Avoiding Deportation!

While preparing to move out to Haiti we discovered that we would be allowed to stay for 90 days without any form of paperwork, but would need to visit an embassy in order to obtain a visa for a longer stay.  Unfortunately there is no reciprocal agreement between the UK and Haiti and so we would have to pop over to either Brussels, Paris or Rome.  The plan to actually make this brief trip somehow got lost and forgotten about somewhere in my boss's well earned mistrust of my slight over enthusiasm about this being a much needed jaunt to Rome.  And so it was that we came to Haiti for 3 years with a slip of green paper in our passports allowing us to stay for just 3 months!

With all the time we spent settling in and finding our feet, this impending potential deportation slipped our minds until week 11.  It was over lunch that we casually asked someone from another NGO, who insisted that the authorities would in fact frown on our illegal alien status, and suggested that we really ought to leave the country for a couple of days.

This news could have not have brought us more consternation...you would think!

So with all due efficiency we returned home and secured for ourselves a 3 day trip, for work purposes you understand, to the Dominican Republic!!!

Its an old cliché but words really do not adequately express the wonder and relief of again being able to walk down a street!  I should add the joy of being unescorted, and not feeling threatened in any way etc...but the walking was amazing in itself.  I am aware of how little exercise we get here as we go everywhere in the car...but I would never have anticipated the two days of leg ache that followed a gentle stroll around the Colonial District of Santo Domingo that our lovely hotel was situated in!  Never in my life have my legs hurt from strolling!!!

It wasn't the business of life, or the devastation that is still so evident on every street in Port-au-Prince that we needed a break from.  The security issues mean that we have far less independance here than we would have at home.  While we are very well taken care of it was still a huge sigh of relief to be able to have full control over what we did and what we ate and at what time.  The freedom of eating was something that we took full advantage of, as well as being able to watch TV in bed, including the start of the Royal Wedding!  We also got to see the couple emerge onto the balcony at the airport...much against the wishes of the airline staff who were trying to prepare our flight for takeoff!

On day two we took a local bus (how many other types are there?) to Bocca Chicca...well, straight past it to be honest, and then back into the town...we'd thought it would be more obvious when we arrived!  There doesn't seem to be a lot to the town, and the beach was pretty small...but how much room do two missionary ladies need?  It was breezer than is healthy for sunbathing, and some peeling did follow, but it was so great to lie on a beach, read a book, swim in the Caribbean Sea...blissssssss

It is incredible that Haiti and the Dominican Republic are on the same island...they are worlds apart!  I'm sure there are areas of the country which aren't as beautiful as the Colonial District and that it has its own share of difficulties but the comparison is so striking it is barely worth commenting on.  I'll let the photos blog for me!