what an adventurous trip to Port au Prince!
Well, I had the funnest trip to Port au Prince ever! Saturday the 5th of November my cousin Lynn was heading back to Fraser Lake, BC after being here for 3 weeks and I went in with her to drop her off at the airport, get some shopping done and also do the first of my 4 yearly shifts at the "post office" where the missionaries pick up their mail from Agape Flights. Amanda (who is visiting us from Calgary for a month) decided to come along for the ride and get to see some of Port au Prince.
First off - we left the house at 4:15am! and picked up Nicolas (our driver) from his house and then hit the road. I drove as far as the outskirts of St. Marc so Nicolas could wake up a bit more. Then at about 6am Amanda & Lynn got a glimpse of the ocean and asked if we could stop so we stopped and jumped down to step into the Altantic ocean - boy was it nice and warm. And the view was gorgeous, the sun was just rising
Sunrise over the ocean
Amanda's feet in the Atlantic Ocean!
The gorgeous view
Lynn & Theresa in Haiti together!
Amanda & Lynn - actually in the warm Atlantic Ocean in Haiti!
and then Lynn & Amanda collected some shells before we had to hit the road again. I am sure that Nicolas thought we were three crazy white women!
Then we had to keep stopping to take photos of the UN tanks - especially for Lynn's son Shaun. We had one tank that was in front of our truck but there was a taptap in the way so I jokinly told Nicolas to get in front of him, so sure enough he did! He cut right in between this truck and a tank full of Brazillian UN soldiers.
The UN guys were quite friendly and waved at us while we are in the truck taking a ton of photos and then one of them pointed to his Brazil patch and we thought he was showing us where he was from, so Lynn showed them the Canadian flag on my bag and he shook his head and with actions, asked us if we wanted the patch, so Lynn said YES! and he threw it off to the side of the road and we stopped and ran out and got it!
We were all so excited and then when we stopped for a bathroom & water break at a gas station just before the airport there was an UN Police tank and we went over and asked if we could get out photo taken with them!
Theresa & the UN soldiers from Jordan Amanda & the UN soldiers
The Jordanian soldiers were more than happy to oblige us!
We then dropped Lynn off at the airport, - Amanda & I went inside with her and made sure that she got all the way through to the customs area (where we couldn't go any farther). We then went back out to Nicolas and the truck and started our day of errands. First off was going to find wire for the clothesline and doors. So off to Batimat where we found 2 doors and were stopped by more UN who were checking for hidden weapons in the vehicles - the UN soldier just stuck his hand in my window and opened up the glovebox and moved things around and then looked in the back where Amanda was. I had no idea what he was doing and when we left, Nicolas told us he had been looking to see if we had any guns in the truck! Such is life in Haiti!
We then had to run off to drop me at the Agape office so I could work for an hour and a half and Amanda went with Nicolas to pick up a part for the Montero that we needed and then checked for some other stuff we needed for the two vehicles and then back up to pick me up. Then it was time for lunch - off to La Pause for a big meal of rice & beans and chicken.
Yes - those are bottles of Pepsi - they were out of Cokes and only other thing they had was Limonade - so we went with the Pespi - Amanda chose the Limonade! Then off to Delimart - our first of 3 grocery store stops to stock up on a variety of needed supplies. The store was packed and so Nicolas said to stand in one line while he stood in another and see who moved quicker - well that caused a small riot as we had a HUGE buggy FULL of stuff and the people behind Nicolas weren't happy when I came over with the buggy! But that problem was solved cause the owner knew that Nicolas & us had been there for a long time waiting. Then off to One Stop which is also where we cash money so first stop was the office to cash two checks and then pick up a few items (mainly to make it look like we went in to grocery shop and not just get money!) then off to the Caribbean supermarket and finish off our shopping list. Amanda and I went in while Nicolas stayed with the truck and got stuff moved around so we could fit everything in. I was impressed - we were in and out of the store in 35 minutes with almost everything on the list! Then the fun part of packing the truck! With 3 doors also loaded in the pan of the truck we had some manouvering to do! We had 2 rubbermaid containers filled with stuff, 2 coolers full of stuff needing to be on ice, a case of toilet paper, a 20 lb coil of wire, plus a number of other boxes full of stuff. So - Nicolas climbed up to hold up the doors while I tried to rearrange stuff with
Amanda helping. Then this truck full of UN guys pull up beside up and some of them went into the store and 2 of them stayed with the truck (open jeep with guns still in it!) They were watching Amanda & I trying to get stuff into the different parts of the truck and climbing up into the back of the truck (in skirts!) and they started laughing and one of them pulled out his camera and started taking photos and I am pretty sure that he even took a little video of us!Amanda went and took a photo of Nicolas and I so we could remember the fun we had loading up the truck!
After we loaded everything into the truck we headed off for home - we took some back roads out of Port so we wouldn't get stuck in as many road blocks or traffic jams and we saw the sun setting on our way home
- we dropped Nicolas off at his house and I drove up to our house and then Amanda & I unloaded everything out of the truck (including the 3 doors!) and put it into the gallery - we were exhausted!
All in all though - it was one of the most memorable trips into Port au Prince!
I am looking forward to going into Port again on Thursday with Amanda - should be fun again!
