So Worth It

Supper at Hotel Cyvadier

I met with Evensce today, the child I sponsor through Compassion. If you read the earlier blog from today, you know how upset and frustrated I was with the whole process of getting to Jacmel.  Well, all the troubles we went through were absolutely worth it.

I know we had it rough, but so did Evensce, the translator, and the Compassion worker.  They left his home at about 6:30 this morning for a 4+ hour ride to Jacmel by motorcycle.  Their drive took longer than expected because of rains last night and a flat tire on one of the motorcycles.  They were to arrive at 10:30 but couldn't make it until 12:00.

The three hours that I had to get to know Evensce were totally worth it.  I went out to meet the motorcycles as they came up the gravel drive to the hotel.  The first thing he did when he got off the motorcycle was hug me.  I fell in love that moment.  He's 13, but he was very okay with giving me a hug.  I couldn't wait to get to know him better.

Evensce and me 

The time we had flew by--it certainly wasn't enough!  We were able to have lunch and then do a bit of swimming in the hotel pool.  He's a swimmer, which is unusual for Haitian kids; he said that his friends and he swim a lot in the river near where he lives.  I would love to go visit him at his Compassion project and maybe meet his family.  I don't know whether that will ever happen, but I would like to try.

"Posing" by the pool

We had to leave soon after Evensce did because we had to get the car back before 7:00  (okay, really 5:00, but we managed it by 7:00).  The Hertz folks did eventually get us a new car, so the drive back home was uneventful (relatively).  Oriol is by nature a cautious person, and that transfers to his driving (hence the two-hour trek over the mountains yesterday).  That same drive today took just an hour.  I drove part of it!  I was very pleased with myself for tackling other "firsts": first time driving in the mountains, and first time driving in Haiti's mountains.

We pulled into the Hertz place at 6:54 and had to be assertive to get them to take the car back and not charge us for another day.  I tip my hat to Mr. Fritz, the manager there because he took great care of us even when the other workers were giving us a hard time.  He deserves some kuddos for his work, and I intend to write a letter to the corporate office sharing what he did for us.

Well, the car was back "home," but we were not.  We still needed to get from Hertz back to the orphanage via walking, tap tap, and motorcycle.  In the dark.  I know it wasn't the greatest timing (okay . . . . it was bad timing), but I was okay.  Rhonda, a.k.a. Officer Komes, was not okay.  Every one of her cop instincts was firing away, and she struggled with our trip back.  However, she took care of us.  When we had to walk, she walked behind Susan and me because she "had our backs."  Literally.

We arrived safely.  No problems.  As I was confident we would.



My hope is that their last two days in PAP will be drama free as we focus on the kids and spend time with them.

Video clip of the riverbed as we headed out of Jacmel.


On tomorrow's blog I will post more photos of my day with Evensce--my computer battery is about dead!