Haiti-Day1

Humid/Hot.

A lone UN Peacekeeper and his Blue Beret standing "watch". [I chose those words very carefully].

UNHCR Tents lining the fields around the airport.

[Note to self: Haitian makeshift airport in old warehouse: still nicer than Burundi's airport...]

Mobbed by crowd upon leaving the airport...[therefore turn around, head back in and grab the Brit who had come in on my flight, ask him to wait with me until I find my driver.] Outcome: New friend made and restricter of all the men grabbing at me. Check.

Finally after hunting down an airport worker to use their phone, I called Tim, he called the driver he had hired for me and eventually said driver found me and drove me to another airstrip where I would catch a small flight called Tortug, to the coast.

[Find driver in mob during hot sweaty afternoon. Success.]

12 hours after leaving JFK airport I arrived in Les Cayes, Haiti to my friends Joan and Tim Reinhard.

African thoughts noted:
The heat is the same as Bujumbura.
People still want to talk to you and pretend they know you even though they dont. [Hence taxi drivers saying they had come for me, when in fact they were lying and hadn't...C'est la vie.].
The joyful and not so joyful smells...oh exhaust fumes how I've missed you...
Coke in a glass bottle is a beautiful thing no matter the location...

Classic first day moment and I quote...
Joan: "Tim already has a trip planned for you."
Tim: "Yeah we leave tomorrow morning at 3:30am and will head up through the mountains...We should hopefully make it back sometime late in the night...
Lord Willing." Unquote.