Road Trip

Who knew you could get a full body workout and strawberries on your butt from riding a tap-tap to Port-de-Paix and back. Yesterday we road-tripped it to the House of Hope in LaPointe, a home for children who have TB, malnutrition, or physical handicap. The American girls were going in for a visit so Amanda and I hitched a ride too since we had never been before.

The ride, as anyone who has been here before knows, is an adventure in itself. We got some major stare downs as six white girls (all blond except for me) busted down the road in a seemingly empty load (tap-taps are usually piled ten stories high with bags of food, people, and goats tied on the side). Let's just say we had some major protection from above. Getting out of the river was an ordeal. A little road block from a broken down truck, a little mud, a little slip and slide, and no path at all. But no worries since our chauffeur carved a path with his machete and on we went.
Tap-tap full of girls: Leah, Caitlyn, Amanda, Ashlee, Jackie

It was good to visit the HOH finally. I am so impressed with their operation and I was actually content with sitting and holding babies for most of our stay. It helps when they just melt into you. Somehow the two boys I held first were two who had just arrived that day (I learned later on) - one with TB and one with severe malnutrition: orange hair, skeleton skinny with a huge belly. I think we all had a good visit and would have seriously packed a few home in our bags.