It started off with a 6 am soccer game into learning Creole before the big adventure of the day- getting groceries. 

So we take off to Port-au-Prince to get our first groceries. This included the 4 of us, 4 Haitian high schoolers and 1 driver in a pickup truck. The one hour ride in the bed of the pick up on rocky terrain gave me a semi raw butt. First we stop to exchange our American money into Haitian Goods which ended up being a fat stack of 73,000 Goods then head to a premier Haitian grocery store guarded by security strapped with shotguns. 

We grab and pay for our groceries to return outside to basically a monsoon. Lightening cracks seemingly 10 feet from my ear jolting me to the truck then realizing that the groceries take up almost the entire back seat so almost all the boys have to hop in the bed of the truck (5 of us). Stuck with an ocean falling from the sky on top of me, we take off and I never thought I'd say this in Haiti but IT WAS FREEZING. Drenched and shivering, all of us had our knees pulled to our chest in tight little human balls clumped together in a back of a pick up truck to try and find warmth. I think I saw about half of Port-au-Prince start instantly laughing and pointing at the site of 3 white dudes and 2 Haitians clumped together in the back of the truck. 

As we headed back and stars filled the sky, we pick up another 5 Haitians workers so now 10 people stuffed in the truck bed freezing and someone pulls out a clear tarp. We all get under it and instantly start laughing, I don't know why- maybe delusional from hypothermia shock or something. We are finally almost home then BOOM goes the dynamite? nope, the back right tire... 14 people, one truck, stranded on the side of the road- cold and tired. 

After about 20 minutes the tire is fixed, we squeeze back into the truck bed and make our way back home dropping our Haitian worker friends along the way. This simple trip that turned into an extraordinary event is a fresh reminder that we have to constantly observe and adapt to the ever changing obstacles that permeate in Haiti.




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