A Day at the Port
This morning was the beginning of the shoe distribution at Terre Noir with Soles 4 Souls. Before they started all the kids in the school sang us a special song and did sign language with it!! It was great.
The shoes took awhile to get here in the morning so the group was sitting around waiting but once the shoes arrived it was all business. They ended up seeing all the students 1st – 6th grade, all teachers, school staff and construction workers on site. They really did an amazing job today and they were worn out.
I helped them get started and then I was off with the Mama and Aunt again. I dropped them off at Wahoo Bay Beach and then headed on up to the Port at St. Marc to try to find a truck that was shipped down. St. Marc is about 2 hours away from the compound. It was a fun trip up there.
When we pulled up 4 guys swarmed the truck saying *translated in to english for you “White, white, white we will help you.” As usual, I don’t need help. I took Marconelle with my as my security guard and another driver. The 4 guys insisted on following us around. I did not ask them or offer them anything, but it was pretty fun to have this entourage following me around.
We finally figured out where we were going and I opened the door, followed by 5 big Haitian guys, and said/shouted the guys name that I was looking for. He was standing behind the counter. I forgot to mention I am dressed like Haitian Mafia – Black dress shirt, dark jeans, dress shoes, aviators with a not real happy look on my face. Anyways, the guy freezes. He has a really worried look on his face. I say his name again and he quietly says “Yeah that’s me.” I walk up to the counter and tell him I need to find my truck and it looked like 1000 lbs was lifted from him shoulders. I then realized that it looked an sounded like I was coming to get him with my Haitian crew. He came out from behind the desk laughing, saying he thought I was coming to kill him. We all started laughing.
Long story short for his office. He could not find any paper work for me. The truck was non existent. I call the guy in the states that shipped it and we talk back and forth trying to figure out what is going on. No luck. They find the same tracking number and say the truck has already been picked up. I say there is no way. I talk with the guy in the US again. He is calling Monarch. I am sweating to death inside this place. The port guy says he can’t wait forever. I tell him to show me where to go look for it. He points out the way. I tell all of the volunteer “helpers/mafia members” that I have no money so unless they want to help for free to disappear. They didn’t like that very much, but all of them left except one. He continued to show us where to go. We go to the dock but they won’t let us out there without the papers. They tell us how to get to the parking lot so we hop in the tap tap and ride off. We are almost there when the guy in the US calls and says that he talked with Monarch and it hasn’t even been shipped yet. Craziness. How did that even happen. So we drove around for nothing all day, but it was a lot of fun. O yeah, by the way, I thought Cite Soleil was the most dusty place on earth. I was WAY wrong. St. Marc is AWFUL. You could reach out and grab the dust in the air with your hands and tie it in a knot. If you were to turn on a Hoover vacuum it would explode in 5 seconds. I was so nasty after hopping out of the tap tap the first time. So imagine spending 2 hours in it. St. Marc makes me think of the adventures of Huckleberry Fin. Some sort of 1800′s port in dirty Mississippi with some random architecture and people EVERYWHERE. It was a pretty neat town though… except I always felt like I was being watched, but I think that makes everything more fun – a different level of excitement.
We finally loaded back up and head to Wahoo Bay to pick up my mom and aunt. I was able to jump in the pool for an hour and then head back.
It was a really long day… and those are only a few details from the day! Never a dull moment down here.
I miss everyone so much and can’t wait to see you all in September. I am working on my detailed schedule now, so hopefully I will post it soon.
Always with Love,
Stephen