Day One
Continuing #GabsGlobalMission
Our mission team arrives at the airport, in Atlanta, hours before the flight leaves. Every year, our team brings various supplies and items with us to Haiti. This year we had 80 supply bags, and each person checked an extra bag, so two total. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to afford all of the baggage fees, so we left about 20 bags behind. One of the downfalls to this was that we kind of just picked up bags while checking them in without noting which supply bags we were actually taking. So everything we took to Haiti was a complete surprise.
As I go through the TSA check, my bag had to be checked. I thought for sure that it was the Poptarts, like last year, but the agent ended up taking some shea butter — which I have packed in a carry-on several times before. As a matter of fact, I got the idea from a packing list on another girl’s mission trip blog. They just don’t want me to be moisturized and great!
This year’s flight was in the evening, unlike last year’s which was in the early afternoon. Last year, we landed in Port-au-Prince during the day, this year it was nighttime.
One thing I love about flying down there is the fact that we fly down the eastern Florida coast. My home state is so beautiful. Yay, for picking window seats!
Hey, Florida, hey!
We arrive in Port-au-Prince, and it’s been raining. I want to give their airport a huge shout out for their come-up. Last year, there was no gate, so after the plane taxied, they put stairs next to the plane and we exited Obama style. This year they had a gate! Praise Him for increase! We get off the plane and go through customs. It is $10 USD/100 Gourdes (does that even mathematically make sense?) to enter the country. (I feel the same way about that as I did last year, but oh well). I hand the lady a 100 Gourdes bill note because I’m just balling in international currency like that, and she’s all, “No! Ten dollars U.S.” Ma’am, that is not what your sign reads though (thus why I feel some type of way). The next lady, who stamped my passport was nice, thank goodness. Like some other countries I’ve been to, she reads my name and assumes that I know french due to the origin of my name. We have a brief conversation en francaise.
We then get all of our bags, and of course the airport bag boys are there to try to assist for a fee. We make our way to exit the airport, and we are stopped to have our supply bags checked. This is one of the hardest things to come to terms with each trip. We bring into your third-world country to give away as a means to help your people, but you guys want to tax us to bring it in — which is illegal. It’s these type of corrupt people within the country that keep it from being great.
Our trip leader ends up getting into an argument with the Haitian officers; this allows us to sneak bags past them and, finally, exit the airport. The officers threaten to detain our leader and hold is passport. He tells him what they’re doing is illegal, but do they care? Of course not. This goes on for quite a while. We ended up having to leave some of our supply bags at the airport (again). However, they did allow us to come pick them up the next day for $250.
We finally leave and make our way to the Haitian Christian Mission (HCM) compound where we live during our time in Haiti. It took maybe an hour to get from Port-au-Prince to Fonds Parisien, Ouest Department, and even though it was dark, I could tell that the roads were paved better, or less bumpy, than last year. On that come-up again!
My room.
Even though it is late, the staff at HCM has dinner ready for us when we arrive. We unload the truck with our bags after we eat and then go to our rooms. I picked the same room that I had last year, which is on the top floor, so I have an excellent view of the nearby lake.
The time zone that Haiti is in is EST, but when we arrived, the local time was an hour behind. This is because in 2016 they decided not to participate in Daylight Savings Time, like many other countries. I couldn’t find a reason why they decided to change things, and I’m, honestly, confused as to how they changed things considering they don’t have a president at the moment. They had presidential elections in late 2015, but they were apparently rigged, so they are re-doing them.
The living room area at the apartments where the women stay.
The kitchen area.
Round Two
While we’re on the subject of hashtags, here is one more rule to keep in mind: do not add spaces. This breaks up the hashtag, and, technically, makes it void, or it turns it into a completely different hashtag. So it’s not # ThrowbackThursday or #Throwback Thursday. This isn’t how it works! Also, it’s wise to try to avoid symbols. Although most social media platforms will allow the use of the underscore (_) in a hashtag, it’s, usually, not that serious. Several platforms don’t permit the use of other symbols ($&^%), but may let you use more common symbols (periods and commas); however, some permit the use of the more common symbols as well. Some sites may not even let you use numbers.
does, that website can be found by using a search engine. It may be that a person searched for your exact business, or it could be that they searched for a related topic and your business came up. For example, if you have a website for some divorce attorneys at the law office of Smith and Johnson, information about you business can be found by searching for “Law Office of Smith and Smith” or something related such as “Divorce Attorneys in my area.” SEO allows for your website to be shown in as many ways possible, but you have to remember that you are competing with the billions of other websites that are similar to yours as well.
When we arrived at the Times’ Square station, I couldn’t believe how large it was. It was also the nicest, cleanest subway station I had seen that day. The station was literally humongous. There were small shops and places to eat, and in the center of the station, there was a band playing a set. The band had all of their equipment, drums, guitar, and even microphones. Throughout the station, there were also other musicians playing that had their cases out so that people walking by could place money inside the cases. We went up to the street and I was completely amazed. So far in Manhattan, the streets hadn’t been that busy, and they definitely weren’t as busy as I had predicted them to be. But Times’ Square proved me wrong. There were people everywhere, I mean, there had to be at least a million people just walking around. The thing I like about Times Square was that the majority of the people there were tourists.
We entered the station, and once again swiped our cards and went through the gate.
Miss Gabrielle Bellamy 