"I've Got a Surprise for You!"

Flying into Port Au Prince, evidence of the January earthquake was everywhere. Tent cities were visible from the air. Collapsed buildings were all over the place. And, on the sea, there was only one sailboat, even though it was a beautiful Friday afternoon. Put simply, it was obvious that recreation was not on any one's mind.

When we arrived at the airport, however, and made it through customs (that's a story for another day), there was no one waiting for us and the land was very foreign. Instead of being greeted by our friend, George, who had arrived a few hours before us, we were greeted by a mob of men who all wanted to take our luggage for us. "My friend," they would say as they tried to take our luggage. "No, no," I would say, "my friend is coming to get us." Apparently I wasn't too convincing, so they continued to plead to carry our luggage, but we had nowhere to go, so we had to stay put. Moreover, we had no cell phone, no contact number for George, and no clue where he was at the moment, although we were confident that he would meet us at the gate, and preferably sooner rather than later.

Before long, George did arrive, much to our comfort. To boot, he brought his cousin, Gary, and his uncle, Jean (pronounced "Gene"). We proceeded to walk through the many locals, hop into a small SUV, and then wait for Uncle Jean to have a somewhat heated discussion in French over the local man's request for money. All the while, a young boy begged for money at our window. Needless to say, all the activity was a bit unnerving.

After breaking free from the throng of people at the airport, we went down the road, passed several United Nations armed vehicles, and arrived at a small, gated hotel, which had a small cafe. The gate was left open, but was guarded by a heavily armed security guard. I have no clue what kind of rifle he had, but I hoped he would not have to use it.

The plan was for us to spend the night at George's aunt's house in Port Au Prince, and then to catch a puddle jumper to Jeremie in the morning.

As were hopping out of the car and walking to the cafe, George announced, "I've got a surprise for you!" Surprises and Haiti, I would soon learn, are not exactly the same thing as they are in America. "We're going on a cruise tonight." Instantly, I thought that sounded a bit off. And then George added a bit more of his surprise: "With a thousand Haitians . . . overnight . . . to Jeremie." "Okay," we replied. It sounded adventurous to us, and would it ever be.