Back in Haiti - day 5 - travel

It's always fun to have visitors here from the states. It seems to get us out of our ordinary routine typically & helps us have a little bit of much needed fun. While we've only been back for a few days, the last few months & weeks have been pretty stressful and after a last minute trip to TX before returning we found ourselves here flat out! With the board members here for a week, we've put most of the unpacking & organizing aside to show them around, spend time getting to know each other better and talk about the future of Apparent Project. 

This weekend we are all on a brief retreat together at Club Indigo up on the Cote de Arcadins, one of our favorite places!!! I've never lived somewhere where you could leave home and find yourself in such a starkly different, absolutely breathtaking and magical place in a little over an hour (depending on traffic!).

So yesterday we took our group downtown into Port Au Prince to tour the city, stopped at the iron market to shop and headed up the coast and out of the bustling city for the quiet and rejuvenating northern coast. Unfortunately our trip took more like 3 hours due to an epic Haitian BLOKIS. I don't know if I can do justice to how these situations happen, but they are usually the result of a minor stoppage that becomes monumental because impatient drivers tend to start adding lanes to get ahead on both ends and then you have to wait for 5 lanes going in each direction to reduce to one or two at the slow down again in order for anyone to pass in either direction. It WAS one of THOSE days!

Hugo & I chilled in the back with the luggage trying to keep cool & drink enough water to replenish what we were perspiring off. Have to say that I felt a little like a kid again - sleeping on the floorboards of our old Chevy II on a road trip - while napping on the bench seat in the way back, reveling in the freedom from seatbelts here. Finally we broke free & Ted shuttled us on up the coast with his refined Haitian driving skills. 

Tomorrow...we'll share a little more of the BEAUTIFUL side of Ayiti!

Finally - a car that fits our "motto"...

...always room for one more!

One of the things we do the most in Haiti is sit in the car. Port Au Prince is traffic ridden, and we are constantly visiting one of our 12 church partners spread from one end of the city to another.

With the interns here over the summer, it became clear that our sweet little CRV was not going to do it. We were regularly carrying 1-2 people in the back cargo area, and often leaving someone at home, due to space in the car. We began praying that God would provide the perfect vehicle and a way to pay the difference between our current car and the new one. In HIS everlasting faithfulness, He did!

We found out about a 9 passenger (we have figured it to hold 11 if there are kids in the back seats!) Nissan Safari that was for sale by a family that had moved back to the US. One of the major concerns about a larger car in Haiti is the mileage & increased cost of gas. This wonderful "beast" gets the same mpg as our compact SUV - 25-26 mpg AND it is diesel, which is actually cheaper here!

The family agreed to let us put a down payment and to pay the rest off whenever we sell our current car. (only in Haiti!!) Ted was able to pick it up yesterday and says that it is the PERFECT answer to our prayers!