Arrived

We arrived in Paris about 1PM, which was 45 minutes early. The pilot came on the speaker to tell us that there was not any room for the plane at Charles de Gaulle, so they were going to have to take back off and land at Orly... which would end up causing a 2 hour delay! After a couple of minutes of everyone starting to look panicky, he came back on to tell us he was joking- it was for Poisson d'Avril- April Fool's Day!

We got to the hotel around 3, freshened up, and then went to the Marmottan Museum. The receptionist at the hotel hadn't even heard of the museum- it is evidently not touristy at all, but it has the largest collection of Monet's works anywhere.

After an hour at the museum, we found our way to the right bus stop to take us back to the Rue Cler neighborhood. We had supper at Café du Marché, where we have eaten several times before.

Today has been very surreal, but at the same time strangely familiar. We were reminded of all the sights, smells, and sounds that were so normal to us last year.

Now for the Haiti story:

We were at the airport about to fly to Fort Lauderdale, when we found out that we would have to cancel the trip and send the GAC students back home. Although we could get to Fort Lauderdale fine, our charter plane to Cap Haitien had been grounded. What we understand is that the company had recently purchased a jet in Europe and that all of the paperwork was not processed in time to use the jet today. The situation changed very quickly from what we thought would be a possible delay in Fort Lauderdale to having to completely call the trip off. Our Eternal Hope in Haiti Representatives worked relentlessly in Fort Lauderdale, negotiating with other charter companies and commercial airlines, but no realistic solution was available on such short notice. The good news is that we weren't stranded in Florida... or Haiti. The bad news is that the kids and adults are devastated. We are hoping to regroup and form a trip in June.