Austin: Day 1

I didn't know what to expect of Jacmel, Haiti. I didn't know if I would be able to handle it. I didn't know the conditions. But as I sat on the coach bus in the early hours of the morning (3 AM) on the way to New York, I began to think about my upcoming adventure. There were six Charter School of Wilmington students on this trip: Jae, Chris, Yashwant, Mary, Nadia and myself. We were all incredibly fortunate that we were allowed to attend in the first place, and are incredibly grateful to HFI for doing so. None of us really knew what was coming, but I imagine we were all prepared for the worst and would roll with the punches when trouble came.

As we ate breakfast in the JFK airport, I couldn't help but think this would be a "last supper" of sorts. Considering there wasn't enough food for the Haitians, I didn't have much hope that we would be eating more than Clif Bars and water. Minutes later, we boarded the plane and the journey officially began.

We landed in Jacmel.

I collected my bag from the overhead bin and walked down the crowded aisle of the plane. I stepped out of the door into the Haitian International Airport and I was struck immediately by an intense wave of heat. The trip had just become real. This was no longer some crazy idea that we had a few months ago. We were actually in Haiti and there was no turning back now. One quote that strikes me from our arrival was from Chris: "Guys, we are actually in another country". And it was absolutely true. It never really means anything until you are actually away from home, but the second you're gone, everything changes.

Traversing through the jungle of an airport was incredibly difficult. Everyone was yelling, pushing, shoving and causing overall mayhem. The contrast from JFK was staggering. We still had to endure a 4 hour bus ride from Port-au-Prince to Jacmel in a worn down school bus that would eventually turn out to be our life-line throughout the entire trip.

From the bus window, I could see a seemingly endless sea of blue. Not of water, but of tent roofs. Hundreds of tents lined the streets of Port-au-Prince with 4 to 5 people in each. Already the poverty was heartbreaking, and we were only 10 minutes in. I could hardly imagine what the rest of Haiti must be like. It was incredibly evident that the country had just experienced a disaster, and it appeared as though the recovery efforts were proving futile, for unknown reasons.

The scenery on the way to Jacmel was absolutely breathtaking, although I couldn't look for the majority of time (we were driving up a mountain, and I'm not really a heights kind of guy). But from what I did see however, the view was like a postcard in every sense. The lively greens of the forest, the natural caverns in the earth, and the occasional Haitian that would wave when the bus passed.

Exhaustion was really beginning to set in at this point, and the rest of the day is a blur. The last recollection that I have is dinner (rice, which easily became a staple of the trip) at Dr. Mona's house and falling asleep. This trip was going to be incredible.