Very, early morning today. Last night, we slept at the airport on benches, the floor, and air mattresses (why didn’t I think of that comfy option?!). Pretty sure that the average amount of sleep among the team was about 3 hours – the airport announcements every 15 minutes, reminding us not to leave luggage, how to rent a car, etc., made deep sleep difficult. We’ll write this off as an adventurous way to start the trip!
Our flight into Port a Prince went flawlessly, Willem met us before we even went through customs (his presence just seems to make everything go smoothly), and it was one of the smoothest times through the airport that I’ve ever had.
The Haitian newbies experienced their first nail-biting ride to the guesthouse (we have no idea how the ‘rules’ of the road in Haiti work, but they’re definitely different than rule-following Americans!). We then were welcomed by Beth and enjoyed breakfast at the guesthouse before most of the team headed up to Gramothe for a chance to see the village and all of the new construction that has happened. A few of the guys stayed back at the guesthouse and caught up on sleep.
Brian, Micah, and Kim stayed at Gramothe for the afternoon and helped the U of I Chicago medical team in the clinic storeroom by counting pills & sorting/organizing medications. The rest of us hiked down the mountain and back to the guesthouse. We had a fun time taking the shortcut route, and laughing about the steepness of it. Roxanne and I are pretty sure we won’t be attempting again because we were tired! And humbled as we were passed by several young children and elderly women wearing old flip-flops. We had a tag along of a little girl who followed us from Gramothe. By the end of the walk she was holding hands with Merv, chatting in her limited english and filling in the details with Morgan in french.
Those of us that didn’t take 6 hour naps (uhh hum, Strom, Esdras & David 
Molly
