March 13: Port Au Prince to Petit-Goave Part 1

We arrived about an hour later than expected into Port Au Prince, but that was actually somewhat expected. Our group was split into three flights, but the flight I was on arrived at about the same time as the second flight - so five of us were there around the same time and waited for a few hours for the rest to arrive. We did get all of our baggage (which were filled with mostly donated items and a few personal items to get through the week with).

Thony met us at the airport, as did Blanc. It was amazing to see these two guys again. I love them so much and look forward to seeing them again!



The ride from PAP to Petit-Goave was a bit surreal. It was something new and yet something I had seen before. It was helpful for me to see how Port Au Prince actually looked, as opposed to what the news tells us it looks like here in the states - and the few shots the news decides to include in their reports.

It wasn't easy to see how people were living here. The term "Tent cities" seems to have been thrown around on the news so much that it doesn't really mean something all that foreign. I can let you know that a tent city is not a place people would desire to live. Thousands of tents all pack into small parks, large parks, fields, and any open spaces makes for not a lot of personal and family space. Continue to pray for these families as they learn to live a completely different way of life and learn to make a living in entirely different ways than many knew how before.

As we drove, we saw tents set up in the middle of some streets. Most people not able to return to their houses at all due to the building collapsing and the rest choosing not to sleep inside their building whether it looked great or not.