Over Prepare Then Go With The Flow

That is my motto and it has always worked well for me!
So the news? The work team made it here safely and are now, as I write, just arriving at the job site!
For those of you who didn't know, we have a work team of 8 people from our hometown/church, staying in our house for one week to build houses for Haitians living in tents. They just arrived yesterday and things have been going really well so far!
Pre-instructed on what forms to fill out and how to mark suitcases for easy identification it only took 20 minutes from landing to driving out of the airport and that is record timing! After what they considered a shocking? crazy? mind boggling? drive over some of the worst roads, which we considered actually some of the better ones, they arrived at our home. By that time everyone was thirsty and actually pretty tired and a little hungry too, but we got busy right away. After getting re-hydrated and unpacking any perishable food items, we all piled up in two vehicles and made our way up to the Baptist Mission. It was our one chance to visit the Mission since the rest of the week, other then Sunday of course, everyone would be too busy building houses. On the drive they saw more bad roads, breathed in a lot of exhaust fumes and polluted air, saw the most people they've ever seen in one place at one time on the streets, and really couldn't believe how Jason or I actually drove through the masses of people and vehicles, especially since there appeared to be no traffic rules whatsoever. Kids with dirty rags wipes down the vehicle multiple times, motorcycles squeezed through traffic and everybody honked about everything. At the Baptist Mission we had cheese burgers minus the cheese since they had run out, and on sub-like sandwiches, they didn't have hamburger buns either, but the food was still good and it did hit the spot. Souvenir shopping was, well interesting! Sellers hounded, and tugged, we bartered and people gawked, but we did manage to purchase some nice souvenirs for pretty good prices. It was starting to get dark on the way back home which made seeing the potholes a little more difficult, especially since my headlights weren't working either. People still wandered all over the streets even in the dark between the traffic so that was interesting as well. I think the team was a little relieved when we finally got back to our gate since the maze of rutted streets all started to look the same and they were starting to wonder if we'd ever find our way back. Home again we did house orientation, explained where everything was and how houses in Haiti work. The guys then had a meeting and sang while Wouter played on Jason's guitar. Sher and I decided we really didn't need to be part of the meeting so we just spent time catching up, looking at pictures and enjoying our time together. How cool is that, that one of your best friends happens to be your sister-in-law and married to your cousin? We joke that that can only happen if you are Dutch. On top of that her daughter Kaelie, and my Jayden are 1 day apart! She's here to help me with cooking for the team so I get to hang out with her all week!! So exciting! Anyway, I haven't taken pictures, but I promise I will today. Tomorrow there will be a new post. Maybe I can include some first-impressions of Haiti from the team as well. Until then..