Arriving in Haiti

I arrived in Haiti on the second of January around 9 am on a flight from Miami. Rachel, Brain, Erica, Emma and Woody were all on the same flight. Erica and Brain flew from Wisconsin (where they go to school) and all the others were students from University of Miami. The plane held 20 or so passengers. Because the plane was so small everyone had the luxury of an aisle and window seat.

A little under three hours we started to make our decent into Cap Haitian (northern Haiti). The view from the plane was incredible, a beautiful Caribbean mountainous island, white sand beach coves scattered the coastline.

The airport in Cap was really small (similar size to the airport on Block Island). We all exit the plane on the runway and followed the locals who were on the flight to the customs desk. Our passports were stamped and we were waved through to "baggage claim" where we await our bags.

Sasha Kramer, one of the founders of SOIL, greeted us at the airport accompanied by her crew, Rosemond, Wisnel and Denik. We all piled into the back of SOIL's maroon pick up truck and headed back to SOIL/SOL headquarters where we would be living for the next nine days.

I was impressed with the housing situation. I did not think our dorms and the SOIL house was going to be as nice as it was. The building location was pretty much in the center of the city and was probably one of the nicest buildings/house in the city. Extremely nice for Haitian standards; running water, warm showers and flush toilets, the basic necessities most people take for granted.

The makeshift bunk beds that were strapped together with door hinges made me chuckle. We were the first group of student that SOIL has hosted so the dorms had just been created. They used the resources they had to build the bunks; they were creative and seemed sturdy.