Today we woke up early to go with the new house mom (whoes name we cannot spell) to show her where Doctors Without Borders is. We took six of the sickest kids with us. We had asked the night before that those six kids be fed, dressed and ready to go by 8am. When we emerged from our shipping container all six kids were ready! This was a surprise for us! House mom was clean and stylin'. Each of us took two kids because you can pay for one person if the kids sit on your lap on the taptap. A taptap is a Haitian style taxi. It's a mix between a U.S. bus and taxi. Usually it's a covered pickup truck with benches in the back. We sent House Mom first and planned to meet her where the taptaps stop at the end of the line. She got a taptap easily while Amy and I had to wait for a LONG time until one stopped. A few stopped but there was not enough room for two blans and four kids. We were getting a little worried that we weren't going to be able to find a ride when out of no where, a truck (not a taptap) backed up to us and the man said in English, "We don't have seats." We replied, "No problem for us!" and opened the tailgate to climb inside. Toutou (Older boy) had walked up and gave us a funny look. We pointed to our ride and said, "is this good or no good?" He just nodded his head and said it was fine. We drove off and halfway through our ride the tailgate fell open and we quickly shut it tight. Apparently we shut it too well and we couldn't get it open once we got to town. The back had a cover on it so there was a small opening which was our only option to get out. Let's just say it was a tight squeeze for the smallest kid...
Once we were out, we went to pay the driver and he wouldn't take our money. We think he said something along the lines of "thanks for helping the kids." We still tried to pay him but he wouldn't accept our money. As we walked away both of us said "awww" at the same time. We then searched for House Mom for a lonnnnggg time and couldn't find her anywhere. We realized we didn't have her phone number and decided to call Vanessa to see if she had it. Vanessa's phone number wasn't saved in the phone.. So, I (Becca) remembered seeing her number randomly typed on a info card in the container and Amy said, "uh, I have that same card in my passport holder!" We called Vanessa who asked around for the House Mom's number and no one had it. I hung up and texted Vanessa asking her to call the House Mom and have her meet us at the gas station. We returned to the gas station, waited, and hoped that something would happen. Because we are white and alone with four kids, we got a lot of stares and a lot of people try and have conversations with us. A man on a motorcycle ("moto") pulled up real close to us and started asking Amy if the kids were ours. We said they were from an orphanage and that we didn't understand what else he was saying. He responded with "you know (insert house mom's name)?" And we were like "WHAT?!? Uh, yes!" He pointed down the road and indicated that we should follow. We met up with her (she was waiting at a different gas station). We walked all the way to Doctors Without Borders only to find out that they are only open for emergencies on Saturdays and Sundays. Darn. Awesome new House Mom said "I will take them on Monday." Yay! We are happy to see that she has initiative.
We helped her get the kids on a taptap so she could take them back. Amy and I walked to exchange our money for smaller bills from our BFF money changer man who never tries to heckle us. We went to our favorite bread store to get cold drinks then to our favorite food stand for our favorite/only Haitian meal (white rice, about 17 beans, and lots of bean sauce) which we think is delicious only when in Haiti. We got a taptap ride to the internet cafe close to the boys orphanage where we can update all you lovely people. Oh! And, we drank the coldest and most delicious cokes that anyone has ever had in life ever.
Now we're headed to the boys orphanage.
p.s. aparently facebook doesn't work on these computers today. And that's the first thing they said to us when walking in the door. Ha. Americans = facebook.
Orevwa!
-Kann a sik
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