We are thankful for good travel to LaGonave. This is Cory filling in for Kris by posting to the blog. The Anse A Galets church service is earlier now so we were there at 7am this morning. It was good to see many of our friends. After the service Kris went over to work at the hospital and I'm posting this while the kids play with the Irvin's young puppy. Dr. Ferdinand is already on vacation so Kris will probably be on call for the next two weeks until we leave.
We left Fauche at 4:30am Thursday and arrived at the guest house in Port au Prince around noon. The weather was beautiful and the roads "interesting" with all the creative driving techniques, heavy traffic & foot traffic at times, and limited road maintenance. The photo is when we climbed through some clouds in the high mountains. At the guest house we unloaded the truck, then headed right down to immigration to get our visas renewed.
Payment is a bit complicated. I think they like to make sure you have a certain level of creativity and patience. The official at the visa office tells how much to get a cashiers-type check for and you go to a nearby bank to buy the check, made out to the "public treasury" This year the bank says they won't take cash, you have to have an account to deposit the funds into first. I didn't have my bank booklet with me but went on to the bank I have an account in and that didn't work either without my bank booklet so we gave up for the day and went back to the guest house. I though I had left my bank book at home so I wondered how they expect someone without a bank account to pay, but then realized our driver or anyone with a bank account could be hired to get the check made. The next morning Kris and the kids caught a ride up to the Baptist Mission with the driver, who was already making a trip there. He then picked up Cory when he got back to the guest house and they went to a bank to get the check. Cory had found where he packed the bank book so he was able to use his account. It took the bank almost 2 hours, an $8 fee, and a lot of copies of paper. At Immigration was another 2 hours or so of waiting but finally the renewal requirements were complete and the visas should be ready for our driver to pick up on Monday.
Christmas decorations for sale in Port au Prince.
Cory then drove up to the Baptist Mission, collected some plants and we all went back to the guest house for supper.
Saturday we left right after breakfast to get to the public wharf to take the big ferry to LaGonave. The ferry leaves when it gets full so it is hard to know the exact schedule. Kris and the kids stayed at the ferry while Cory quickly drove the truck to the mission wharf to park it and prayed a "tap tap" (the modified small pick-up trucks that carry as many people as can squeeze on) with room would arrive soon for a ride back to the ferry in time. After 10 minutes one arrived with some room and there was an hour to spare before the ferry finally left at 11:15. It is a crowded, loud ride with music videos playing near us at the front of the boat. We could take the mission sail boat but the ferry is less expensive and the passengers are protected from the sun and waves.
Tap tap with live goats tied on the roof.
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