Today we got up at 6:30 for our trip to the Everglades. We arrived at the Air Boat place around 8:00. For breakfast we ate at the local restaurant and tried interesting things like frog legs and alligator tail! They were fried and amazing. Then we went out back and got to see some of the alligators that they had rescued. There were four alligators, each extremely large. After walking around for quite awhile waiting for the boat ride to be ready, we finally got to meet our boat driver, Ed! (He sounded like ALL his jokes were rehearsed.) We boarded the air boat, distributing the weight so we didn't tip. Then Ed fired up the motorcycle-sounding engine and we went into the swamp at 30 miles an hour. We reached the most shallow part of the Everglades, where Lauren, Morgan, and I got knee deep into the water. (It felt like a wet plush blanket just like Ed said.) We sped off into the distance after Ed gave us the majority of our questions for the Boys verses Girls nighttime game. We putted through the tight river space, where we spotted alligators left and right. (About 8 per square mile!) The river boat ride was probably the highlight of today, in my opinion it was the best activity of the whole trip!God bless you all,
Gilbert and Michael
Gilbert and Michael forgot to mention how, on the way back from the everglade tour, the GPS (and Mr. Dia) took us on a tour of the Miami airport. I swear we were about to be flying over to Nicaragua to say hi to the other mission trip!
-Morgan Levy :)
This afternoon we went on a tour of Little Haiti. After our airport tour, we finally made it to the after school to set up the things that we purchased from Target and Wal-Mart the day before. We cleaned and rearranged over a two day period. We came in this afternoon around 12:50 to put in the new items, and make colorful signs to brighten up the after-school room. After, we met a man named Jean Derisca at the after-school center and he took us on a tour through Little Haiti in our own van. All sixteen of us (students and chaperones), plus the tour guide had to squish into one of our vans that normally seats 12. We went to the Asian American Alliance center where we looked and talked about pictures of some of the famous figures from Haiti, and helped Haiti fight for freedom. We also met the Mayor of North Miami Beach and took a group picture with him, Philippe Desroses was his name. After, he took us to the soccer park, the Emmanel "Manna" Sanon soccer park. They used this park for weekly soccer tournaments. Sometimes the park was used for large social gatherings, like the remembrance of the earthquake in Haiti in Port Au' Prince a year ago. Then after the soccer park, we went to the Cultural Arts Center. There were beautiful murals of markets and women dancing. Then we went to a Bookstore called the Libreri Mapou. Then we went to the Botanica which is a small store that has little trinkets and things that are important to people who lived in Haiti. After we went to a Haitian owned furniture store, called Ziggy's Furniture Store. That was the last place that we visited with Jean.
Then after our tour, we were expected to be eating lunch, but we didn't. We didn't really have time to eat. We were really hungry, but it did make us think of the people in the world that don't have anything to eat, who were actually "starving". We went back to the after-school, the kids were there already because school was already let out by the time we got back from our tour. The look on the little children's faces was truly genuine. They kept asking "Did you do this?" and it was a really good feeling to say "Yes, we did." You got a warm feeling in your tummy when you help someone who really appreciates it. We helped them with their homework and shared snacks, which we really appreciated because we were hungry. We played and colored, until it was finally time to go. The children really didn't want to see us leave, and we didn't want to leave either. It was an amazing experience that none of us will ever forget.
Naomi & Olivia
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