquilla and into el Prado. The houses are of a similarly Caribbean construction. Cinderblock and rebar, although not quite so colourful, and definitely not as much noise! However the buses, the people everywhere selling stuff on the street etc look very much the same (just more African). We do happen to be staying in one of the nicest areas of the city. Despite its poverty, Haiti does not appear to be a starving 3rd world country. There were very few stray dogs on the street, and although there is garbage thrown in the ditches (and burned) it doesn’t seem too dirty. Dusty, yes. Cold, surprisingly so! Of course, we have not been to any slums or tent cities, and I know that it is much worse in other areas. The only other excitement we had on our drive up was that the police pulled our driver over. He hadn’t done anything wrong, but apparently the cop took offence to some comment our driver made when the cop pulled another lady over.

Today we had our first day at the orphanage. There are 4 other volunteers here right now. Marguerite is from Quebec, Naomi and Margaret are from Manitoba and Susanna is from near Saskatoon. We had our tour this morining. Their NICU is I guess the best in the country, even though it is a tiny room. They can do IVs, have an incubator and warmers. The babies are so tiny in there (but we can’t hold them since their immune systems are too weak). I guess there is also a stomach bug going around. We can play with the kids that are in Urg A and B (the 1-3 year olds). This morning we played with a couple of the older kids. Mom had Djenot, and I took Cleef. They are cuties, but we had some really smelly diapers… Then we took a few of the younger ones, Marvins and Hervens (who are twins, although Hervens is significantly smaller than his brother). I have been taking some pictures, although they are on my camera, so I can’t post them yet. (Tomorrow I will take pictures on my iPad to share right away). Basically, our job is to give them the one on one attention, and work on some developmental skills. They do not have much in the way of language skills, and it is mostly free play at the moment, but Naomi and I are thinking of trying to do a little more structured play tomorrow. After lunch, we got an hour break, and then we took a few of the kids who had been at preschool in the morning. I had Kervyns and mom had Wilfred. Wilfred is a quiet sweetheart. He will definitely be the kid in school who watches everything, and does his work throroughly. We took them for a walk to the lookout point (and got to dress them up in their “nice” clothes). After that, we watched all of the kids in the nursery while the nannies went to Bible study.

So far, the food has been good, and mom is getting a lot of French vocabulary coming back to her. Creole is a bit tough to understand, as some words are very different than in French. The way it is written is very phonetic, so if I say it out loud, I can sometimes catch what it means. I am curious to know more about Haiti’s history, as I realized I know nothing about it, other than it was a slave colony for the French. There is a new president (prezidan) being installed sometime next week. It is also very cold at night. I don’t need my winter coat, but I am currently wearing my boots, and am wearing my long johns as pyjamas. During the day it gets pretty warm though.

Rose’s perspective:

It was a good day, other than my back is in a snit. I remember how to play, and my French is coming back! I am good at caregiving, but had forgotten that I could play. Getting up and down off the floor is really tough though, and I am feeling very old as I hobble. I enjoy watching the kids’ personalities, but I have noticed that all the kids have runny noses and colds, and skin issues, and their bums are all very smelly. Poo should not smell like that! It is very runny and sour smelling. Definitely something not right in their diet!