Made it, wahoo

Disclaimer: Most of my posts won’t be long. I don’t particularly enjoying blog posts that are the same length as the Illiad so I won’t make mine long with the exception of this one J

I arrived in Haiti today. Sounds weird to say, but I’ll keep going. Flights were very boring and very uneventful, just the way I like them, but that doesn’t make for very interesting reading, so I will fast forward to landing in Haiti. I visited Haiti in February so I had a general idea of the layout of the airport and how everything would work. After landing we got on a shuttle to take us to the main part of the airport. We got off the shuttle, went through customs and then headed to baggage claim. This is where it turned into a two ring circus (wasn’t quite crazy enough for three rings, but definitely deserved two). The bags are on a regular conveyor belt rolling along but everyone is shoving in to get theirs. No order whatsoever. Carts are being shoved into your ankles (three times in one minute, thank you lady in the pink shirt, that was fun), bags being handed over heads to people behind, general craziness. The converyor kept going, and going, and going and my bags were still MIA but, finally, they rolled by. I hoisted them off the belt, and dragged them (even “dragged” makes it sound WAY more graceful than it was) over to the customs area. The customs lady took my paper, didn’t look at it, and waved me through. Outside the airport someone checked to make sure my luggage tags I received at DFW when I checked them in matched the tags on the bag. I’m SOOO glad I kept that little piece of paper. After this final checkpoint I entered the madness. Outside the airport is a long covered sidewalk that takes you to the exit and the parking lot where people can pick you up. Airport workers try and grab your bags to help you with them, but they will also expect a tip after their service. I wanted my hands on my bags the entire time. So, while trying to be as least-jerky as possible I threw out several “no, no thank you, seriously NO” phrases to people helping with my bags. As I am walking I start to sort of panic inside “Wait, where exactly is my ride picking me up? Did I walk by him? Is there another exit where he might be?” The sidewalk seemed to get longer and longer the more I worried but all of a sudden I was at the end, not sure if he was in the large throng of people outside the exit and not wanting to leave the ‘safe’ confines of the airport to see. Then, I hear my last name from one of the airport workers behind me on the sidewalk…he says it again and I say tell him it’s me and he points to the only white dude in the crowd with a sign that says “EPLEY.” Yay!!! I knew he would be there, we had confirmed he would, but I still panicked a little.

We got into an older truck and started driving to the school. The school is about 2-3 miles from the airport but he said this would take us at least half an hour in traffic. We ended up going a different route (way more winding, bumpy, and way more awesome) but it took about the same amount of time. I’ll stop here and say, my favorite thing about travelling is the drive from the airport to where I am staying. This is my absolute favorite thing about visiting a new country. When I was here in February we left the airport and headed straight out of town. This time, we were heading straight into town. Half an hour, some goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, tents, cars, big trucks, and a teensy fender-bender later, we turned onto a street lined by a large grey fence. Behind this fence was the school.

We pulled up to the gate and honked and a man opened the gate and let us in. We were greeted by the director of the school who took me to my apartment that I will be sharing with Miquette! I am so excited she will be my roommate! More on her later… After I dropped my bags off, Rod (my principal) took me on a tour of the school. It is really an amazing place. Pics to come in the near future.

I came back to the apartment and began to unpack. The girl who was in this room last had left a lot of her stuff in the room, but she will be back in the morning to move it across the street to her place. I set up my bed, wrestled my mosquito net up, and unpacked a few things.

Miquette and another teacher, Kellyanne, invited me to go to dinner with them. It was already dark when we left the school and we walked about 4 short blocks to a little cafeteria area called Epi D’or. It was like a little foodcourt with sandwiches, pizza, ice cream, and an assortment of other things I couldn’t quite make out.  I got a sandwich and a drink for about $3 and it was huge and so tasty! The girls told me that here it is usually cheaper to go out to eat than to get groceries and cook at home…backwards huh?

Miquette is the school nurse and is originally from Haiti. She lived in Michigan for a few years but has been back in Haiti for a while. She is engaged to another teacher at the school and will be getting married in October! She won’t be my roommate for a while, but I will enjoy living with her for now. She led Kellyanne and I around the restaurant, telling us what stuff was, and giving us tips on life in Haiti.

I have been here about 6 hours and love it. I know that eventually the newness will wear off, but I’m going to soak in it right now like a big giant bubble bath.