Day One - First Impressions

After all the planning, fundraising, packing and traveling our team landed in Port Au Prince at 8am local time this morning and began what was an amazing first day of this journey. The rest of this post will be mostly pictures from the day - the kids, earthquake damage, the team, but before we get to that, Chuck Dreher, known in Haiti as "Papa Musk" (moose) made an observation tonight that sums up a lot of our first impressions of this country and these people.

From Chuck/Papa Musk (moose):

Coming into this experience, most of us had an impression of Haiti as being an incredibly poor, hopeless and destroyed nation. We really didn't know what to expect when we landed today and many of us had worried as we prepared for this trip that we might be overwhelmed by the gravity of the devastation and challenges Haiti faces. But today we found something completely unexpected. Sure, the evidence of the earthquake remains in the form of buildings turned to rubble and tent cities. Yes, the signs of deep and longstanding poverty are inescapable. But when you talk to the Haitian people, especially the kids at this orphanage, you cannot help but get a sense for their resilience, perseverance and the hope they have for their nation. It is evident in their smiles, their excitement over seeing a new President take office today, hearing about their dreams for their future.

And that pretty much sums it up! Now to the photos!

Arriving at the airport and loading up all the bags and the people! 

 

 After we arrived, the team sat down for orientation with Bill Manassero, the host missionary at the guest house that we're calling home for the week.

 

After orientation and lunch we took a tour of Maison de Lumiere - the school, the boys house and the girls house and the surrounding neighborhood. Earthquake damage remains in many parts of the city - this is the house next door to the girls house.

We played for hours with the boys at their house - from Angry Birds to Basketball, we had tons of fun. Here the boys start playing "Drip, Drip, Drench" (Duck, Duck, Goose, with a sponge).

And, here the boys finish paying "Drip, Drip, Drench" - this game definitely lives up to its name! 

 

The girls house was a little more mellow - here David plays with Cendy and Andrea reads to Wadnaika (she also taught Andrea her numbers in Haitian Creole).

 

After hanging with the kids we came back to the guest house for an incredible dinner of rice, beans, chicken, fried plantains and great conversation with the Manaserro family and the other staff working here. Stay tuned, it's going to be a great week!