Friday - 27 June - Departure

Thursday night we had "the last supper:" spaghetti, green beans, Haitian bread, and peaches for dessert. We tried to eat sparingly, since we had not worn ourselves out for the past two days. We spoke of what had been done, and what we had to do on our return. We gave Bruce and Deb messages from Iris and Deborah. We heard the story of Bruce and Deb's romance and marriage. It was hard to leave this table of friendship and service. We returned to pack and assemble our leavings (lots of leavings!)
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Oh, by the way, Pat got his glasses back Thursday evening. Neva, one of Bruce's men, asked around and found someone on a "tap-tap" (jitney) had stopped and picked them up. He tracked the tap-tap to its village and started asking questions, and a mother came forward with the glasses her boy had brought home. God works in his ways!
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Bruce showed up early this morning (he usually does) but we were almost done with breakfast. Soon we were packed and underway. On the way we saw many of the sights we had seen from disconnected viewpoints - now they unrolled before us in a different, united perspective. As Ruben, our driver, drove us through the big river and into Port de Paix, the places I saw as squalid poverty on the way in looked bright and thriving - the streets were even tarred.

At the airport Pastor Chrisbon helped us and stayed with us until we got on our flight. "It's a dirt strip," Pat mused, almost as if he had forgotten our landing. We had passed through this airport so quickly this airport had seemed like a blur. The plane seemed newer and more spacious than the one we rode out on, and after two weeks of bouncing around in Bruce's truck, the bouncing around in the air seemed much less violent. We landed in Port au Prince and clung to our bags as we surged through the gauntlet of porters this time -- almost lost one, but Maria was hot on its tail and got it back. We waited and waited and waited. There are five chairs in the Port au Prince airport for travelers. Inside a frosted glass cubicle there are several other chairs for the guards. The floor was fairly clean on this side.

Finally, at 4 PM, we were allowed to check our bags and get our tickets for Air France. We went upstairs and prowled through the duty-free area for a while. Eventually we moseyed to the gate and took off. We landed in Miami at 10:30. Maria called Deborah to let her know we had arrived safely, and I sent an e-mail to Bruce, as he had requested. At half past midnight - to bed!