Sunday Fun Day

Well I finally made it down to Haiti but not without a few bumps in the road.  When I went to do curbside check in I was told they couldn't process my ticket and I had to go inside.  I have got really good at packing for up to two weeks in a backpack.  I'm quite proud of my packing skills these days.  So I only intended on bringing a backpack.  I ended up buying a Rubbermaid tub and filled it with snacks, flip flops and some activity things for the kids to do.  It ended up weighing 63 pounds which I didn't find out until I hit the airport.

So anyway back to the story, one of the skycaps carted the tub to the ticket counter for me so I could learn my impending fate.  I was told that my flight was delayed and I wouldn't make my connecting flight and if I didn't make the flight either I would have to remain in Chicago or in Miami overnight.  After 30 minutes of finagling, I was able to get on a flight.  I didn't get a seat number though and was told to check in at the gate.  Needless to say, when it was all said and done I ended up walking on with the flight attendant who locked the door behind me.  I got the last seat at the last minute.  I was lucky that the woman at the ticket didn't really pay attention to my overweight bin.


Stan at Miami Airport enjoying a bloody Mary. 
Actually it wasn't that good

Made it to Miami without a hitch, a quick stop at the bar to perk me up and then met Jaime at the gate.  She came down the night before.  Of course at that point, our flight was delayed two or three times.  After we finally boarded and started taxing down the runway, we came to a stop.  The pilot told us that the tower's radar went down and we couldn't take off.  Great.  I was sitting next to a musty smelling woman.  She smelled like my basement but wearing clothes.  It made my nose run.

I already packed my jacket in the overhead bin and had a window seat, I didn't want to be a pain to my seat mates because they cranked up the air and I was freezing.  I rotated my arms in the window to keep warm.  I'm sure I looked like I was doing some sort of ritual or just a freak in general.  I was very close to cuddling with my musty friend, she was already halfway over in my seat anyway.

Stan is enjoying a peace offering ration so the
 natives wouldn't get restless waiting.

After like a hour or hour and a half we finally got underway.  We ended up arriving around 5ish instead of 2:30 like we had hoped.  Oh well, nothing we can do about it.  But we did find out Haiti now charges $10 to enter the country.  We only found out once we were herded down a special row and a new desk in place to take our money.  Honestly I don't care just as long as the money gets put to good use.    I did notice that the airport in Haiti looks like it's had some updates in the last year so that's a good thing as well.

Mind you people I just booked this trip on a whim as in now like ten days ago.  I was desperately waiting and hoping airfare would drop.  When I had been looking in the past, it was over $1000.  I do not want to pay $1000 to go to a 3rd world country that's only a couple/few hours away.  Airfare to Southeast Asia was $1500 when I had been pricing it for a summer trip.  Asia is a long way from Haiti so I can see the justification.

My sister in law Stephanie (I protect her by the way) gave me Flat Stanley to take down here.  Unfortunately, my niece decorated him a little too feminine.  Apparently, she wanted to decorate him like a girl.  I like to say he kind of looks like Pat from Saturday Night Live, sister.  You don't really don't what gender Stan (or Sally) is.  So my little side kick Stan is going to be my sidekick this week.  We'll have fun I'm sure.

We didn't really do anything overly productive today.  We spent a lot of time with the kids which was fun.  It freaks me out seeing how much they change every year.  There are a few new faces around her as well.  I'd say the highlight of the day was when I was doing some stuff at the little kids table and had one of  the kids sitting on my lap which was no problem.  It only bjjecame a problem when another kid thought there might have been 2 inches of room on my lap and proceeded to squeeze on in.  This was ok for about 30 seconds until the chair broke.  I heard a scream and I though, "Oh dear Jesus, I just crushed a kid!"  I soon realized that the scream was from laughing.  I came away mostly unscathed except I landed on a weird spot on my spine and hurt my foot.  I don't know how my foot got hurt but it's swollen on the inside.  I lucky kid who occupied most of my lap had a bouncy drop to the floor compliments of my body.  I was more embarrassed than anything and the kids were highly entertained by my misfortune.

Scene of the mishap

Lesson on China

 

One of the retired teachers down here did a awesome lesson on China to the kids.  Hopefully they remember some of it.  They were given a bowl noodles and chopsticks.  It was funny watching them look at us like we were nuts. 

My lucky lock find

My favorite daily find was a awesome lock!   I was like, score!  I got a few old cans of condensed milk I pick up off the road.  And you wonder why I'm out being Fred Sandford, it's for art projects that I do at home with all this junk.

We came back for Sunday Spaghetti night and came up to the roof to file my report.   It's going to rain soon and it's very humid.  I'm not complaining one bit though.  I'm so sick of cold weather in Illinois!!!  Tomorrow is another day...


As a side note, this posting took about 4-5 hours to complete.  It's maddening trying to get internet or things to load.