Friday July 5, 2013
After all the hard work we put in during the week, we got to
spend our last day relaxing in the most beautiful resort I’ve ever seen. It was
strange; after all the trash and devastation we saw, the Wahoo Resort was otherworldly.
We got there so early that virtually no one else was there. It was just
sunshine, tropical flowers, and the blue green waters of the ocean.
The main attraction for us was the pool that sat atop the
hill with an amazing view of the ocean. If you were sitting in the pool,
looking at the ocean, there were places to sit and a bunch of tropical plants
to the left, and then the breath-taking mountains to the right. It was
seriously the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. Like one of those pictures out
of a travel magazine that you never believe are actually real. They can’t be-
it’s just too beautiful. Well guess what? I can testify: they are real and they
are just as amazing as the pictures.
If you went up a small hill a bit, you could reach this
little half-outdoor bar. They served most of us these non-alcoholic frozen mix
drinks. Pina coladas, pineapple and pineapple mangoes were the three most
popular flavors. They were even more interesting because you could actually
crunch down on the sugar. To a kid like me, that was awesome.
Dave figured out the details so that we could rent out the
jet-ski as a group. Everybody got to ride with a partner for about five minutes
and then come back so the next pair could come back. I had a jet-ski when I was
younger, so the opportunity to jump on one with Emi was absolutely
smile-inducing.
Okay, so by now, you’ve figured out that I’m always one for
telling stories. This one involves one of our translators, Danniton. So,
earlier, he had discussed his fear of swimming because of the movie Jaws
(although he didn’t actually know the name of the movie – he just described a
movie in which a ‘big fish with big teeth” *cue the scary fingers in front of
mouth action* “that ate all the people”). The poor guy didn’t even know how to
swim! So a few of the dads tried to teach him how to swim in the pool that
morning. For a kid who grew up on Lake St. Claire, and is a decent swimmer,
watching him walking across the pool floor and swinging his arms in an awkward
paddle movement was more than entertaining.
So fast forward a couple hours, and you have Chip, trying to
find someone to get on the back of the jet-ski with him. You see, Chip’s a
crazy college kid, and we all knew that he was going to drive like a maniac. Most
of our group is made up of people over forty who don’t need to get hurt and
younger girls who are too scared to deal with that. So somehow, the poor sucker
who ended up getting on the back of Chip’s jet-ski? Danniton. Yup, the Haitian
to learned how to ‘swim’ just this morning.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who saw it coming. This had
bad idea written all over it.
Sure enough, a group of us watched as Chip took a turn too
sharply and they both went tumbling into the ocean. Later I heard Chip
explaining how Danniton had basically panicked the second they hit the water
and tried grabbing ahold of Chip, pushing him down. The poor guy was flopping
around and clawing like a cat in the bathtub. The funniest thing was when they
came back; this time, Danniton was driving and Chip was the passenger…
There was more entertainment than just the jet-skis. You
could also get on a small wooden boat with a group and have a Haitian take you
out to the coral reefs to go snorkeling. Those Haitians are clever by the way.
They tell you that they’ll take you out there for five dollars. Then when you’re
headed back in, after you’ve used all the snorkeling equipment, they tell you
that there’s a two dollar equipment fee. Sneaky guys… But everyone who went
loved it. Lexi even came back with a piece of coral.
Lunch was already taken care of for us at the restaurant on
the resort. It was this cute open-air place. I sat with Geary and Kevin… and
some random Haitian man who sat down with us. I had never seen him before, but
he said hi, and then played with his phone rather than talking to us for the
entire rest of the time. I thought it was absolutely hilarious. Random, maybe a
little strange, but hilarious. Lunch consisted of chicken, rice and beans,
plantains, and coleslaw. Aka, the typical Haitian plate.
After lunch everyone got their fix of fresh King crab and
lobster as well. Earlier that morning, all the men had gotten together to
bargain for the best deal on the seafood. You see, Haitians were walking around
with these giant, foaming-at-the-mouth crabs all day. You could buy one for
fifteen dollars and they would bring it out to you in a plastic doggie box like
the kind you get at a restaurant, all chopped up so that it’s easy to eat.
Our super-bargaining men got the price down to $11.50 each
since we were buying so many of them. All of them arrived sometime in the
afternoon. I tried a piece, but I’m not crazy about seafood. Emi on the other
hand, dove in. She grabbed a chunk of crab and furiously dunked it into the melted
butter.
“BLECH!” And with a noise like that, she spit it out. She
hadn’t realized that the butter she thought was in the little cup was actually
lime juice. Not exactly the same flavor. But Kevin and her devoured the rest of
the box in no time.
Speaking of crab… There were all these tiny little crab
along the shoreline where we were renting the jet-ski. It was awesome. They
were just these tiny little things that we kept trying to catch. The only one
that was having any real luck in the catching department though was Haley. She
would catch them for the rest of us.
At one point, she brought one way out to me and a few of the
other ladies who were swimming a bit farther out. This was all well and good,
until it started crawling too far up her arm, causing her to scream before it
jumped into her hair. Somehow, she got it off of her and we all calmed down.
UNTIL someone decided to make the curious comment, “I wonder where it went now.”
I was thinking that it had probably just swam to shore. That seemed logical. I
was thinking that, and then I felt something on my chest. I looked down just in
time to see the little crab run down the top of my bathing suit. I freaked out.
I’m a girl, what can I say. I failed and squealed and flung it out of my
bathing suit. It was great.
At the end of the day, our fun came to an end and we headed
back to Bercy. However, we had just enough time to clean up before we were off
again. Thanks to Tim Morton, we got a special treat that night.
Because of his connections with the Haitian family that he
met the first time he was in Haiti, we were able to go to Villarson’s mother’s restaurant
for dinner. This was an amazing treat! We basically had the same meal that we
had for lunch, with better, super spicy coleslaw, and some kind of pasta salad.
We also got a small dish of this sauce. I still don’t know what it was, or what
it was made out of, but it was seriously to die for. Everything was absolutely
delicious.
It was funny too, because the 26 of us took up the entire restaurant.
A few of our group members even had to squeeze in to tiny tables on the side of
the room because there wasn’t enough space for them at the long table that we
were all sitting at.
The walls were basically boards in a pattern too, so we
could see out most of it. Right next to us was another building with a big open
window. There were children popping through the window looking at us and
taunting us throughout dinner. When Paige wasn’t looking, Ed passed a chicken
leg through the window. Immediately it was silent and we could all picture the
kids on the other side ripping it up. The only problem was, one piece of
chicken doesn’t last long between about seven kids. Soon enough, they were back
in the window, demanding more.
But we ended up getting a mini speech from Villarson and we
all got a picture outside with some basketball players before we left. It was
so awesome to be able to go into a village that we hadn’t been to yet and get
to go to a real restaurant. I went home happy and full thanks to Tim’s hookup!
Later that night we had a rather somber team time. I think
we were all anticipating the departure, some more than ready to go home, like
Anna who hadn’t been home in three weeks at this point, and some, like me, who
just weren’t ready to go home.
Chip, Macy, Haley and I decided it was a good idea to stay
up all night just for the heck of it. Well… I decided this because Emi walked
over with a smirk on her face to warn me about the massive amount of ants in my
bed. There was no way I was going back.
For all of you who think that Emi is evil for announcing
that information with such delight, don’t worry. Karma got her. On her way back
to her bunk, a big ol’ tarantula crawled onto her foot. HAH to you too Emily.
Anyways, we stayed up until about five thirty the next
morning. Well, mostly up. We talked for most of the time while trying to play
cards in the dark and I played with Balto a bit… But at some point it was just
too much for us. I remember getting woken up by one of the other teams since
they had an earlier flight home than we did. Macy was laid out across the top
of the table. Haley was passed out on the bench, with Chip by her head, who had
slouched down with his head on his arms on the table. I had curled up on the
other side of the bench, using Chip as a pillow. It was lovely. Not comfortable,
but definitely worth doing. Sleeping outside in Haiti, how many other people
can say they’ve done it? Besides Haitians…
Guys! That basically concludes our week in Haiti. More posts
to follow, random things I feel the need to share… But that was the bulk of it.
I’d like to thank all of you who were home praying for us.
We all had an amazing time and I can’t thank the Lord enough for that.
Be sure to check back in every once in a while… Pictures are
soon to come!!
