For all those fans for 4 wheel drive, have I got a road for you!
Last week I drove from 7 AM to 7 PM on some of the worst roads in Haiti, straddling "mud tracks" 2 feet deep, fording rivers, and beating my tires up on "washboard" rock formations that loosened up every bolt on my Toyota pickup (and even shook some completely loose).
I had a full load of 5 people inside the truck and two men outside sitting on top of 50 cases of Christian literature, soccer equipment and suitcases.
Our first stop was a remote church where we delivered lots of books to be distributed next week during our visit with our Canadian Friends. Then we tried to hook up with a Haitian pastor who had just had a bad motorcycle accident, but couldn't wait until he got home.
Our last stop before heading to La Pointe, was to drop off the rest of the books that will be distributed to 9 different churches between July 11 and 16th. There are colorfull "25 Bible story" books, Pilgrim's Progress in Creole, Bibles and booklets for children that clearly explain the Gospel.
There were also Literacy "primers" to teach children how to read in Creole. When i got to this remote village, I decided to test the reading skills of the children gathered around. To my amazement, even the smallest child seemed to be able to read the letters with ease and even some sentences! The future of Haiti is definitely the children!
To get to La Pointe, we had to cross a wide river that trucks have been know to get stuck in. Naturally, I was a little nervous, and it didn't help that some of my Haitian companions told stories of people they knew who got stuck when water stalled their engines and the car drifted down the river a bit!
We made it across, however, thanks to "guides" that sat on my hood, sometimes pointing in different directions!
I was glad to get even a cold shower that night to wash all the dust off and crawl into bed!
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