Day 8: Coming to America

Call time this morning was 6:30 since we had a lot to cram in before out flight back to Miami. However, our last day in Haiti, with no problems at all, it finally hit - diarrhea. It hit Matt early. Jonathan followed, though never really ended up with a full case. I had some rumblings, but took some preemptive immodium and successfully avoided any unpleasantness.

With our roll of toilet paper and meds, we set off to meet the drill company for our first adventure in water well drilling. (As usual, 2 up front, 3 in the middle seat, and the back packed with gear - this time plus our personal stuff, as we were not going back to campus before we left.) They are a Mennonite group, and were nice enough to let us use the bathroom at their base of operations.

We drove a little ways out and turned onto a dirt road (at this point, dirt roads aren't any surprise). We ended up at this compound of sorts and met up with the drilling rig. There was an existing well there, but it only went down 60 feet or so and wasn't producing. Mike, the driller, predicted at least 180 feet before they'd hit water. We attracted quite the crowd, but that also gave us opportunity to shoot a quick HWP video piece.

Since the drilling would take several more hours, we headed off to our next location. This was a church with an existing well just a little bit outside Port au Prince. We set up and did our last sign concept.

We loaded up one more time and headed for the NCM warehouse to do one last interview. I apparently was tired and took this nap.

We set up at the warehouse and interviewed Pastor Lucien, a pastor in Haiti and serves several other important roles in the Nazarene church.

The location of the warehouse was in some kind of recycling / scrap yard where people could come sell items they'd collected. (A big item is re-bar, which is easy to find with all the damaged buildings.) It wasn't quite OSHA-friendly, but seemed decently organized.

It was a short drive to the airport. Our flight was at 6:15, so we had to be at the airport by 4, and made it by 3. The red caps swarmed us again and of course wanted more money than we wanted to pay them. They follow you all the way inside to the first security checkpoint. They scan your bags and you go through a metal detector. Then comes ticketing and bag check. Then you head to immigration. I went through first and the not-so-friendly Haitian lady wanted to see the small part left over from our immigration form we got upon entering the country. I explained I didn't have it. She said, "You have to have it." I said I'm sorry, it's in my checked luggage. To which she said again, "You have to have it." And then she rolled her eyes and stamped my passport. So I guess you don't HAVE to have it, but if they ever do an immigration audit, the government of Haiti will think I never left. Shhh. Don't tell.

We then went through the second security checkpoint - another metal detector and xray scanner. We decided to go upstairs to the lounge area and wait out our time. We had some cokes, bought a souvenir or two, and tried to ignore the bad Latin soap opera overdubbed in French. (Which all the Haitians were glued to, oddly enough.) About boarding time we headed back down, only to discover we had to go through security again.

With no wi-fi, we just waited it out until we boarded our Airbus to Miami. Row 10 this time, fairly removed from first class and the disdain it casts on us economy travelers. Next, a flight attendant walked down the isle holding what looked like an air freshener, spraying it at the top of the cabin. Turns out it was insecticide. We'd never felt so much like animals before, but I supposed nobody really wants bugs.

The flight was an easy 2 hours. We even had a meal. Topics discussed included: NYC prep, the Haitian drive to succeed, if a plane that landed in water would float, if the plane lost all it's engines is it possible to land in water and survive at all, would you rather crash land in the ocean during the day or at night (dusk is the correct answer), the HWP video, our story to tell customs if we got questioned, if a famous Haitian band was on our plane (they were), and various other items. We landed and promptly fired up our cell phones, dormant for the past 8 days.

Immigration was a breeze. We grabbed our bags and headed to customs. Apparently, squarely in the category of "we don't tell you this, but you should have done it anyhow, and now we're gonna hassle you because you didn't," we didn't register all of our video gear before we left, so they had to inspect it all with Jonathan. They gave him a hard time, saying they could seize it, but they didn't. Thanks US Border Patrol for your vigilance in being suspicious of lots of expensive video gear coming back with three American citizens from the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.

Jonathan's brother picked us up, we swung by McDonald's (mainly for me and my sweet tea fix), and have crashed in his living room for the night, where we are enjoying fast internet, cool A/C, and showers with our mouths wide open.

We have to be up early to catch our flight back to Nashville, so this is the end of the road for me. If you've made it this far, we appreciate your interest, prayers, and support to all of us in this project. The video will take about a month to edit and finalize, but hopefully we can post it here when it's complete.

If you ever get a chance to visit Haiti, do so. It will open your eyes to a world of need, but also to a wonderful people living in a beautiful place.