DAY ONE - Monday, Feb. 1, 2010: Our journey begins

On Monday morning, Jon & Audrey drove me to the airport. I met up with the four others who were delayed due to snow. We each donned a red t-shirt, the uniform we would wear each day that marked us as members of NC Baptist Men and Rescue 24. The organization had worked hard to establish ourselves as a reliable part of the relief effort at the hospital where we’d be working, and the red t-shirts identified the ever changing faces as part of that group. We said our goodbyes to the US for now. Audrey was not pleased I was leaving her. My mom asked at one point how I could leave, knowing Audrey would be upset the entire time I was gone. I explained to her the same way I explained to Audrey. I kept envisioning some little Haitian girl in need of medical help. And that she had a mama who was praying help would come. I could be that help, and if that was the case, then I’m sure it would be worth the sacrifice of Audrey crying in her safe, warm, well fed home with her amazing, loving dad to keep her amused.

(It turns out they ate junk food and he bought her a Barbie refrigerator for the doll house she got for Christmas. Plus, she had 3 snow days and they played outside in the snow everyday. She talked Jon into sleeping on my side of the bed at least once, because my pillow smelled like my hair. She told me she was a little sad I came home.)

We flew uneventfully to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (DR), where we were picked up at the airport by Christopher, a member of a local Baptist church in Santo Domingo, l’iglesia Bautista Ozama. Pastor Luis and the staff at the church had been letting our team members sleep overnight in their fellowship hall on our way into and out of the country. Until Port au Prince Airport recovered enough to allow in commercial flights, Santo Domingo would be a necessary stop on the trip.

The church members provided a meal for us (yummy sandwiches with mixture of beef, ham, mayonnaise, who knows what, plus some sort of fresh orange drink) and a humble shelter, sleeping on mats on the floor. There was a shower, cold water but a shower nonetheless. They had also helped the first half of our team purchase the food we would need while in Haiti, since everything needed to be brought in with us. We slept poorly that night, in part because we arrived so late and in part because the nightclub behind the building was in full swing. After a few short hours of sleep, we got up and headed out for Haiti at 5 am. Our Dominican drivers would take us in a used van, recently purchased to facilitate traveling around in Port au Prince, as well as a pick up truck that was also recently purchased. We were off.