Have you ever been on an adventure?  I’m not talking about a playground adventure…or a go exploring the woods behind your house adventure…

I’m talking about the kind of adventure that they write movies about.  The kind of adventure that leaves you on the edge of your seat wanting to know what happens next.  The kind that pumps you full of adrenaline and then sends you flying into the next chapter without time to even reconsider what just happened.

I hadn’t until Haiti.

I’ve been all over the U.S.A. this past year.  To Mexico 5 times.  To moscow for a week…none of them could compare me for the adventure that is unfolding daily here in Haiti.

I won’t tie up your entire night with tons of stories…but I will give you one good one.  I woke up at 7:30 in order to leave the hotel at 8:00.  The plan was for me, Landon, Stephanie and Anne to go with our friend/guide/translator/hero Allan to the airport to pick up our bag that we had to abandon in Port Au Prince a few days ago to make weight for our flight up here.  As I mentioned before, plans don’t stick well here in Haiti…and pretty soon after waking up we realized that our plans were all gone.

Allan was no where to be found (we later came to find out that he was home with his sick one month old baby girl), and so we sat and ate breakfast in the hotel for an hour.  Eventually the local druggie and also resident bracelet maker came to put bracelets on us, then to ask for $20 U.S. dollars for each.  Fast forward about 20 minutes…Anne and I decide to leave for the airport by ourselves, as Allan still is no where to be found, and the taxis charge per person.  We head to the taxi…druggie close behind.  When we get there, he (the druggie) decides that he has to go with us to translate, and climbs in the taxi despite our protests.  Off we go to the airport.

Once we arrived at the airport the chaos started up again.  Our “translator” didn’t pay any attention and kept wandering off.  With our taxi driver waiting we spent about an hour being moved back and forth around the airport with no luggage in site.  Finally a kind police woman came and told us to wait…it was coming.  After another 20 minutes suddenly she says it’s here…and we turn to find none other than Allan!  Thank God…things started to look up.  Allan translated, and after much debate it was determined that our baggage was sent back to the original airport in Port Au Prince.  We set up for it to be sent back here tomorrow we hope, and headed back to the taxi.

Here’s where the real adventure takes off:  We arrive at the taxi…Allan there to translate and come to find out that through some agreement or lack of communication or something (which allan says is the druggies doing) that our cabbie wants $50 U.S. dollars for the ride to the airport…and another $50 to take us back!!!!  Allan, who is incredibly protective of us and AMAZING instantly says no way.  He only paid $1 U.S. to get there because he was Haitian, but we owed 50 apparently.

The debate between him and the cabbie escalated from talk to yelling to suddenly a crowd of cabbies surrounding us…all pushing and yelling…Allan still standing his ground and fighting back that they weren’t going to take advantage of that.  After several minutes of this while Anne and I are quietly discussing how we can get out there, we end up paying the guy $20 and walking away.

Don’t worry…it’s not over yet!

2 motorcycle taxis (which are very typical here) pull up and allan throws me and Anne on the back of one, and the druggie (who’s still following us and claiming his innocence in the situation) on the other and send us off.  We weren’t sure what he was doing or where he was going, but we were suddenly in route to the hotel on the back of a motorcycle by ourselves again.

We’re driving along and the next thing we know, the cabbie is next to us with a car full of Haitians screaming and waving their arms at us only inches from our moving motorcycle.  We slowed down, sped up…but they stuck with us for a while.  Eventually Allan caught up and they all had a talk of some sort while Anne and I sped off to the sanctuary of our hotel (which is gated in).  Whew.

There’s an adventure for you.  And believe me…that’s just one of many that are happening every second here.

Sorry for the long post…but I just wanted to get that out…Mom, Dad…I’m still alive!

Here are some pictures from today…I’ll caption them so you’ll know what they are.  Much Love.

-S