Can't Think of a Title

Having a hard time coming up with a title. If I write "She's Here," or "Finally Here," you might think I'm talking about the container. But I'm not. I'm talking about my mom. She was supposed to fly in on Sunday at 4:00. Well, Sundays we go to the village, Balan, for church, which is about 2 1/2 hours from where we live. It would have been a waste of gas and time to come back to the orphanage, so we decided to make a day of it.

After church in Balan, we sat around and talked for a while, before heading out for the Visa Lodge, a pretty nice hotel in Port-au-Prince where we were going to have a late lunch. By the time we got there, the buffet was closed down (which is good because it's like $14.00 US per person). So we all got cheeseburgers, banan peze (think smashed fried plaintain) and a little rice and beans. Oh yeah, and a bottle of Pepsi for each person (they were out of Coke). We had a nice relaxing meal, and met a guy from Minneapolis who was here on a Dental mission. I got so confused, when he talked about going to Jeremie, because I totally thought he said Germany. I couldn't figure out why he was going to Germany. I even asked him where he had to fly to connect to Germany. Incredible. I can be a little slow at times. It was when I mentioned Luftansa, a German airline, that Jennifer finally elbowed me and said, "He's going to Jeremie, not Germany." I'd like to think it was because I spent a month in Germany back in 1995 that I heard Germany and not Jeremie. In actuality, it's all just a lesson in humility.

Back to the story. My dad called me, to tell me my mom's plane was delayed. So we hung out at the hotel a little longer. Finally we left for the airport, which is not too far from the hotel we ate at. While we were waiting, my dad called again to say that her plane was delayed again, and was scheduled to arrive in PAP at 6:30 pm. Supposed to be there at 4:00, it was about 5:00. So we decided to go back to the Visa Lodge for ice cream. We just got back to the restaurant, and he called again, saying that her flight was cancelled, and she would be coming the next day, Monday.

So we left to go back to the orphanage, without my mom. I felt bad when we got to the orphanage. I should have called and told them we weren't bringing my mom, but it totally slipped my mind. When we pulled up, all of the orphanage kids were dressed in nice clothes, waiting outside to welcome my mom. They were a little surprised when we all got out of the car, without her.

So the next day, Monday, I went to get her. Her new flight was scheduled to get in at 10:25 am. I was there at about 10:00. She came walking out at about 11:45. No luggage. Not even her carry on, which she had to check last minute. So we either had to wait all day for her luggage (they promised it would come at 4:00, and it did) or we could come back to the orphanage, eat lunch, and I could go by myself to get her bags later.

Well, my mom is pretty friendly, and she made some friends. One of them in particular was a guy named Matthew Goodwin. He hailed from South Carolina, just finished his PhD, and had decided to start medical school in the fall. He is volunteering at an AIDS clinic in PAP for the next six months. He had never been to Haiti, spoke no Creole or French, and no one was there to get him at the airport. Well, we couldn't just leave the poor guy. He had a phone number for the place, but there was no answer. He had an address, but I had no idea where the street was. I called Jean Claubert, and he suggested I bring him back to the orphanage, and let him go back down with me to the airport to look again for his ride. So we did.

We all came up to the orphanage, had a nice lunch, and relaxed a little. Then Matthew and I left to go back to the airport to find both his luggage and my mom's luggage. We found his, and even found a man holding a sign with Matthew's name on it! So he was on his way, I found my mom's luggage, and everyone lived happily ever after.

We spent today (Tuesday) in Balan, but I'll have to write more about that another time. Until then, Eric