Gracie in Haiti
Hey this is Gracie(the one in the red in the picture)! I'm just going to give you guys a summary of what we've done so far... It's beautiful here! Everything about this place amazes me; from the children to the buildings to the land itself. It is truly an amazing experience, and I've only been here for two days! :)
Day 1-Oct. 6: Okay so on Friday after school we drove down to Phoenix, ate dinner, did a little packing and rearranging at the hotel, and hit it. My dad and I ate at this really good restaurant called True Foods. It's in Scottsdale and I definitely recommend it. Then on Saturday we got up at around 5:30, got dressed, and hopped on our flight to Miami. When we got there, we went to this restauraunt called the Latin Cafe... Not sure if I really dig Cuban food haha, but it was worth a shot! After that we went to South Beach in Miami. The beach was amazing! The water felt like bath water it was so warm! The boardwalk was... something else haha. Loud music, people trying to sell you stuff, and lots of people that had had too much to drink falling all over the place... well, that's Miami I guess!
Day 2-Oct. 7: On Sunday we woke up at 6:30, got dressed and rushed off to the Miami airport once again. Our flight into Port-Au-Prince took off around ten, so at around noon we landed. Even from the air you could see the difference from our culture and theirs. The houses seemed to consist of four sheets of metal with a blanket as a roof, and they were just stacked on top of each other. There was even still some areas that looked untouched from the earthquake years ago. People walk in the middle of the trash-covered streets barefoot, children that look around age five run around screaming and laughing, Rodney had to fend of people that wanted to help us for money, it was a ridiculous culture shock... But one thing I noticed and I won't forget, was how happy the people seemed. There was so much music and laughter, it was really cool to see how happy someone can be despite how little they have. It really made me think twice about how much I have and how much I need. How is it that some Americans have all they need and more and are still not satisfied, and these people have what seems close to nothing and seem to be joyful and happy? After we drove around a bit, we went to the domestic airport in Port-Au-Prince and took a short flight to Cap Haitien. That was really cool! I got a bird's eye view of Haiti! We met Edy, went to our hotel, cleaned up, and went to dinner at a little restaurant above a small supermarket. Then we came back to the hotel, showered, and after a long day, hit the sheets. What a long day!
--- Gracie