Finally in Port au Prince

Twelve hours after first boarding the bus, we finally arrive in PAP. Remember that little diddy I mentioned about laying down our own expectations? Well, let me just say I was glad I didn't know at the time that the drive really should have taken us about six hours.

It was very evident when we came closer to PAP. We began to see large piles of rubble dumped on the side of the road. We also began to see some tattered buildings and a few tent cities. Once we reached the road in the main city, it was very apparent. There was traffic like you've never seen before. It was chaos. A two lane road with semi's, dump trucks, buses, tap taps (the Haitian taxi), motorcycles and don't forget people. The only way to get ourselves in the chaos was to throw ourselves into it.

Which is exactly what our bus driver did. Which resulted in our bus touching fenders with a semi and the bumper touching a dump truck. It all took about 10 minutes (with 3 or 4 Haitians attempting to direct traffic) for us to unravel ourselves.

At first there was a little confusion about our destination...the police station (where there was a large clinic set up) or the orphanage (where there was a small pediatric post op clinic set up)? It was finally decided that our base would be the orphanage. :) Immediately on the grounds, I was washed over with such a sense of peace. The only part of the orphanage that was damaged was the roof of the chapel. This place was such a sanctuary compared to what we had seen on the way in.

Due to our late arrival into PAP, we really didn't have an opportunity to do much the first day. We were quickly directed to locate a tent which would be our home for the week. The girls from Austin (Michelle, Tammy, Jamie and myself) quickly located a tent and bunked our belongings as well as unloading all of the medical supplies we had packed.

After getting unloaded, I sat down with two Haitian ladies whom I discovered were hired to cook dinner for our team. All together, combined with the teams already there, we numbered about 50. I was immediately overwhelmed with so much joy as I sat down with these two women. I felt at home, complete. I knew that this is what I was created for...somehow, I have an inkling that God is calling me to women in many nations. God is so good to me.