Destination: Haiti

Our initial traveling to Haiti began with the 2-3 hour bus ride from Riversdale to Kingston. When we unloaded all our gear, a few troubles began. Initially, our plane ticket says that each person can have 2 pieces of luggage, weighing up to 70 pounds each. When we weighed a few of the relief bags, they were over that weight, so we strategically evened out the weight so none of them were over the limit. When we finally figured that out, we got in line to each check in our 2 baggage. Unfortunately, the airport personnel told us that the 2 baggage together must total 70 pounds, despite what the ticket says. This was a problem because none of us could meet that requirement. We told them our situation and what we were doing and prayed for favor, but they couldn’t waiver that much weight on the flight. They did however allow us to have an excess 10lbs for each pair of luggage. Again, we stepped out of line and worked on the baggage weight. We paired up lighter baggage with heavier ones and took out most of the rice we were taking. After it was all through, we had to leave 2 large bags of relief food and clothes.
The first flight, leaving at 5:33pm was to Panama City and only totaled 1 hour 50 minutes. It was fun since all 12 of us got to sit together and we received dinner on the plane. We caught our next flight to Santo Domingo soon after and arrived at that airport around 12am. By the time we got through customs and onto the YWAM base in Santo Domingo, it was about 2am. All of us were exhausted and found a corner of the room to sleep until we had leave for Haiti in 2-3 hours. Bright and early, we helped load the bus when it arrived after 5am with our luggage and water. We set off at 6am heading towards Port-au-Prince.
At the border into Haiti, we had to get off and confirm our faces with our passports to the security personnel. Initially, they were asking for $20 each for visas to enter into Haiti. We were able to get the price down to $100 total, which was still a lot considering that we aren’t even supposed to need visas to enter into Haiti.
We arrived at Port-au-Prince around 12:30pm to drop off Danine, a staff member from the D.R. base, the water, and our relief supplies. We had to switch buses to continue onward to La Craze. We went from a large charter bus to a 12 passenger van, in which we had to squeeze 14 people with all our luggage and loads of bottled water. It was a long 4-5 hours to La Craze. Thankfully, we stopped once to stretch our legs and grab some juice. We shouted “Hallelujah” when we arrived at the church at 6pm. The other DTS team from Stones Hope were already there and they helped us unload and gave us a tour - with flashlights in the dark. The church’s electricity was not working so we had to grab our flash lights and eat dinner by candlelight.
After dinner, we all took showers, which was greatly needed after 2 days of traveling. We went to bed early for a hard days work up ahead.