Jonathan and Aaron left DesMoines on March 18th and flew to Houston, TX and then on to Miami, FL. They spent the night at the airport in Miami and prepared to fly into Haiti early Friday morning. Jonathan called me on Friday morning before they boarded their flight. I didn't know for sure when we would have the chance to chat again so I was glad to be able to tell him I loved him before he hopped on the plane. The flight into Haiti from Miami was only a couple hours. Upon arrival in Port Au Prince, Jonathan and Aaron were in for a bit of a culture shock.
"Well, we made it. It has been a long day. We arrived, got our luggage, and then we waited for our ride for a couple of hours. Haiti doesn't observe daylight savings time, so we are actually on the current Central Time Zone. That will be nice so we don't have to adjust again. Anyway, when our ride arrived, we had two people who approached Aaron and I holding signs with "Notre Dame" on them, and they took our luggage and helped us get to the car. Well, after the luggage was loaded, they told us that we each needed to pay $20.00, which we understood was the fee for the taxi. Unfortunately for us, they were just asking for a tip for carrying our luggage (I didn't try to converse in French because they were speaking Creole and a little English), so we "tipped" them each $20.00, and then they left. We didn't realize we got "took" for at least 30 minutes when I was talking with our taxi driver and asked him about it. He told us we tipped them "too much". As if I didn't know that already!! Aaron and I just looked at each other and laughed because we were so dumb! Anyway, we made it here to our residence around 2:30 PM and we are very hot and sweaty, but that is to be expected. I have been able to communicate with a lot of the people in French, which has been a great blessing. We will be starting in the OR at 7:30 am tomorrow. We probably won't have a heavy day tomorrow, but we hope things will pick up at the first of next week.I sure love you all! Give the boys great big hugs and kisses from Dad and let them know I love them too. I'll try to update you daily if I can find someone who will let me borrow their computer."
Here is Aaron upon arrival at the Port Au Prince Airport. They were looking for those promised signs, "Notre Dame."
Just outside of the airport people lingered along side the red fence watching the comings and goings. Here's the papa.
Jonathan and Aaron stayed in the Notre Dame Filariasis Residence. Standing on top of the residence they were able to look out over the town of Leogane. Pictured above in one of the countless "Tent Cities" that has become permanent residence for the natives living there.
Children playing soccer.
The big orange, white and blue tent is the hospital. There are six different wings. The operating room was located in the far back left wing. It housed two beds. It was air conditioned and where Jonathan and Aaron spent 99% of their time while on the island. The other wings of the hospital were for O.B., ER/admitting, recovery etc.
Time for bed boys... After many failed attempts trying to get the mosquito net over the bed and one mattress that was located on the floor, Jonathan and Aaron gave up and ended up throwing both mattresses on the floor. Jonathan rigged the net to hang from the above ceiling fan and there they slept soundly.
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