Days 127 & 128 (2/20 & 21)

Monday – Even though we didn’t get to bed until after 2:00 am, we were up by 7:00 and decided to head back to Petionville. We were told that it would be the exact same parade both tonight and tomorrow and decided that once was enough. We said our goodbyes to Jenn and John John; thanked them for their hospitality and hit the road by 8:00. The traffic coming back, unlike yesterday, was back to normal – heavier. The trip, like most, included at least one accident – an SUV in the ditch just outside Grand Gonave. Of course they had to block both directions of traffic for ½ an hour while they pulled the SUV out of the ditch. It reminded me of a scene from an old Keystone Kops episode. However, we did get back to Petionville unscathed in just under 5 hours – a little longer than our 3 ½ yesterday.

We no sooner got back to the office than the telephone calls started. “Oh, you’re back from Caye?” “Yes”. “How was Carnival?” “How did you know I was at Carnival?” “Oh, we saw you on TV.” - so much for anonymity. I thought that the TV crew was from a little local station in Les Cayes. Apparently it was the main national channel. We must have been the token blans at Carnival.

Tuesday – Today is another quiet day at the Guest House, no teams in or out. So – Tom had made arrangements to meet one of the circuit pastors and hike back to a remote village to look at damage caused by the hurricanes 3 years ago. The pastor said it was a forgotten village. We left with Spana in the D-Max at 4:30 – yes, AM – and drove up the mountain to Kenscoff, where we picked up the pastor. We then turned off onto a bad dirt road and drove for about 30 minutes to a little village on the ridge of the mountain. There we turned off onto a really bad dirt road, put the D-Max in 4 wheel drive, and drove on a road carved out of the mountain side and along the ridge of another mountain for another 30 minutes until the road became impassable. It was an incredible ride and I could tell that even Spana was a little nervous. We let Tom and the pastor out and they started out on their 4 ½ hour hike to the village of Belie. Spana finally got the D-Max turned around and we haeded off for Furcy, which we could see on the ridge of the next range of mountains, but was at least 2 hours away. All along the way we encountered dozens of people, men, women and children with baskets and bundles of produce piled on their heads heading for the marketplace in Kenscoff. I don’t know how long they had already been walking, but they had at least 4 hours of steep terrain to go. We got as many women and children into the back of the D-Max as we could. Spana smiled and pointed at me and said “Bill’s tap-tap”.

Furcy is a small mountain community that Tom and his wife Wendy have been coming to for almost 10 years. They formed an organization from their church community in upstate New York called Mountains of Hope and have been supporting Furcy. We just recently added Furcy to our UMVIM sites and have started sending teams there. Tom wanted me to check on the work that the team was doing there. It’s very hard to remember that you’re in Haiti while you’re in these mountains. They are over 4,000 ft. high, very steep and rugged and covered in pine trees, crisp cool air – really beautiful. It’s easy to see why Tom and Wendy love it so much. The team and the Haitian laborers were knee deep in the trenches digging footings for a new kitchen and dining building. I visited with the team for a while and looked at the site of the follow-up project – a small depot behind the church. Then Spana and I headed back to Petionville. The day was almost gone when we got back to the Guest House so I checked on my emails and made a few phone calls then took Spana out for a hamburger at Rickey’s. The GH staff was off for the National Carnival holidays, so we were on our own for dinner. We went through the Haitian tradition of ordering hamburgers, waiting for a while and then being told that they were out of hamburgers. We settled for chicken (they’re never out of chicken) sandwiches and had just finished the last bite when Spana’s phone rang. It was Tom. He had finally reached a point where his cell phone worked and said to come pick him up. I told Spana, “Let’s go!” He looked at me and said, “You’re going with me?” I said, “I wouldn’t miss it”.

If the trip was exciting during the day, it was a definite Disneyland “E” ticket ride at night. We were 4 wheeling up a steep section of road (I use the term loosely) and just started around a curve carved in the mountainside when the headlights picked up two people in the road. It was Tom and the pastor. Tom was hanging on to a long stick that he had picked up along the way and looked half dead. The pastor looked like he had just gotten up from the couch. When Tom could speak he croaked, “Boy am I glad to see you guys”. They had apparently hiked for 4 ½ hours to get there and 5 ½ hours getting back – all of it very steep terrain. Tom’s comment was, “I don’t think that’s a team friendly site”. We got back to the Guest House at 11:00 PM (a long day) and carried Tom to his room.