Day 2

Hello everyone,

Today was another long day of travel for the team. We woke up early and had breakfast at Lance’s house and then we were on our way to the embassy which is in Port au Prince. At the embassy we met with multiple diplomats and members of USAID and OFDA (Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.)

After the embassy, we headed over to Lance’s electronics factory to see what it was like to work in Haiti. The experience was eye opening to say the least. After a brief time at the factory we hit the road headed for Les Cayes.

Les Cayes takes about 5 hours to get to not including traffic. It took us nearly 2 hours just to get out of Port au Prince due to heavy traffic. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, driving conditions are much different in Haiti than in the States. It is very chaotic and crowded almost all of the time.

After a long ride we finally made it to Les Cayes just before sunset. We loaded all of our things onto the boat and enjoyed the 45 minute ride over to Ile a Vache. We were dropped off at Vacation Village which will be our home for the next 10 days. Captain Lennon introduced us to the Vacation Village staff as well as our translator Thiery. Dinner was very good. We had beef, rice, fried plantains (my favorite), avocados and tomatoes.

Tomorrow we will have breakfast at 0800 and then we will spend the day familiarizing ourselves with the island. We might have time to go to the beach! It is much warmer here than back at Mass Maritime. It is 85 degrees which is a nice change. The humidity is high but it is not too bad. In just four days the T.S. Kennedy will be anchored off the coast, carrying all of our supplies. There is a lot of work to be done before the ship gets here. I look forward to updating you all tomorrow on our day!

Talk to you soon,

Kaylene