Bus Adventure!

Well, unfortunately it has been a long time since I have posted anything on my blog.

A lot has happened in the almost 2 months since I have written.
First off, Feb 21st I celebrated my 26th birthday with a wonderful party with all my staff and kids present. It was really nice. The next morning, the 22nd we had our truck stolen while Nicolas was on his way into Port to pick up Kevan from a men's retreat. That has been very difficult for us as getting things done in Haiti without a vehicle is time consuming and frustrating. I have become very good at getting around our area on foot & taptap since then!

Early March we had to go into Port to get some much needed supplies so Nicolas, Janine & I took the public bus into Port, rented a vehicle, shopped and drove home in the rental, then the next morning Kevan drove back in with the rental vehicle, dropped it off and came home on the bus. Now the bus is an adventure in itself! First off Janine, Nicolas and I were out standing on the side of the road at 3am waiting for the bus to come from Verrettes. We would have gone to catch the bus in Verrettes but there are no taptaps at that hour and so couldn't get there. Nicolas was sure that the bus wouldn't be too full at that hour in the morning, but when the bus finally showed up at 3:45am it was FULL! We did find a spot where there was only one gentleman sitting and so I moved in next to him, thinking he would move over and I would save Janine from having to squish up next to some stranger. Well, he didn't really move over all that much and so there wasn't much room for Janine, so Nicolas asked the ladies across the aisle to stand up and he pulled out their bench a little so Janine could sit on the edge of my bench and theirs! What a great way to start off a 4 hour bus trip. Now, Nicolas was standing up as there was no where for him to sit, but because of the early hour, he kept having his head drop as he tried to sleep standing up so about a 1/3 of the way through the trip we decided that Janine would sit on my lap which she had to do anyways when someone wanted to pass by and Nicolas would take her seat. So Nicolas sat on the edge of both the seats, Janine on my lap and we all tried to rest - Nicolas slept against my bag which was on Janine's lap, I had my head on Nicolas' back and Janine put her head on the back of the seat in front of us and that was the start of our very long day! Getting to Port au Prince at around 7:15am we find out that the rental place doesn't open till 8am so we just sat outside and waited. We had made biscuits the night before and brought them along with jam for breakfast so we had a mini picnic outside the rental office. We had called ahead and they told us they would have a vehicle for us but once there they told us they didn't have anything for us. I was upset and said we needed a vehicle, we had called ahead, asked them to reserve one and we had come a LONG way because they said we would have a vehicle and we only needed it for one night. The guy went running around, calling people and finally called me and said they had a vehicle I could look at but it would be an hour while they cleaned it. I said okay and sat down to wait. About a half an hour later he called me up to the counter and said if I would come with him there may be a vehicle in the back that would be better for me and would be ready right away. So off we went to look, this vehicle was bigger than the first one and so we said YES! and within 25 mins we were on the road and getting ready to shop till we dropped!
First stop was the little grocery store where we cash all our checks. I had 2 checks to cash, one into Haitian dollars and the other into US. Turned out that they didn't have any US cash so only could cash the one check and off we went. One of the major things we had to do was find me a desk and chair for my office. The peice of board that Karen and I had been using just wasn't cutting it anymore and didn't give us enough space to do the work we needed. Karen had been in a couple weeks earlier and found a desk & chair for her and wanted me to go and pick out my own.
Then I had to shop for food & supplies for us and the orphanage and because we don't have a truck and didn't know when we would be back in, I was stocking up on alot of items. So after struggling through Port au Prince traffice we got to the first store where I was going to look at office desks. There I found a couple of options, one that I like more than the others but needed to go way uptown to the other store to look as well to make sure I got what I really wanted and also found the best deal. So another trip in horrible traffic to find out that the second store is WAY more expensive and doesn't even have anything I really like so back down to the first store to try and get a better price for what I like.
Once we get back the salesman came over and asked if we had found what we wanted, I said I liked this desk but did they have it in a box, he said that the display model was the only one they had and there was no way it would fit inside the SUV we had. So I started looking again and he came up to me and said that he called the warehouse and they had found one in a box. I said Ok, but is this the best price I can get for this desk? He gave me a bit of a discount and it was a decent price so I started to looking at chairs. When I found one that was comfortable, I asked the price and it was okay but a bit more than I wanted to spend so I was going to call Karen and ask what she thought. While I was on the phone, the salesman came over and said he could give me both the desk and chair for "this" amount and I had to try not to jump up and dance. It was way below what he had originally quoted and right in the middle of what I was wanting to spend. So I, without trying to look too happy!, said okay and he rang up the purchase. I walked out the store and Janine & I started dancing!! We were so happy and I hadn't even had to ask for more of a discount! It was totally a God thing and I got the one desk that I had really liked out of all the ones I had seen. I thought I was going to have to go with something that I only sorta liked but I got what I loved! Plus it was unassembled in the box so I was going to get to put it together myself which reminded me of many memorable hours at Hilltop putting together IKEA stuff! I love doing that!!
So now we could grocery shop, this is never a small job here especially when you have an orphanage with 18 people - and atleast half of them are young ladies!! (you all know what I mean!!!!!) So I went through stocking up on baby diapers, formula, feminine products, toilet paper, peanut butter, soap for the orphange (like 75 bars of soap!) flour, sugar, margarine, etc! I had to go to both of the big stores in Port to find all that I needed and by the time we were done I wasn't sure how we were going to get it all in the vehicle! Well, with some reorganizing and moving things around we got it all in (packed to the roof!) but only the two front seats were empty and there were three of us so once again Janine & I shared a seat! On our way out of Port, there was alot of traffic so we spent a lot of time not going anywhere and finally at 7:30 pm we were on the road home, with atleast 3 1/2 hours ahead of us. At around 9pm we arrived in St Marc and were stopped at a police check point with both the police and the UN there. The police wanted to be able to see in the back and wanted to know why we had so much stuff, so Nicolas told him I had an orphange in the valley and this was all supplies for them. Then one of the UN guys asked me to roll down my window, which I did - though only a very small crack, and he proceeded to flirt with Janine & I! After a very full day (we had got up at 2am that morning) we were not in the mood! Then the policeman asked why Janine & I were both in a seat meant for one person and we pointed to the back - like did you not see all the stuff back there!! and Nicolas said that we had bought too much stuff and so didn't have any room for a person in the back. They finally let us go and we were on our way again. We pulled into the compound at close to 11:00pm and then had to unpack the vehicle since it had to go back to Port the next morning! Not a fun job when you are exhausted! But over all it was a lot of fun and Janine & I say that was a good bonding time for us!!