Merry Christmas!!

     Nathaniel and Brittni left on Monday. Trevor took us down to the airport. Somewhere I got mixed up and thought Nathaniel's left on Tuesday so that is the day Keith had bought a ticket for me to fly to Jeremi. April and her family had left several days earlier to go there and I was going to spend Christmas with them. So Trevor dropped me dropped me off at Franctzy and Sallies. I spent the rest of the day and night there then they took me to the airport the next morning. The flight was supposed to leave at 9:00 so I was supposed to be there at 8:00. Got there right on time. This plane makes one flight to Jeremi every day. My confirmation was a piece of paper that had my name, destination, etc... on it. Immediately inside the doors my luggage and I went through scanners. The scanner didn't beep so no further checking. I don't know how it didn't because those machines always beep about my hair pins but ??? I went up to the little counter and showed them my piece of paper. They checked my ID and gave me a little slip of paper that was my boarding pass. They weighed my back pack and determined it wasn't too heavy for me to carry then directed me to a seat. Soon after I sat down two little blind boys were directed to the seats in front of me. Slowly the small waiting room got more passengers waiting for the flight to Jeremi. No announcements were made at all. Nine o'clock came, then nine fifteen and nine thirty. I knew I hadn't missed the flight because no other flight had left except for one that was boarding when I got there. A little after nine fifteen I did notice the stack of luggage had disappeared. A few minutes after 9:30 a lady came to the front of the room and said we would board for Jeremi now. They took the blind boys first. There was no such thing as a luggage compartment under the plane, it was all stowed in the back of the plane. No overhead compartments either so we each placed our carry-ons in the back then found a seat. One seat on one side of. The aisle and two on the other. Each slip of paper had a row only, we each chose our own seats after that. Keith had told me to sit on the left side of the plane for a better view. The cockpit was not closed off from the other passengers, there was just a panel there and in the middle of the passengers boarding the pilot and co-pilot came in. It probably only took fifteen minutes to board because there werprobably only twenty seats and all luggage except what could fit under the seat in front of you had to go in the back. The pilot said the flight would take 40 minutes and we would fly at about 8,000 feet. No announcements about electronic devices so we all kept our cell phones on. The pilot started the plane and we were off down the runway. It was a noisy but smooth flight. We flew over the coastline a lot of the way. It was beautiful! We left about at the time we were supposed to land but I was able to text April mid flight about when we had taken off. Partway through the flight the sun was getting rather warm for the pilot so he used one hand to hold a Manila envelope against the windofor a shade. Right before landing I had a good view of the runway- hard packed dirt in between some grass. It was a smooth landing and when we were slowed down appropriately we drove over onto the grass to deplane. Out the plane windows I had seen April's family waiting, there was no fence around the runway at all. I picked up my bag and that was all there was to it. We left probably 10 minutes after we landed and headed to Abricote for lunch and the afternoon then went back to Jeremi for supper and night. We got a nice hotel there that just happened to have no other guests at the time so we chose the rooms that suited best. This hotel had mosquito netting over all of the beds. It had running water also, no hot water but when it's that hot outside a cold shower feels good! We also had fans in each room. The next day was Christmas Eve, and we went swimming in the Caribbean Ocean. It was absolutely beautiful! No one else was on the beach that day except one lady who came down to watch the "blancos" for a while. The water was crystal clear. The beach definitely had the "look" of the rest of Haiti- there was a lot of trash scattered everywhere but the sand and water were amazing.
We ate lunch in Jeremi then slowly but surely headed for Previle. April and her parents had been missionaries there for seven years when she was younger. They left when she was seven years old. The house they had lived in while they were there was empty so they brought some food, towels, sheets etc... And we stayed there. It is very pretty on the west end of Haiti. Obviously the elevation isn't as high as Oriani because it was warmer and there were a lot of palm trees also. The next day was Christmas. We visited some of the locals in the morning then took the younger kids to the river to go swimming for a while before lunch. We had a special lunch of roast beef, ( April's mom canned it and brought it with her) scalloped potatoes and green bean casserole. They had also brought along a bunch of homemade Christmas candy that made a good desert. The homemade caramel was the best! On the 26th we headed back to Port-au-Prince. The road was pretty good, some very bumpy gravel but also some pavement. We could see the coast off and on the whole way. We stopped in Ocai for lunch. We asked if there was anywhere they had fast-food-- you know--already cooked ;) We were led to a restaurant called Hot Spot. It was supposed to be a Chinese restaurant but also had cheeseburgers, pizza, hotdogs, etc... On the menu. As usual, they did not have near everything on the menu but we ordered burgers and pizza and it was good! And we were only there an hour and a half. We were led upstairs where the dining room was labeled VIP. We didn't mind at all because they had an air conditioner up there that worked well. Back in Port of course there was a lot of traffic so the going as slow. I had never been to the EpiDor restaurant so we went there for supper. I had a ham and cheese crepe and ice cream for desert. It was awesome! We were at the liaison house in Ganthier for night. Saturday morning we were just around the house there because a couple of the kids weren't feeling very good. April, her sister Emily, and I walked to the orphanage and hung out there for a while. After lunch we went shopping in Croix-Des-Bouquet market. That is a big, noisy, SMELLY market but fun. This morning on the way to church of course there was a road block. A pole had fallen over the road so nobody could get through. We eventually found a road around but were 45 minutes late by then. Oh well, this is Haiti. Time doesn't mean as much here as in U.S. We want to do a little more shopping tomorrow before we head back up to Oriani. And I want some ice cream one more time before we head up too.
   No clinic info this time because I wasn't there...