Kethuvim

I'm back, and as promised, will be sharing my journal with you from the trip. Thanks for your prayers for the trip, it was amazing.

I guess this place is everything I expected and nothing like I expected. I expected poverty, but what I saw was hopeless destitution. I expected everything to be a little different than the States, but what I got was complete chaos. The streets of Port-au-prince are hard to describe. Two to three million people, trash everywhere, guys just peeing in the street, people all over the place selling the same crap, and hoping against all hope that someone will buy enough for them to eat that night, taxis called "Tap-Taps" loaded with people and blaring music. It was like some crazy, impoverished street carnival that never ends, and always smells of garbage and sour milk.

So, the drivers are crazy as well. There are no stop lights, no stop signs (did I mention that there are between two and three million people in this city?), no road markers, and no rhyme or reason to the driving pattern. The only general rule seemed to be that the person with the biggest vehicle and/or loudest horn wins. To drive here, you have to be half-skilled and half bat-crap insane. We saw a cop giving someone a ticket. I had to laugh. What in the world do you have to do to get a ticket in this chaos? Kill someone? Drive while sober?

Shortly after we arrived at the Lifeline Christian Mission compound in Grand Goave (by the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ), we unloaded a huge 45 foot long shipping container full of supplies. It was good, hard work and we got to work with some of the Haitian staff here at the compound. I worked with one man named Juvel. We were hauling lumber together and he worked my butt off! We were hauling it about 40 yards and he kept hurrying me back to get more. When we were done, we talked with each other a little (very little considering his English sucks and my Creole is worse). He asked me if I had a baby, and when I told him "Yes", he said, "Very good, good job." I thought that was funny. Anyway, I'm wrecked already from a long day of traveling and work, and because I've been sweating since we got off the plane.