Joe's in Haiti: "If we stay more than 15 minutes, the gang members come"

This afternoon, Pastor Brian and I rode into the most dangerous city in Haiti on motorcycles. I rode behind Immanuel, a rather shady City Soleil native who Pastor Brian knows nothing about except for the fact that Immanuel knows his way around City Soleil. It's weird. Immanuel claims to have grown up in City Soleil. Yet, he speaks near-perfect English. And some Portuguese. He sports his own Dell laptop, and seems to know every single person in City Soleil.

All Pastor Brian knows is that if he goes into City Soleil with Immanuel, he is temporarily safe. So I actually prayed a lot the night before. "God, if it is Your will, I don't want to die yet."

It was absolutely crazy. Right after class, I was whipped onto the back of Immanuel's motorcycle, and we went off through Port-au-Prince towards City Soleil. I'd never been on a motorcycle before. And then to ride through one of the most dangerous cities in the world.. it was both exhilarating and frightening. Once we got there, we visited a small school. Out of those small shacks came children and babies, some of them naked, most of them barefooted. Girls who could be as young as 14 were nursing babies. And what do we find right outside the school? Mud cookies. I've got 6 of them to distribute if anyone is interested. I tried my first one yesterday. Now I understand. You can't swallow it. It sucks the saliva out of your mouth, and turns to clay on your tongue. I just don't know how they eat these things..

We stayed there for about 10 minutes in two different locations in the city. Why?
"If we stay more than 15 minutes, the gang members come, and it becomes dangerous." - Pastor Brian.

In all honesty, though, Cite Soleil, supposedly, is much safer today than it used to be. A lot of effort has gone into rebuilding Cite Soleil. Though it may be less dangerous, it definitely is the poorest part of Haiti.

At the end is a video. I nearly fell off the bike taking it.