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[Deutsch unten<\/a>]<\/p>\n October 15, 2010, 6.30am<\/em><\/p>\n The rest of the trip went well. It\u2019s hot and humid, and I suspect sweating will become part of daily life. As will dealing with people begging\/offering services for pay, which was quite an experience for me after I had managed to find my bags among the mountains of luggage in the arrivals hall and headed out. But Mike, one of the other volunteers, found me and together with two \u2018red caps\u2019 (who kept asking for money but at least kept other people away) we left the airport and met up with Junior, a GVN employee.<\/p>\n At a nearby hotel we met up with Kat, volunteer coordinator, and two other new arrivals (Sierra and James), and started the drive to Jacmel. And what a drive it was! Stop and go and crazy maneuvers through Port au Prince for what felt like forever, taking in the way people live their lives on the side of the road, in huge tent camps and on the ground floor of still-standing houses. The destruction, however, is most obvious in the big buildings, like the cathedral, everywhere else people seem to have arranged themselves rather permanently.<\/p>\n Once we were out of the city, we headed into the hills, winding roads and navigating around earthslides (a result of deforestation) and people working their fields. It was all a bit too much for my motion sickness, and when we finally arrived in Jacmel at the GVN house I was shaking uncontrollably, which was rather disconcerting.<\/p>\n However, people were very friendly, and I discovered that I would not have to be sleeping in a tent but under my mosquito net on the floor, as they had vacated the previous GVN compound and moved everyone into the house. There\u2019s no doors and no glass in the windows, but we\u2019re thankful for every breeze anyway.<\/p>\n The first dinner at the hotel that cooks our meals was good, although the chili at the spaghetti gave me a bit of a nasty shock. Back at the house me and the three women in my room (all new) set up our sleeping quarters and were soon fast asleep, exhausted from the journey. I slept surprisingly well, considering the heat, the rather thin air mattress and the unknown noises everywhere, and am curious to see what the first day (orientation, apparently) will bring.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n![\":)\"](\"http:\/\/www.volunteerjournals.org\/wordpress\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/icon_smile.gif\"){kind=icon}
It also gave us the chance to get to know each other – about half of the 14 GVN-ers are new, so there were a lot of names to be exchanged.<\/p>\n