Generally the idea is to write a blog as you go I know, but as we hadn't planned on doing so, or had the ability to do it out there, this is a retrospective blog on our trip to Port Au Prince!
(The names of the children have been changed to protect them)
Day 1
A long, long journey with an overnight stop at JFK and finally we were nearly touching down at Port Au Prince. I admit to having butterflies in my stomach as I contemplated what lay ahead and as I looked out of the window, I could already see the burgeoning tent cities that decorated the bird's eye view of the city. They rather reminded me of children's homemade art work - colourful, due to the tarpaulin sheets, but random and a bit mismatched. I couldn't let on to Flor how nervous I was feeling, after all she had been a trouper leading the way directly after the earthquake a year ago, so there was nothing for it but to take a deep breath and jump in!
As it happened, there wasn't much time to reflect any more as we were soon grappling with our luggage that had all been piled into mountains at the "arrivals hall". Like an Indiana Jones movie, remarked an American lady and it was comical to see everyone plunging into the fray like action heroes intent on defeating the enemy! Then, more grappling, as some extremely helpful guys practically forced their way into our lives by deciding that we needed their services to get our bags to the car park. No. we really could manage, we said, but to no avail. A fight then nearly broke out as to who was going to take us to our destination, despite no-one, including us, knowing exactly where that was to be!
Suffice it to say, after some very tense moments when the taxi driver decided we were giving him trouble (as he was wanted for kidnapping and couldn't possibly drop us off at the police station car park), we finally made it to our home for the next few days. Slightly shell- shocked but relieved...
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