July 15, 2006

This morning we were up and ready to leave by 10 am to go see Talley's orphanage in Petionville. We waited in the restaurant for almost two hours before the drivers came to retrieve us. Most of the group went, and so they arrived in two pick-up trucks. One had a king cab and so a few of the moms and a dad sat in the cabs with babies, while the older kids and the rest of the adults piled into the beds of the trucks. There were 28 people going (including the children and the two drivers). It was rather snug. Personal space etiquette goes immediately out the window in Haiti! :-) Tim had Georgia in the back of a pick-up and I had Talley in the cab with me.

The roads were a mess and so the ride was very bumpy. Traffic in Haiti is just like traffic in Ethiopia and Viet Nam--no rules, many near-misses, and lots of honking!

The drive to Petionville is about 40 minutes or so. It is kind of up in the hills. We stopped for gas on the way. It was very hot and while we were stopped, people were sticking things in the car trying to get us to buy things. A few were newspaper sellers. Too bad I can't read Creole, or I might have bought the one with a semi-naked man standing up in the bathtub, with huge letters dramatically printed across the front page--wonder what that was all about. ;-)

Since Petionville is a bit up, it was quite a bit cooler than Port-au-Prince. It was a blessing. There were trees all over, too. The Petionville orphanage is right on a main road, but there is a locked gate at the entrance. They have a nice little yard with trees for the kids to play in. When our pick-up pulled into the driveway, I could hear kids calling out, "Rose-Gaelle! Rose-Gaelle," which is Talley's Haitian name. Then a couple of teenaged girls popped their heads into the window of the truck and squealed with delight at the sight of Talley. As soon as I got out of the truck, she was whisked from my arms, and the girls of the orphanage spent the next couple of hours fighting over who would get to hold her.

The girls also were interested in playing with Georgia and kept trying to take her from my arms. I was happy to see how much the kids loved each other and other kids (Georgia is from another orphanage). The Petionville orphanage has a very family feel to it. I liked it a lot and felt so peaceful there.

When we arrived one of the mom's was very sick--maybe a combo of motion sickness and heat exhaustion. We gave her some juice and a powdered vitamin mixture. Everyone was concerned for her, but thankfully she seemed to recover relatively quickly.

Continued...