I've been in Haiti almost one full week and it has definitely been an adventure. I've had the opportunity to ride along on flights out to some different villages and helped out a little bit with an inspection of their Cessna 206.
This week I have been staying with Michael and Karen Boyles and their six year old daughter Kaydence.
We carpool to the airport in the morning with two other pilots, John and David. The crazy thing is that it takes us about 35 minutes to get to the airport but its probably only about 8 miles of driving. It takes so long to get anywhere because the roads in Haiti are in really bad condition. Most of them are dirt and rock and they have pot holes and ditches everywhere. Since we are now in hurricane season, most of the ditches are filled with water and we go wading through them in the SUV!
When I got to Haiti I was expecting to eat beans and rice as my main meal. But the first two days I was here I had Domino’s pizza and Burger King! Haha. Domino’s is the only American fast food you can get in Haiti and it costs about $20 a pizza! The Burger King food came from Jamaica. John and Michael flew a team there in the Caravan and brought everyone back BK whoppers from the airport food court. It was funny to me that I ate my first Burger King whopper in Haiti. I’ve never even gotten one in America before…of course I’m a fan of McDonalds!
Yesterday was the craziest day. It’s started raining hard at the airport around 2:00 and everyone left around 2:30 to try and get home before the roads got too bad. We went home a different way than we usually come because there are a couple of bridges (that are really deep ditches) that we would have to cross and it was likely that it was going to be impossible to do that without getting stuck. Traffic was surprisingly not too bad on the route that we took and things went pretty smoothly. I got to see lots of kids playing in the rain and some bathing in it. People sweeping their trash into the streams of water that were flowing swiftly down the roads. And more people than I expected just walking somewhere. (It was pouring rain!) We did have to drive through one really rough part and I was praying the whole time. It took us about 20 seconds to get through but it was a river and it had kind of a deep dip to it that none of were expecting! John was driving and he powered out of it and we made it home safely J
Today was jam packed with adventure. Well almost…this morning I was working on wedding stuff. Three months exactly til Luke and I get married! Earlier this afternoon I was able to ride along on a medevac flight. We flew out to La Gonave which is an island off of Haiti’s mainland. It’s about a 15 minute flight in the caravan. We were transporting a woman who was in a lot of pain. I’m honestly not sure what was wrong with her but she looked very ill. I think it would be hard to fly medevac’s all the time because it really is hard to see someone who is suffering. At the same time, what an awesome opportunity to serve someone in dire need. They told me a story of a guy they were transporting a couple weeks ago on a medevac. He was passed out and laying down in the back of the plane. When he woke up he was confused and didn’t know where he was and so he tried to strangle the pilot with his seatbelt! Thankfully the pilot took care of the situation and they arrived safely.
So now to the really exciting news! I got to fly the Caravan today!! So awesome. We took a team down to Jacmel and dropped them off. Then they let me fly right seat on the way back!
Last night we had devotions with all the staff here and a verse came to mind that I want to live out everyday of my life and everyday that I’m here. 1 Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God”.
No comments:
Post a Comment