Marathon Travel Day

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Finally made it to Passe Catabois after 15 hours of travel. It was maybe one of the hardest travel days I’ve had in Haiti; there were moments I was close to losing it. Traveling is always hard and such a process here. Plus there is always something here in the Northwest that stretches my patience, endurance, and over all being to the point of almost breaking, but someway, somehow we always make it through.

We got to the bus station in Port-au-Prince at 8 am for the 9 am bus, which left at 10 am.  We soon named our ride the “turtle” due to the speed it was able to go… not good for the mind when you know you have a difficult ride ahead of you that takes 6 hours on a good day. Megan, Leah, and I were packed into the back of the tour bus and soon found the airflow a little less than adequate.  We had a few moments of panic until we convinced the Haitians around us to open the windows, hehe.  The bus began making a horrid noise and with every incline slowed to a speed that was slow for even a turtle.  We finally made it to Gonaives, our halfway point, after 4.5 hours.  This is when they decided it was probably time to get a new bus so we waited for 3 hours until our new bus arrived.  At 5:30 pm we left Gonaives, onward for 3.5 hours of unpaved rocky roads.  It was rough, hot, and tested my endurance like no other.  We finally made it to Port de Paix around 9 pm and somehow snagged a man to bring us to PC in his car since moto rides at that hour with five 50+ pound bags and our backpacks in the dark was a little unnerving.  After a pit stop in the middle of a crowd in Port de Paix to “fix” the car (I was losing it at this point), a rough fume-filled hour drive in which we were all nodding off, we finally made it to our home in Passe Catabois.

I have never been so happy to see the house, until we learned the water is having a bit of trouble.  As in, it’s been 2 weeks of only trickles coming out of the faucet…  not the best news after 15 hours of travel and feeling so sweat and dust covered that you could probably scrape it off with a knife, and all you want in the whole world is a shower.  I’m not gonna lie, I was not happy.  It’s always something here…. Something so hard that forces you to experience difficulties of life with others.

But at the end of the day: we all made it to PC in one piece and with all our bags intact – we even had a few laughs in us still.  We woke this morning to stifling heat at 10:30 (uh, we must have been a little tired) and finally got a good look at the land around us.  So
dry, so hot, the river below also only at a trickle.  Obviously the land is thirsty for water, as are we.  So far we have enough for what we need, so we are thankful.

Leah opened her bible to this random verse this morning as we sat down to some long awaited coffee and rest time: Zechariah chapter 10: “Ask the Lord for rain in the spring, for he makes the storm clouds.  And he will send showers of rain so every field becomes a lush pasture.”  God will restore his people… whatever this means for us or for this place or for this time, I don’t know… but maybe something like restoring my spoiled and whining soul, restoring water, life and substance to the land, restoring evil to goodness, restoring those who are lost to community… all of which are real for me and the people I’ve seen this week.

So…camp in PC starting tomorrow… so thankful for arriving safely, Megan’s joy and ability to stay calm, Leah’s energy and ability to make me laugh, a bed, enough water for a shower, coffee, and music to help me cope.  Prayers for this week are endurance, water to be restored, rain for the land, camp logistics to play out well, and for us to be used in whatever plan Jesus has up his sleeve.  Bring it.