Day 10 - June 25 - Friday

At 3 AM, the team house was fully awake and figures were moving this way and that, doing final packing, lining up suitcases, grabbing a quick breakfast, applying the last sprays of DEET. The Washingtonian contingent and Kester arose with us to say goodby. At 4 AM Bruce was at the door, and we loaded everything, plus two cases of MREs and a couple of tarps, for rain protetion. We took off quickly. Bruce stopped at Pastor Chrisbon's house to pick up some mail, and we received the news that Gonaive was half-flooded. Bruce took off like a scalded cat! Well, we got up to 20 MPH, anyway. In four-wheel drive, we bounced over the ruts, eased over rocks, and ocassionally travelled sideways through slick mud. At about 5 AM, the sun came up, and the puddles in the road mirrored the blue and pink of the sky and the clouds so perfectly that it looked like we were travelling on a thin crust of earth, with heaven above and below us.

We got to the river to find it was not too badly flooded to cross. We jumped out of the truck and, with luggage in hand, took off for the boats. Deborah and Sarah were carried into the first boat and all others got aboard safely. While they were in transit, a large truck headed toward our side of the river. The water was up over the engine, but the truck kept up speed, and to the cheers of crowds on both sides of the river, made it across, preceeded by a great bow wave, which caused us to scurry up the bank. The boat came back for the rest of us. Delores was supported as she went down to the boat, then it was my turn. I hit a slick spot in the mud and shot down the bank on my side and elbow -- no harm done, though. Jym followed me down, but I could not focus on him, as I was still picking my way along the dryer parts of the boat. Our trip across was uneventful. We hopped out of the boat, except one man decided to carry Jym ashore. As he lifted, he staggered sideways and we thought both would be in the river, but he recovered, and there was no further problem. Then for the half-mile hike to the airport. Made it! Deborah and Bruce handled the ticket transactions and to make a long story short, we caught the first plane out of Port de Paix -- sometimes the only plane to go. God truly blessed our trip. More to follow.