The first beach, "the cove" is where we got to dip our toes in for a few minutes earlier in the week. We came back again for a few minutes to do a little souvenir shopping for family and friends. They had pretty bracelets, hand carved boxes, figures, wooden machetes, and even (albeit extremely inaccurate) hand made wooden globes. It was funny because the places on the globe were distorted at best, but it was still really cool. I know I could never do that any better!
After that, we went to, what Fenel often referred to as the "reward beach" we'd get to go to if we worked hard. This I had to see! And of course, once we arrived, it was clear!
Not only was it a beautiful beach, but we got to dine beachside too! Although, I'm not a fan of seafood, I was certainly got going to turn my nose up to anything offered to me the first time. I will try *almost* anything once. Not everything....don't test me though, ha! It was relaxing sitting in the chairs watching the waves from our own personal little lunch cabana.
We were sitting there watching the water, and noticed people setting up their wares around the outside of the dining area. Some of them were the same souvenir guys from the first beach. It was like they had followed us there!
Then they brought lunch. A large plate of fresh grilled lobster was brought to us outside. Having never had lobster before, and knowing that I was only in Haiti one more day, I figured "when in Haiti......"
When they served us, we had lobster, conch, picle(sort of a spicy vinegar slaw) and hot fried plantains-my favorite part.
After that, we changed and went back to the House of Abraham to spend one last afternoon playing with the kids. We made tshirts to bring with us and let them paint them. I didn't paint mine, but I got all the kids to sign it.
That night, after we left HOA, we got rained on, pretty much the whole way back to Fenel's house. The plan had been to take us out to a nice Haitian restaurant, but the rain 'messed up everything' as Fenel said! We rushed home and changed, and during a quick break from the rain, He bussed us to the restaurant. Jacob and I got a nice steak smothered in some kind of sauce. It wasn't cooked like steak here, but it was pretty good! They also had LOTS of french fries! Clearly this was the place the Americans were eating when they came here. Prices were about the same as here. There were these great scary looking mache animal masks on the walls of the restaurant/resort too.
Hubby and me at the nice restaurant. Excuse the casual dress...we had to change quick after getting soaked from the rain and on the last day that didn't leave much clothing!
This is the view from behind us. Isn't it amazing! How can someone see this and not know there's a God who made it for us to enjoy?
The last day was less eventful. Well, I have no pictures anyways. We got up early, and packed in the van for the long ride to Port Au Prince. Once we got to the airport, we got checked in and checked our bags. Funny story: They made us open up our bags, Jacob and I had gotten separated going through the line, but still with the team. When I opened up my bag, I had his abnormally large 'stone of remembrance' (Joshua 4) wrapped in my clothes. The guy looked at me like I was strange, and just smiled, and wrapped it back up, and zipped up the bag. Then he said, "sorry!" so here I am, thinking...sorry?? Sorry???? Why are you sorry? Are you not letting me check this bag or you going to open it back up and take the rock out??!! I guess he just meant sorry for the inconvenience, because everything was fine!
Meanwhile Jacob, who had been forced to consolidate his bag with my clothes, so that I could check the bag with has very heavy rock (it didn't make the weight limit WITH his rock, so we had to shift stuff around), was going through the line. When he unzipped his bag, what was on top? None other than several pair of (my) flowery underwear!!!!! I wish I could have seen the look on the screeners face. Not being able to speak and explain, Jacob just shrugged and smiled. That man must have thought Jacob was a real Weirdo!!!!
While in the Haitian airport, we were able to use wifi a little (finally!) and we received a text that my son and daughter were sick. Suddenly, I could not get home soon enough. It definitely put a damper on the last day of an amazing trip, and the enemy even tried to make me feel guilty for having left. Instead, I just tried to focus on the reason I know God had me and Jacob go to Haiti-to form relationships with Fenel, Meme and those sweet kids! Then we waited, and waited, and waited.....our flight got delayed about an hour, and then on the way to board the plane, they screened us all again, looked through select people's bags (meaning me) and swabbed all my bags for drug residue. I got patted down and checked by the Haitian TSA basically. That was fun! Ha! It really wasn't that bad, but I just assumed it was normal not having anything to compare it to or knowing what to expect. Come to find out later that it wasn't the way they usually do things, but oh well! Somehow I made it through with all my souvenirs that were in my checked bags.
When we got to Atlanta, there was no place for us to get off the plane, because they gate meant for us was already occupied by another plane, since we were an hour late! After we finally got off the plane, we made a mad dash through immigration, customs, and rechecked our bags. We ran (Jacob and I) not knowing exactly how much time we had till our flight, to the gate for our flight from Atlanta to home. Guess who we saw? Two of our pastors! They had just come back from a completely different trip to...Guatemala I believe, dedicating these water wells to three different communities. Isn't that awesome? What are the odds????
Finally we did make it home, but it had been a long day! We were starved, so we picked up a Pizza Hut pizza and ate with the kids at 12 am Sunday morning! What a day!!! What a week!
No comments:
Post a Comment