It was Melissa’s first birthday in Haiti on July 14th.  I really wanted to do something special.  Let me start by saying that in Haiti, you can plan and plan, plan and plan, and come time to execute it… well.  Let’s just hope you enjoyed planning “something” because what you planned will probably not end up close to how it was *actually* accomplished.  Many times you have this picture in your head of a 1-2-3 step process like in the US.  In Haiti, you kind of need to add 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.  Even some of the seemingly simple tasks can take much longer then usual.

This day is a prime example.

6:30 am : Do breakfast at the Guest House for Melissa (she usually does it).

6:45 am : Put up the birthday sign I made on the computer (yes with pictures of balloons) with Risline.

9:00 am : Shop should be open now.  Drive with Evan to get the food.  We had heard of this place that imports meat from the U.S. – let’s just say that the meat in Haiti is… well… different.  We arrived in a warehouse-ish looking area that was, frankly, pretty run down.  We think we found the right gate to walk into and then think we walked through the right door… until we see a bunch of guys with big puffy coats on… I am thinking… umm… time to leave 😀  Then another guy came out of a door and asked us if we wanted to order something!  YESSS!  So we ordered three steaks. Please be good, please be good… I keep thinking.  The last time we had steak was in the states with Matt & Tammy.

9:30 am : Walk out to car and start pulling away very excited I had Melissa’s surprise in hand… then we have a guy yelling at us.  I roll down window to hear the tire of the car losing air fast. YIKES!

10:00 am : Changing tire… using some bricks we found to prop up jack so we could get the car high enough off the ground.

11:00 am : Onwards to the Haitian bakery to pick up the cake I pre-ordered two days ago.

11:30 am : Find out the writing I had asked to put on the cake wasn’t done since they ran out of cake writing stuff 🙂  I said I could wait.  While we waited they decided to mix something up and try that… no good.  It started to run over the cake and ruin it.

12:00 pm : waiting

12:30 pm : waiting… at this point it was just to funny… I had to laugh about the situation… I mean the cake said “B” and then a bunch of red dripping around where the “on” should be on “Bon Fet Melissa”.

 1:00 pm : I said practically laughing, we would like to leave with the cake in the failed state it was.  They said to wait just a few more minutes…

1:30 pm : They figured out something to make the writing!  Off to the guest house for lunch!

2:00 pm : The Haitian workers, on their own initiative, wanted to surprise Melissa by making tacos and guacamole for lunch.  We all ate at the table and sang Happy Birthday!

2:15 pm : Mid-wife Melissa came over with a cake she made and saved the day!  You see, I didn’t realize that Haitian cake is much different then American cake.  It looked so delicious on the outside but the inside kind of tastes like cardboard.  No joke.  Not very sweet at all.  Thankfully Mid-wife Melissa made one! Yeah!

3:00 pm : Group arrived, gave Heartline tour, blah blah…

8:00 pm : Started making dinner at our apartment.  I was able to cook the steaks on a borrowed George Forman grill.  Heated up left-over potatoes from the night before, bought some kenep’s at the outdoor market and we are all set 😀

9:00 pm : We sit down to eat dinner!  Happy Birthday Melissa!

Maybe a little bit different then my original 1-2-3 plan… ok… a lot different… where on this planet could you get this type of day, right!  I just can’t make this stuff up 😀

Maybe it wasn’t a failure but an adventure!  Maybe Melissa’s Birthday Adventure!