Haiti, From the Point Of View of a Kid - by Nathan, 12

What I Pictured

When my parents told me that God had set it on their hearts that we might move to Haiti, this is what I pictured. A straw hut (I had hoped I would get my own), I would be the guy to run down to the well everyday, and I did NOT imagine electricity! But when I asked my mom if it was going to be like that, she assured me it probably wasn't. I asked my dad to show me the pictures of the place we would live in, and I realized it wasn't a straw hut. I was pretty bummed out because i was starting to look forward to having my own place! Another big question on my mind was schooling. I had always wanted to be home-schooled because the idea of no homework sounded awesome. I again was wrong. My parents told me that i would probably go to a school called Quisqueya Christian School. I had pictured a room about 20x20 feet all around with completely Creole speaking kids led by a teacher who also wouldn't speak English. I was way off. Quisqueya Christian School is pretty much a school for all of the rich people in Haiti. Most of the kids in my class have a smartphone and/or Ipad. For once in Haiti, I was the poor one! 

My Trip to Haiti

Now I know that most have you have heard what happened in the airport from my parents point of view but this is my point of view of possibly the most stressful moments of my life:

I woke up at about 4:00 am. Wow I thought, Today, I will fall asleep in Haiti! I got out of bed and realized that everyone else was awake. I saw  the bowl of oatmeal on the counter and devoured it. I helped my dad pack up the trailer with our suitcases and then  hopped in Mr. Degier's truck. I surprisingly didn't fall back asleep! I guess I was nervous. When we got to the airport I noticed how long some lineups were. I also noticed a short Irish woman barking out orders. When we got to the front of the line to get our bags weighed, an Asian lady  was arguing with my dad. I was pretty confused, and my dad looked stressed. My dad turned around and told us we could only take 10 of the 12 bags we had. Immediately, my moms face grew into horror. My dad insisted that we had checked the website 20 times over (Which was probably true.) Then the asian lady called over her manager. By this time, the people behind us grew impatient. I heard the insults coming from their mouths and i continually told them that we were sorry. They were getting more frustrated by the minute. I didn't understand. The manager said that she had a compromise. That we could put stuff from our 4 bags that couldn't come, into our other 8 bags and she would mark them as overweight.This next part could have been in a cheesy comedy movie! In Haiti, toilet paper isn't cheap so half of our bags were filled with rolls of toilet paper. Next thing you know, toilet paper is flying everywhere. We did manage to get rid of 4 of our suitcases. It was now about 6:30 and our plane departed in an hour. Then we had another issue. Long lines. I'm sure you have all read the other version of the story but i gotta say, I was pretty scared when the manager wheeled my mom in on a wheelchair. My dad explained to me that handicapped people got wheeled to the front of the line so mom was pretending to have hurt her leg. As we ran down the terminal, we heard our voices called through the intercom. We stepped on the plane about half a minute before it took off. And you wont believe what came on the tiny T.V in front of me. A commercial for american airlines. All I remembered was this. "And with american airlines, we assure you a no stress, no hassle, flight. Have a good day." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I decided laughing would be best on a plane loaded with people. We stopped in Miami on our way to Port au Prince. There, we waited for about 3 hours. I told my mom that i wished we could've evened out our times at the airports. In Toronto, we didn't have enough time whereas in Miami, we had nothing to do for 3 hours. But at least we knew we would make it to Haiti, unless the plane crashed (Which it almost did). We arrived in Haiti mid-afternoon and met Mr. Zachary King. He drove us to the house we would be living in until the Kings moved out. I was in Haiti.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3e0WSiBti8

- I'm pretty sure this is the commercial that was on the airplane :)

A Day In The Life of Me

My mom wakes me up for school at 6:45 insisting that i am going to be late for school. Groggily, I get out of bed, grab my towel and hop in the freezing cold water of the shower. I get changed into my QCS school uniform, (I didn't even know schools still HAD uniforms!) and went downstairs to eat my oatmeal. Then I hop in the car and drive down my street, into the big rut at the end of it, and drive on one of the few paved roads in this country! We stop at the Krul and Luths house because we usually carpool with them to school. When i get to school, i run onto the astro-turf soccer field to play soccer. I go through a regular american/canadian school day. When I get home I don't even jump anymore at the 4 lizards on the wall. I feed the dogs, occasionally see a rat, and go read a book somewhere. Then its time for supper. I love haitian food! Usually we have "Diri ak pwa" which is creole for "rice and beans". We also sometimes have Greyol which reminds me of Canadian bacon!

After supper I either get out of dishes by volunteering to play music, or I do the dishes with my siblings. Then I go to bed. Repeat...

WTH

Most of you interpret WTH as an abbreviation for a bad sentence. Likewise for our family. I would say that daily I or one of my parents will say "WTH" after someone rants about Haiti. Allow me to explain. WTH is a new sentence that I made up meaning "Welcome to Haiti" ex:

Dad: So then he arrived 30 minutes late when he was supposed to come early!

Me: WTH!

This has occured several times before and occasionally it actually lightens the mood. WTH everybody.

~Nathan Vanderstoep, a kid in Haiti.