4 days, a lifetime of memories...
The flight from Miami to Port au Prince is kind of a blur...but I remember it was the first time in my life that I noticed another language proceeded English. All of the announcements on the plane were in what I'm assuming French, then some other language, then finally English. When the pilot came over the speakers with an announcement, I, an American, had to wait my turn to hear my language. This was the first culture shock going to a country where English is not the most important language.
That's about all I remember of the beginning of the flight. I was running on one hour of sleep...if you can call it that. I was exhausted, my nerves were a wreck, and I was excited to see Becky. All of that blurred with the one thought that kept resurfacing in my brain. Becky had casually mentioned that the airport in Haiti was probably going to be the scariest part of the trip...what was I headed for???
At some point during the flight, the attendant passed out some green cards for us to fill out before we go through customs. International flying always has these fun hoops we have to go through. On the card there were spaces for the usual stuff like name, address, passport number, etc., but this one also had a spot to list the address where you would be staying while in Haiti. Uh oh. Becky had told me I would need her address, but it was in my Facebook chat conversation from the day or so before. Ok, I'll just fill that in when I land and turn my phone on. But wait...I'll be in Haiti...the thought suddenly came to me that I probably wouldn't have cell phone service in Haiti. This might be a problem.
When the plane neared the ground, I could see a beautiful island. Mountain scenes, the beach and ocean, and what looked like a few cities. As we got closer, the feeling of the unknown overwhelmed me. I was on the verge of tears as we landed, just filled with emotion of finally getting to this tropical island my sister loves so much. She's said that many people say that once you've been to Haiti, your heart will always want to be in Haiti. Would that be true for me also? From Becky's first trip, she's always wanted to move to Haiti. I had my mind set that wouldn't be the case for me, but I wasn't sure if I could resist the urge to want to be in world where the smallest gestures could change a lifetime.
As we were preparing to land, I noticed the attendant was going around taking up part of the cards from people, but was doing something different with some people. She would stop and say something to some of the Haitians, then she would fill the card out for them. It hit me. They couldn't read. The attendant was very discrete about helping the people out, but I realized how such a simple thing as being able to read is so overlooked in our country where education is mandatory. So much taken for granted...so much!
I exited the plane with a bit of fear on my mind. My card was not filled out with the proper address, customs might stop me, and would I be able find Becky without cellular service? So many little things we take for granted...
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