Day One, July 18th Bla!

Flying over the city, I have never before felt so out of place. The barren landscape, the shanty towns of Port au Prince look so different from the view out the window of the plane as we left Miami. Throughout the day I am reminded of this out of place feeling as we find our bags and are escorted out of the airport into what seemed like utter chaos. How do you tell a man who does not speak English not to take your bag? Ninety-five Americans, here for a 10 day mission trip, are loaded into trucks and taken to the domestic airport and then shuttled 19 at a time 1 hour away to Port-de-Paix. We are then loaded into trucks and busses to make the 7 mile 1 hour trip into Saint-Louis du Nord. On the road to St Louis I am hit with the foreign smells of sewer running through the streets, the sights of poverty, and the sounds of naked children yelling Bla Bla (White, White) as we drive by. Bla is the greeting children scream out as they run after our truck hoping that we will wave at them, and when we do wave I see something that makes me think this place is not so different. I see smiles.

Photos taken by NWHCM on July 18th