Small World Stories....

There simply are no words to adequately describe what I have experienced the past 6 days and what God has taught me. I will attempt to update you with my feeble words and pictures in hopes that you will be able to experience what I saw in some small way. First let me warn you that this may be a lengthy post so go grab a drink, put your feet up and get comfy because here goes... Oh and you might even want to grab a tissue or two just in case!

Our Flights to Port Au Prince (PAP) were quick with minimal layover time. We met early on Thursday morning at KCI...early as in 4:30. I was running on about 2 1/2 hours of sleep at best. It wasn't that I stayed up on purpose but was just excited and ready to go. Mental note to self...take some type of sleeping aid the night before a big trip! Seriously, I should know better...But it's in the books and God sustained me with lots of energy and great health while on the trip. I am so thankful!

In this first posting I think I'll tell you about the 3 small world experiences that I had...I absolutely love it when things like this happen! The flight from Miami was a full flight with all sorts of relief teams, churches, work teams etc going into Haiti to do their thing. As we were standing in an enormously long line to go through customs in PAP I got talking to Josh, who is from Arkansas (I think that was the state). Somehow it came up that I had grown up in West Africa...specifically Mali and Cote d'Ivoire. Josh mentioned that one of his good buddies from back home is actually in France right now preparing to go to Mali as a doctor. So I ask Josh what his friends name is..Turns out it's Jason Foster. Jason Foster and I went to the same boarding school in Cote d'Ivoire. In fact, Jason taught our class French when we were in elementary school. How crazy is that??! Just wait..it gets better.... So we are ceremoniously welcomed into Haiti by a ethnic "band" playing their traditional dance/party music. It was really cool. Customs was customs...long lines, no AC and masses of people with controlled chaos...definitely not for the faint of heart or impatient I might add. They graciously allowed me into the country and then I faced baggage claim. As I mentioned earlier is was "controlled chaos"... technically I think more emphasis should be put on CHAOS. :) As I was standing there waiting for our bags to be brought over to the building we were at I kept looking at this girl who was standing about 20 feet from me and I kept thinking..."She really looks familiar". I kept glancing her direction trying to read her ID badge that was around her neck but didn't want her to think I was being a stalker. I finally walked by her after I had collected my two 50 pound bags and as I walked past she stopped me and said, "Are you Brooke?" My jaw hit the floor and I said, "Did you go to school in Cote d'Ivoire?" Yep, sure enough...She was a grade ahead of me and her sister was a year behind me. Stephanie Kotecki words for the US Consulate office there in PAP and is stationed there for 2 years. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WHAT A SMALL WORLD!!!!! The last small world story happened on Sunday. A group of us decided to go back to Pastor Moise's church so we hopped in the back of a pickup truck and rode to church. It took us a little over an hour to get there. Church started at 6:30 a.m. and when we got there at 8:30 it was still going strong. It was AMAZING!!! I heard the best version of I'll Fly Away in Creole and it will go in the record books of amazing things I've seen, heard and participated in! WOW!!!!!!! On the ride home our route took us past the airport. A new flight had recently arrived & traffic was horrible....REALLY HORRIBLE...there we sat in the back of the pickup cooking to a crisp in the intense sun watching people exit the airport into the masses of vendors, porters and people trying to make some money off of the Blancs (white people). I see these 2 guys exit the airport and notice they're sporting bright blue shirts that say Omaha. I look at the guys and notice that one of them is Dan Reimer....a family friend. So I hollered at him; chatted for a quick minute before our driver decides to play chicken and make a run for the recently opened very small spot up ahead. Driving...well, that will have to be an entirely different post so stay tuned.

I have included some pictures of the sights of Port au Prince as we drove around town. The streets are teeming with people, tap taps, buses and vendors and I loved EVERY minute of it!

That's all for now. I'll update again later tonight with more pics and stories.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support. It was an amazing trip that God used to teach me about the simplicity of love, his faithfulness, the church, and resiliency!

Bondye beni-w
(God Bless you!)