A marketing blog.

A range of emotions and reactions today.  First, we experienced I guess the new norm in American travel…an hour wait time in multiple lines just to check luggage.  

We caught a 9:00 AM flight out of FLL to PAP.  The airport experience at Port au Prince was interesting to say the least.  A sky cap ( or whatever they are called now.. insisted on getting our luggage of the carousel and loading onto to carts.  Then he took our luggage tagstags and demanded  $30.00.  After much wrangling, he reluctantly accepted $5.00 which is how much a teacher in Haiti makes in a week.

Then, we got outside the airport and there were hundreds of people jostling to help us push our carts.  6 men latched onto the cart that Bob was pushing as we made our way to our van shuttle.  Again, they fought and argued over money.  We again gave them $5.00 and they seemed unhappy.  The hard part is our trip is focused on helping 115 kids get an education, and we can’t help everyone we come across, even though it is heart wrenching.

The drive through Port au Prince was an experience.  The poverty and living conditions are indescribable.  Trash is piled in the streets and sidewalks in many areas.  There are no road signs or traffic lights so every roundabout or intersection is treacherous.  It took us a good hour and a half to get through the traffic and out of PAP.  

The ride then took us over the mountains on winding roads up to around 7,500 feet.  We still saw troubling sites, people sitting on the side of the road trying to sell goods bit the scenery and living conditions were certainly better than PAP.

We arrived at our hotel in Jacmel after about 3.5 hours.  The hotel is relatively nice.  It is right on.the ocean so we had a late lunch at the hotel outdoor patio just feet from.the ocean waves.  The chicken creole was good along with fresh mango juice.  We even learned how to.use authentic chop sticks from.Jennifer who came with us on this trip from.Taiwan.

After dinner we took a somewhat harrowing ride on.motorcycle taxis to the school over a mile away.  The school consists of 3 block buildings with partial walls and dirt floors in most.  One of our projects this week.will be to paint and beautify the classes.  We got back to the hotel about 8 and I am sitting feet from an oscillating fan thanking God that we have air conditioning back home.