Haiti Itinerary

July 10-18

Monday, July 10:

- Arrive at Charlotte airport (American Airlines counter) at 7:00 AM to check in.

- We will depart on AA flight 4247 at 9:07 AM and arrive in Miami at 11:05 AM

- We will meet up with the other travelers from Atlanta, Texas, and Mississippi

- We will connect to AA flight 783 at 12:13 PM and arrive in Santo Domingo at 2:29 PM

- We will all go through immigration, baggage claim, and customs together. This process will probably take about an hour to get all of our luggage and get out of the airport.

- From here, we will take a bus up to Santiago, where we will be staying for the night

- We will eat dinner at the “dorm” hotel where we will be sleeping.

- Get to bed early for the long day ahead

Tuesday:

- Arrive at the bus station at 6:00 AM to depart on the 6:45 bus to the border. (the bus station is right next to the hotel, so we will be walking)

- We will be taking a Caribe Tours charter bus all the way to the border (this will take approx. 2-3 hours)

- You may sleep on the bus since it should be fairly comfortable, but there will be a packed house with us and Dominicans

- When we arrive at the border, we will need to stay together!!!! DO NOT let anyone touch your bags!

- This will be a tricky part of the trip, but it promises to be an experience J

- We will all need to show our passports and fill out cards with our information on it.

- You will be split up into 2 groups lead by Bobby and Steve to go through the border. This should make things less chaotic and go more quickly. This process will also take about an hour.

- Jordani will meet us here at the border and arrange our “transportation” into Perches. (This is also going to be a fun experience for those of you who have not enjoyed a scenic ride through Haiti J)

- Our goal is to leave the border and be on the way to Perches by 10:30 AM.

- This will put us in Perches around 2:00 … hopefully.

- Once we arrive, we will unload our things at the orphanage and get lunch cookin’

- We will have all afternoon to “settle in” and play with the kids, as well as assess the work that needs to be done and split up responsibilities.

- There is usually a service on Tuesday evening, so we will attend that if that is the case

- We will be sleeping at the orphanage, so each evening, we will return there for devotions and bedtime

Wednesday – Saturday:

- Much of our schedule will depend on how fast we work and how much we are able to get done.

- Each morning, we will get up and get breakfast, then work for a few hours until lunchtime.

- If we are moving fast on our work, we will plan to have an activity in the afternoon with the children and the school teachers.

- We will be split up into groups to work on the following things: construction, landscaping, unpacking boxes, decorating, painting, cleaning, and going to the homes of the children.

- DO NOT start giving things away to people!!! This will cause a very unpleasant situation for the entire group until we leave. There will be specified times when we will be able to give away items, but do not take the liberty to do that on your own however tempting it may be!

- Each evening, we will be having services to show the Jesus film in Creole. We will have tickets made up that will be color coded for each evening. This will be a great chance to share the gospel with the entire community.

Sunday:

            -     We will attend church for the morning service.

- We will say our goodbyes and leave Perches by 11:30

- This will put us back at the border by 2:30-3:00 PM

- We will catch the bus and head all the way back to Santo Domingo.

Monday:

- We will be staying at a “luxury” hotel where we can relax, so we will enjoy the pool and the hot showers

- We will also try to take a bus to the market to do some souvenir shopping.

Tuesday:

- We will need to be at the airport no later than 6:00 AM for our 8:21 AM departure

- We will be departing on AA flight 680 from Santo Domingo to Miami at 8:21 AM arriving at 10:36

- When we arrive in Miami, we will have to go back through customs and immigration. You never know how long this will take, but hopefully there will be time to grab some lunch at the airport.

- We will part from our friends from other states, and head on back towards home.

- We will connect to AA flight 4256 from Miami to Charlotte which leaves at 3:10 PM and arrives at 5:13 PM.

- We will arrive back to Charlotte, hopefully with all of our luggage J by 5:13 PM.

- Make sure you arrange for someone to be there to pick you up so you can tell them the AWESOME trip that we had and how they missed out!