Wednesday, October 23, 2013

We have arrived and as usual is an adrenaline rush. Getting through customs and collecting our baggage is now no different than any airport in the US, but without air conditioning. However, once you get ready to leave the airport, Haiti rushes at you with gusto. At least a hundred porters want to help you with your bags, at least 5 telephone companies are trying to sell you phone service, and many other Haitians just seem to be there waiting for something to happen.

We (Steve, Zack, and myself, Doug) managed to find Warren and his prearranged tap-tap, which as always was painted at least a dozen colors. The ride to Thomas was uneventful, at least if you accept the fact that a two lane highway can take at least 3 streams of car/truck/bus traffic, and, of course, a couple of lanes of motor scooters. Pedestrians on the side or the road are on their own! Each vehicle uses their horn as a non-negotiable notification that they are coming your way and that you had better back off.

Our arrival at Thomas was filled with greeting old friends and meeting new folks. James, who is our host and Gabriel and Steven are his helpers were there to greet us. Warren had been busy the last several weeks and had the welded metal carts and wooden drawers built for our mobile solar powered systems. We brought with us two water purification systems (Noah Trekker) and 12 Classmate laptops. We delivered the computers to our IT company and he is loading those with the new software that Steve brought.

Tomorrow we will check out the schools where the systems will be located and then start integrating the electronics. We’ll see what progress we make.

Steve led us in an initial discussion of the book "Half Time" which would serve as our evening focus. Its premise is that one’s path toward God is broken up into two halves of one’s life and that each person has a different point in their calendar life that is Half Time.