Many parishioners are going on this trip with us, in the form of meds and money, pill packaging and prayers.
Our itinerary is as simple as the Honduras mission groups: two flights, ideally - and that is what we had: BOS to MIA, and then MIA to PAP. Alas, our flight from Boston was two hours late. Bright spot- our beloved son Alex works in Miami, and picked us up to take us for a drugstore visit and dinner and then to hotel.
Logistics: we checked 10 bags, each weighing about 50 lbs. That totals 500 pounds, or 1/4 ton. We had prescription drugs that Dr Brown ordered from Blessings International in Oklahoma as well as many bottles of vitamins and pain killers brought in by parishioners and an extended circle. The retail value is substantial. (We are urged not to talk about money for security reasons). We also had another 2 bags each for carry-on, with our overnight things as well as medical hardware: stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs, thermometers, and glucometers courtesy of Icilmo Preston.
Since we had to stay overnight in from Miami, and the flight out to Port au Prince was next morning, we put our cargo into storage at Miami's Terminal E. Our bags were BIG- just under 30" long, several sweetly loaned by Sara Post. Sara has come a long way from her native Newfoundland and is well traveled, from her service as an Army nurse in Vietnam to her family adventures, and her many mission trips. We are poster kids for the LL Bean Extra Large Adventure Duffel bag with wheels and extendable handle.
Saturday morning we engaged a porter with a BIG cart rather than again rent several little luggage trollys. That was a sound plan, as Mr. Gabriel Velazquez with grace loaded the cargo, moved it to Terminal D, let us consider INSIDE check in (until we saw the "Miami" lines), and then with patience checked us in curbside with baggage weigh-in, baggage tagging, and boarding passes for the five of us. We also paid for extra bags. A second bag costs $30 (for contrast, check online for UPS or USPS charges from Boston to Haiti for 50 lbs.). John, Mary and Susie got a head start for the TSA lines (John's new hip assures a bit more quality time with TSA, as Linda and Nick accompanied Mr Vazquez and the cart creaking with a pick-up truck cargo of suitcases to the TSA x-ray drop -off point. Linda observed the Lord sent the angel Gabriel to look out for us.
So - we are now up in the air MIA to PAP on American, and ready to run the gauntlet at Haiti Customs.
LANDED: airport in better shape than I expected. We made it through the rugby scrum that is baggage delivery and customs.
9:30 PM, Leogane, Haiti - after a wonderful dinner.
We are all now safely arrived at the guest house inside the Hopital de Ste. Croix - more later!
-Nick
Thanks to all the kind people that made this outreach to Haiti possible, from inside the Parish of the Epiphany /PoE and from outside. We walked the talk for some 500 patients served last week.
ReplyDeleteNick