I apologize for the extreme tardiness of this post! I did not have internet capability during my last several days in Haiti, and since then getting acclimated to "this life," (still not ready to call it "real life,) has not been as seamless as I had envisioned. No problems, just a lot to do, and a little tired at the end of the day...
Anyways, our last couple of days in Haiti were not without emotion and adventure. As I mentioned in my last post, saying, "see you later," to the kids at the orphanage was quite difficult. And they are constantly on my heart and in my mind.
The last morning that we were in Les Cayes, which was the day before we traveled, Yelline taught me how to make Fried Plantains. For those of you not familiar:
–noun
1.
a tropical plant, Musa paradisiaca, of the banana family,resembling the banana.
2.
its fruit, eaten cooked as a staple food in tropical regions.
Certainly not health food, but quickly became a comfort food. And, if one is ever out in Haiti, they seem to be a safe choice to order at a restaurant, as no bacteria could survive the double frying. I became a fan of that after I was sick. The other dish pictured here is just sauteed onions with tuna and hot sauce. A pretty yummy combination with the plantains! Since I do know how to prepare the plantains now, and was the recipient of a "plantain press," as a farewell gift, one would logically ask if I've made them since I've been home. Nope. Not out of lack of desire, but lack of plantains. I've been to 3 grocery stores and have not found them yet. I don't think there is a "plantain season" here in Michigan, so I will just keep looking. I've heard that people have seen them here...
Also, the morning that we woke up our last day in Les Cayes, there were huge downpours. I mean worse than before.
And I became a little concerned about our road trip to Port-au-Prince where erosion and earthquake damage leads (on a good day) to frequent sightings like this:
or this...
which can make for a very long and treacherous trip!
Fortunately, after we said "see you later," to Ziane, Sincia, Veline, Yelline and Warens, and hit the road, the skies quickly began to clear.
It took somewhere around 4 hours to get to Port-au-Prince, but once there, everything, and I mean everything, is bumper to bumper traffic, except for the middle of the night, when, according to Israelson, it's a little better.
Along the way, we saw too many tent cities to count, and too much earthquake damage to wrap our minds around. I took many photos, but you've seen them on the news, so I'll only share a couple:
Note the tent on top of the fallen building. There are not only so many tent cities, but also, just random tents everywhere. On top of other standing homes and businesses, in front of homes or businesses, or just along the side of the road.
The above scene is fairly common where there is earthquake damage...one guy with a sledge hammer trying to break what remains of his home or business into manageable sized pieces so that he and his friends/family can move them by hand, or in a 5 gallon bucket, to the road to be picked up and hauled away. Can you imagine? Their tenacity even now when I think about it, brings tears to my eyes. My logic would tell me, "I'll never get this done. 10 years. I'll never get this done." And yet, this is what they are doing day after day more than 7 months after the earthquake.
Our mission, once in PaP was to ship some bamboo, via FedEx, from Haiti to Belgium, for some work Tom is doing.
After an additional hour and several phone calls, we found the FedEx office near the airport. Someone from Tom's office had spoken to 2 people at FedEx International that assured her that "all" we had to do was drop off the 4 tubs of bamboo, the FedEx officials there would have Tom complete some paperwork, then we would take it to the Dept. of Agriculture Quarantine office, and drop it there. Then FedEx would pick it up from them, and take care of the shipping.
I know, you beat me to the punch. That's what was supposed to happen. However, nothing is easy in Haiti and everything takes much longer than your
mind can even conceptualize.
Oh, by the way, this is what the temperature gauge in the car said during all of this, and we had suspected for days that it was a few degrees off (lower) than the actual temperature outside.
But, I digress.
The woman at FedEx knew nothing. Did some checking. Nothing. After 30 - 45 minutes, still nothing. She suggested that we just take the bamboo to the quarantine place and start there.
Ok. Seems easy enough, right? Israelson had been told "about" where that government office was. Well, (say it with me now...), nothing is easy in Haiti. Just one scene along the way...
A sort of "clothing market" above...
And below, I saw, on more than one occasion, people digging through the trash heaps for something to eat....
Well, after driving and looking, calling for clarification, stopping to ask directions, for about 2 hours, I think, we had not yet found the Dept. of Agriculture quarantine building. It was now starting to get late, and we decided to give up for the day and head to the hotel. Tom had been driving all day, and at this point, our temperature gauge in the car looked like this
and was going up. (I soon realized that I had reached the point for that day where any more photos were just going to get me into trouble with my other passengers....so I just took one more
Israelson in the backseat, telling Tom that the temperature gauge is going up, while Tom is trying to climb a San Francisco type hill in bumper to bumper stop and go traffic with a manual transmission. See why I didn't take any further photos on this day???We eventually found our hotel (directly across from a tent city. Hard.), and checked in. There was a pool, which was nice, but the food was not...so it was a hungry evening and next morning.
For a moment, though, in the morning, an internet signal on my ipod for a second and posted on Facebook that if anyone could find the address and email it to Tom, we'd be most appreciative.
Quickly, one of our friends, Jim, from the Grand Rapids area did just that! I proudly told Israelson. He quietly said, "Thanks. But in Haiti, it just isn't the same as the U.S."
Israelson was also worried about the car because it kept stalling and didn't accelerate well, so we found a couple of places and and found someone to take a look. He said that we were ok to complete our mission for the morning, but then he needed to replace the fuel filter, or something.
We drove more. Called more. Stopped more places to ask directions. The address didn't help us, as is typical there, I guess.
Finally, we stopped another place to ask for directions, and this man
said he knew right where we needed to be, and offered to go with us! So, I moved over into the middle of the backseat, and he jumped in beside me. I tried to put out of my mind that whole "never pick up strangers," and "keep your windows rolled up and doors locked while in PaP," thing. I just prayed. That we'd be safe, and that this man knew where he was going. The latter quickly became the more fervent prayer.He took us down some roads that seemed impossible to hold government buildings, but sure enough, when we pulled in the gate that he pointed out, we saw large, large trees planted in perfect rows and several large, beautiful buildings. We all sighed a collective sigh of relief. One of us said, "Ok, this is good. At least if that building in front of us isn't it, at least someone can tell us which building to go to." (There were no signs.)
Israelson pulled up next to a couple of gentleman and explained what we were looking for. At the point when the man started shaking his head back and forth, then made a sweeping motion to the right with one arm, and a sweeping motion to the left with another arm, and then held hands very close together and moved them in a forward direction, it was clear to me.
We needed to head east around the mountains, back west around the mountains, and then abandon the car and crawl with the 4 tubs of bamboo through a very narrow tunnel to get to where we needed to go.
Disappointing.
However, God is good (all the time...), and mountains and kneel-crawling were not necessary. Just another 45 minutes in the car.
Finally, down an alley, we turned into another unmarked gate, found an overgrown lot with several empty looking buildings, one disabled vehicle, and were apparently "there." Israelson found someone to speak with, and sure enough, it was the right place! Yippee!
The right person to speak with, was NOT THERE, however, so this is what Tom looked like while we waited...
Our navigational system, (see prior photo) took his $20 U.S. dollars (all we had...), and hitched a ride home, a very happy man.Once the right man came back after another 30 or so minutes, he informed us, that yes, this was the right place, but ONLY after the bamboo had been fumigated and certified. Sigh.
Tom knew that it had to be fumigated (to his credit), but the agency in Les Cayes had implied that it would all be taken care of at the same office.
Well, at this point we needed to be at the airport! We had spent another 4 hours on this wild goose chase. So we found a quick bite to eat, and Tom gave Israelson instructions on what he needed to do for the bamboo after we left. He also left him some cash to take of those things.
That was last Thursday, August 19th. Speed ahead to today.
Israelson successfully got the bamboo to the fumigation place on Thursday. It was due to be ready on Friday. Israelson took the car in to get the repair it needed. That took all day Friday. Israelson called about the hours of the quarantine place and was told they were open from 8 to noon on Saturday.
He picked up the bamboo from the fumigation place and went to the quarantine place. They were not open until Monday. That was yesterday.
Yesterday the car needed more repairs because the first guy messed it up more than he fixed it. As of tonight, Tuesday, Israelson is still in PaP, the car still doesn't work, and the bamboo still hasn't gotten to FedEx.
Please keep Israelson in your prayers. He works so hard, and this ordeal is especially taxing on him. He needs relief from the car issues, and some help in the work that he is doing. He is faithful to the Lord's calling and to his family. I am praying that he gets a break soon.
That's it for tonight. Whew! Long. Soon I will post about "re-entry" and some other updates.
I intend to continue to use the place to update you all on the happenings in Haiti, but some Michigan life will appear from time to time, too.
Blessings my friends!
kimberly
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