Day One

Katie's Point of View:

Ash and I are in Haiti! exhausted but we made it to Haiti! It was a trip to say the least! We slept in the Fort Lauderdale Airport. Did I say slept? We closed our eyes for 10 minutes each in the airport.Kinda tiring... We then got on the plane to Haiti. The couple behind us were bickering in Creole. I couldn't pick up any of it but it was fun to listen to. We got to the airport and has specific directions...hold on to your passport and money! I looked like a turtle with my backpack on my back and my pillow covering my front. We got to Customs, no problems and our  next directions were to find a one armed porter named Jackson! Yes, Jackson! We had two 50+ lbs bags and two
backpacks and Katie's pharmacy, filled of any OCM you could think of. (Better safe then sorry) Step 3: pay Jackson and don't let him scam you for more than $8. Mission accomplished! We got into a cream colored "bus" and drove and honked our way through Port Au Prince. It was a scary drive by being told that people reach in and grab your belongings! We escaped the sticky fingers and got to a road that wasn't drivable. We got out and hoofed it with bus drive a "quick little guy". He walked on a steep, muddy, narrow path down the mountain to WINGS OF HOPE!!! I started to break out a little of French... it is coming back little at a time. But let's be honest, I barely passed French class as it is and that was almost 8 years ago. Give me a break. So we were taken on the grand tour and we were shown to our temp living quarters. Renee said we were going to be moving around a lot living on floors and stuff like that. Really, living like queens. We were introduced to all the kids! Holy macaroni! That was
system overload! I don't remember their names or faces. We made a unanimous decision, time to nap. But of course we had to eat. Just guess what we ate... one guess. Yup, rice and beans. Alsyndoor, The cook hook a couple of sisters up with some fish. No idea what kind of fish but I bet we got some Omega-3s. I hope. We napped on our king size bunk beds and woke up to make it a mission to know some kids. Had to use the little girl's room and I am still not sure how to really use it yet. Major rusty bottoms! We attempted to meet kids and what happened was we were pulled in every direction and hugged so much that the odor on me is not mine. We danced, played, talked, interpreted, laughed a lot, sang (head and shoulders in FRENCH thank you very much) We had a ball. I was pulled by Steven and Josephine. I met Sonny and every other person under that Haitian sun. NO RAIN! We fed the kids portage and forgot to eat ourselves. Thank you Mom and Dad for the millions of Power Bars, I foresee them all being eaten. I now have come upstairs and realized I didn't let anyone know I am alive. So, I am ALIVE! I was told I am going to be the gym teacher starting Monday! Let's get our calisthenics on! I am now going to attempt to "bag shower" and crash out! Good night to you all and I love you all. 


This is from Ashleigh Point of View:

We arrived in Haiti around 10 this morning! The treck was very interesting, but we made it to Wings of Hope with all of our items and money! The country is beautiful and depressing at the same time. People are everywhere in the streets and driving was a bit crazy. Think driving around Rome with dirt roads and no lanes and no stop lights! AAAAAHHHHHHHH! But we're safe and that's good. We also had to treck to our house down a muddy trail with all of our bags! Luckily, Renee recruited some help for us and they did the heavy lifting! But I was still so thankful for my awesome new hiking shoes!

We have just spent the day hanging out at Wings and getting familiar with everything that goes on and getting to know some of the kids. We met Soni from the book Soni's Mended Wings. I thought that was pretty cool. He is actually one of the teachers here now and helps out around the house! All of the children seem wonderful and I've already chosen some early favorites, but I'm sure within a couple of days they will all be my favorites!

The atmosphere here is pretty laid back....Katie and I already took a nap! We were super tired from traveling and we didn't get much sleep last night, so Renee let us take a little snooze after lunch.

The food for lunch was surprisingly good! We had rice and beans (of course) with some sort of fish in a red sauce. It filled us up! I think we'll ask for smaller portions tommorow because if we continue to eat the amount of starch that we did today, we're going to bloat up like hot air balloons! Ha! It was pretty good though.

Anyways, we are in the room for the night and are still pretty worn out from the travel. It seems we will have access to the internet everyday if we choose as long as it doesn't go down! So I think keeping in touch will be fairly easy. I don't know when we will be able to get phones. Possibly not until Sunday when we go to town. Either way, I think email will be the best way to communicate, and probably the cheapest too! Well I think its time for a thorough sponge bath!