Flag Day in Haiti ~ May 18th

Today we had quite the experience getting to the orphanage. It is flag day here in Haiti which means lots of celebrating in the streets...which also means lots of traffic. A ride that normally takes us 30 minutes each day took us an hour and a half today. As we made our way from the hotel to the orphanage we saw more people than usual on the streets. School was out today so that the kids could participate in the celebration and parades.

Before long we found ourselves stopped in traffic because there were groups ahead of us dressed in uniforms and ready to break out in dance as they walked. Our driver is a very persistent driver and was not going to let parades prevent us from getting to our destination. He beeped his way forward and we found ourselves directly behind the vehicle that had large speakers and music blaring. There were two people in the back of the vehicle that were singing and shouting into the microphone. They seemed to be singing what I assume was the National Anthem at one point because our driver and translator broke out in song with them. People were dancing and waving their flags proudly.

When Francois had enough of being behind this vehicle, he beeped his way forward parting the crowd and we literally became part of the parade...a bit awkward. :) Glad we have tinted windows!! People were squeezing water packets spraying others in the crowd. At some points there were men that seemed to be trying to help direct people out of Francois' way so he could get by. At other points he was getting what I believe were very dirty looks from men that were irritated that he was still trying to proceed. We had made progress until a, what appeared to be, grumpy police office halted Francois and was directing him to go left down an alley way. Francois just stayed put and waited it out for the officer to keep moving up ahead. We lost all of our progress as we watched the crowds go by us that we had just passed.

When Francois thought the time was right he tried to cut across the flow of traffic to go down a different side street...this didn't bod well for him as multiple people then seemed angry that we was trying to do so. We were greeted by the grumpy police officer shortly after and he asked for Francois' license. He proceeded to write Francois a ticket...for speeding...which apparently 5 miles an hour was too fast for him. After he wrote the ticket we were quietly on our way again. The crowd finally made it up to the street that we needed to take a right on to get to the orphanage. It was good to get out of the crowds. While it was nice to see the celebrations it was a bit stressful being in the thick of it.

When we got to the orphanage we went and found T and made our way up to the balcony. We seemed to have a lot of kids follow us up there today. At one point there were about 15 -20 kids with us which was very overwhelming. We had to scoot most of them away because it was just too noisy and overwhelming. Before we did T told our translator that the kids were being noisy. (I agreed.) She was still a bit down and lacked energy when we first got there. We gave her water (dlo) and some pediasure. She drank some of the pediasure but didn't guzzle it like she did the first day.

About halfway through our day she seemed to get more energy and was more playful. She was hiding behind me and would hide behind Mike. She also tried to hide a ball that the three of us were playing with. She stuck it behind her back and we pretended we couldn't see it. Her nanny brought her some medicine for the slight fever that she still had while we were there. Hopefully that will do the trick and will have her back to normal tomorrow. We had to leave early today to avoid getting stuck in traffic later this afternoon, so today was a short day.