We manage to get more successful directions to Operation Blessing down by the airport, and finally locate the warehouse we were looking for for 5 hours on Tuesday.
Wilkens finds the place at last!A large American greets us at the gate and asks who we are. This “Gate-keeper of the Storehouse” seems to revel in his own self-importance. Jean-Luc introduces himself and the American guy swears blind that J-L collected the shipment this morning. No way am i prepared to go back empty-handed, and i mouth off some at him. Fortunately he changes his tune rapidly. We get invited in for an ice cold coke and chocolate cookies (i´d forgotten how good chocolate can taste) and sure enough we are passed bags of rice, milk powder and sugar. By now i´m ready to marry him, settle down and have his babies.
J-L and Wilkens with the large American - all smiles - eventually
returning heroes! Unpacking at the orphanageFeeling like we´d just won the World Cup, we return triumphant in a rented truck back to the orphanage, and within five minutes we get a call that the boat we had been expecting on Monday has finally and successfully managed to dock in the local wharf. J-L and myself rush down to the ship (organised by the Church of Scientology) and make contact with the now infamous Mexican Captain J. He greets us like lost brothers, for he is really drunk, invites us to join him for some stewed beef for dinner, regales me with a bunch of dirty and offensive jokes, and we make illicit arrangements to commandeer our “secret stash” for tomorrow. It is impossible for us to rush through the customs paperwork. There is a doctor on board who will give all 38 children a medical here in the orphanage and the chef suggests coming here too, to make us a special barbecue lunch!
J-L with the drunken outrageous Captain J.After the last two days of frustrations, suddenly it feels like Nirvana.
Tomorrow should be another interesting day, full of barbeques, smuggling and another meeting with Project SEEDS from Cité Soleil.
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