Wednesday, June 30th--Day 8

Plans for today:

Today is the day we return home, so we don't have much time for activities.

We do hope, however, to wake up early (what else is new?!) and leave for the airport to give us enough time to drive through Port-Au-Prince to see some of the most-badly damaged areas from the earthquake.

We will then begin the long process of returning home...

On our drive to the airport, we again saw the many piles of rubble that was unloaded at various places. We found out that the Haitian truck drivers would just unload them at the first spot they saw--on the side of the road, in a field, in a yard, etc.--then go get another load. This allowed them to get more money for each load. What a mess...

We saw many buildings which were destroyed.

Trash was everywhere...right in the streets, in huge piles.

Dogs, as we have seen everywhere, eat from the trash, and anywhere else they can find food.

Don told us that many of the buildings, which haven't been touched since the earthquake, likely have bodies buried under them still.

There is a sadness and quietness in all of us as we see these things.

Still, there is that Haitian determination that we see in the faces of people we drive by.

Somehow, that gives us hope...

We finally head to the airport, physically and emotionally exhausted.

It is difficult to say goodbye to this place, and its amazing people.

Yet, we also feel the need to be home.

We are all changed, in many ways, from this trip.

We have been profoundly impacted by the things we've seen and experienced, and we will be changed forever.

We wonder how we each will process our emotions and memories.

We hope we will keep these memories strong in our hearts, so we will stay driven to take action to help these people in the future.

We hope our trip can inspire others to help as well, by offering donations, and even more so by taking a mission trip themselves.

We are thankful to God for this unbelievable opportunity...

Bon -Die Beni ou, Haiti!

God Bless You, Haiti!

And God Bless You amazing Haitians!

Tuesday, June 29th--Day 7

Plans for today:

This is our last full day here! This leaves us feeling, like everything here, many different emotions and thoughts.

We will spend the morning handing our Love Bundles and feeding the children.

Then, take a trip to a local beach, hang out, relax, and have a meal at a beach restaurant.

We like this plan!

The morning had its usual unplanned waiting period--Don decided to meet with some of the teachers right before class to do some salary negotiations. So, we hung out with the kids--taking pictures, singing songs, and playing games.

We feel more like a big family now--we are much more comfortable being here.

We are also already feeling the ache of how we will miss these wonderful children.

A typical Haitian experience--joy mixed with sadness...

Since we've handed out Love Bundles and fed the local children several times by now, we are well-practiced and able to do it without a hitch. We are so good!!

Each day has gotten hotter and hotter here, and it only takes minutes now before we begin sweating and become easily tired.

How can these people do this all the time, day after day, week after week??

It's amazing.

After lunch we head to the beach. What a great time!

It felt strange, though--at times it felt like we had been in Haiti for such a short time...at others if felt like we'd been there forever!!

It's surprising how quickly we are removed from the terrible conditions most Haitians live in, and are surrounded by beautiful ocean and mountains.

We had a great experience at the restaurant--one of us had ordered lemonade, and it seemed like the waiter wasn't paying attention, because he never brought it to the table. After about 15 minutes, he finally brought it to us. At first we were a bit annoyed at his seemingly uncaring attitude--until we found out it took so long because they had to go out, by lemons, and make the lemonade by hand!!

What a typical Haitian thing to do...!!

Monday, June 28th--Day 6

Plans for today:

We will finish our benches, buckets, and Love Bundles, and bring them to a local village.

We hope to visit another orphanage and school on the way home in the afternoon.

The days keep getting hotter and hotter! It doesn't take long before we are all sweating and tired...

The good news--after we load up the truck, we will actually walk to the village, and not have to ride in the back of the truck!!

What a great thing!

The walk to the village, after lunch, was great. Maybe a mile away, the walk took us over a river, and through forest and farmland. We passed another voodoo house along the way.

Don showed us a promising sight--one of the tent villages that was actually getting smaller--the people were finding housing!! What a joy...

They were beginning construction of new homes on the sight, which was such a great thing to see!

We visited a school--the 2nd main location for the Mission Lifelong organization. It was clean and neat, and we found out it had been used as a make-shift hospital after the earthquake. It's wonderful how Haitians make the best of anything and everything they have and encounter!

After school, the children line up to be fed. We helped the cooks with this process--and wondered how they could possibly do this themselves every day...

One awesome experience we had--when we unloaded the benches for the kids--we set them down, and immediately they were occupied by children who, for weeks before, had to sit on the floor to eat. It was such amazing instant gratification, and the smiles on the kids faces was so nice to see!!

Another great moment in Haiti...

As we passed out buckets and Love Bundles, we could see and hear some unrest from the walls outside the village. During such times, there is apparently always a huge rush from people who want/need food and supplies. The walls must be shut at times like this, or complete chaos and violence will occur inside the village. It is painful to know that, although we are feeding and helping many people, there are many, many more who need help that are not receiving it.

This is one of the most difficult things to realize and deal with while we are here in Haiti...

On the way home, we stopped by another orphanage--this one in pretty bad shape. The buildings were still in shambles from the earthquake, and the conditions were dirty, hot, and smelly. One of the children was very sick, and his mother was told to bring him to the clinic the next day, before he became dangerously ill.

Nearby, we stopped at a school--this one also in shambles. The director seemed a bit odd--clearly they had been through very difficult times there.

His mother, who lived with him, was away from the house, crouching near the end of the yard. As we asked about her, we were told she had been like that since the earthquake--outside, never in the house, crouching and not communicating. She was so shocked and pained by the experience that her trauma had kept her like that...

What a deeply sad thing to see.

As we prayed for her, we were all moved and feeling another mix of emotions. All of these struggles, day-by-day, moment-by-moment, are powerful and painful to see and hear about.

Another sad moment in Haiti...

Sunday, June 27th--Day 5

Plans for today:

We will go to the Haitian church this morning--Pastor Doug was invited to preach! We are excited and curious to see how they worship, and to hear their beautiful music and singing.
After lunch, we are going to another tent city to distribute and set up tents.

We are told church lasts 3 hours here. At least. We are a bit apprehensive about this....

Church was quite an experience! It did not last 3 hours...but it was 2 1/2!!
Everyone here dresses up for church--all men wear a shirt and tie, if not a suit, and all women wear a dress. We don't know how they can wear these clothes in this heat--especially the men in those hot suits.
The worship was interesting. There was a mixture of praying, singing, and speaking (similar to ours), but everything seemed to last soooo long! Each song seemed to take 10 minutes...singing the same verse over and over and over. Even though we couldn't understand the language, we recognized some of the music. (we heard "All Hail the Power of Jesus' name). Another interesting thing is that the ushers were very active--if they saw anyone nodding off, they would come over to them and tap them and tell them to wake up and listeneven need, and even thought we aren't perfect, God will help us, provide for us, and guide us on the right path. It was a fun, hot, and memorable worship service for us. ! Also--during the prayers, they would literally hold two long walking sticks, crossed together, in the doorway so no one could leave! (these are great ideas to bring back to Mount Calvary!).
Toward the end of worship, Pastor Doug gave a great sermon about how, even though we don't have everything we want, or even need, we always have the love of God, who is watching over us and taking care of us and providing for us.














After lunch, we headed out to the tent city.

This would prove to be one of our most difficult days.

As we arrived at the tent city, we were once again surrounded by many children (Nick found a buddy who quickly found comfort and a nap on Nick's shoulder!).

Soon, as people realized we had tents to distribute, quite a large crowd gathered. We were pressed on all sides by those who were curious, and even more so by those who were in real need of a shelter.

The only way to make this process somewhat do-able was to allow the village "leader" to tell us which families would receive tents. It wasn't clear how this was decided, but it was very clear that the need was far greater than the amount of tents we had.


Things quickly became a bit scary, as families started yelling and screaming, demanding tents, and pushing others out of their way.

It became scary, and we did our best to stay out of the way, and set up the tents in each site that we were told to.

As we struggled to read directions for tent assembly, the Haitians kindly offered to help, and it became apparent they were far better at setting them up than we were!

This was such an emotional experience--as we finished setting up each tent, the families would dance in their new shelter, singing praises to Jesus. It was such a happy moment...

But then, seconds later, we were approached by several other families, asking "where's our tent?"

...and we had no answer...only to say "mweh regrete" (I'm sorry)

The sheer joy, and the real anger, showed by the Haitians touched us all deeply, and will not be forgotten.

After we finished, we gathered in the make-shift church, said a few words, and then heard the most beautiful song...

One of the women who just received a tent, pregnant and with another child in her arms, sang a sweet Christian hymn in Creole. The quiet and lovely tune struck a deep chord in everyone there...


We left in exhausted silence, and spent the rest of the evening relaxing, and in contemplation of another unbelievable day.

Saturday, June 26th--Day 4

Plans for today:
Visit Prayer Rock, then go to a local outdoor market, visit one of the orphanages that Mission Lifeline supports, then come back to the village to complete the work we started yesterday.

Today, things went as planned!

At Prayer Rock, we focused prayers on Don and his mother, to give them support and strength to cary on their mission here. It was a powerful moment that started the day out well.

Prayer Rock

The market was another experience entirely.
It outdoors, near the center of Arcahaie, a local town, and really quite close to the ocean. But, the aromas at this market weren't quite the nice sea breeze smells that we are used to! This was a true 3rd world market--everything outside, including the meat and fresh (?) seafood. It was very hot, very cramped, and very crowded. It was difficult to realize that these people live their life this way every day, and this is their only way to try to survive. We left feely hot and tired, and welcomed the opportunity to visit the orphanage.
Near the market, the Bercy Orphanage was another powerful experience. As we visited the single-building children's home, we were soon surrounded by the children who lived their (which included a 2-month old child who was given up by her mother, and just dropped off by her father. These children needed love and affection deeply, and grabbed our hands, and jumped into our arms. We played games and took pictures, but mostly just held these beautiful children who need so much love. Leaving was so sad--these children who, just minutes ago were showering us with affection, and receiving it from us, didn't even wave goodbye. They were so sad and heart-broken to see us leave, that they just stared as we drove away. Words can't really describe the mixed emotions this visit brought to us.

Genny sharing some hugs at the orphanage

This afternoon, we finished the filtration buckets, the 2nd coat (about 4 more to go!) of paint on one of the buildings, and the benches for the school.

Our meal, a home-made Haitian meal prepared by the village cooks, was so tasty! Haitian chicken, spicy cole-slaw, corn and pea salad, fresh tomato/sea cress lettuce salad, rice and beans, beets, goat, fried plantains, and fresh pineapple....what a way to end day 4!!

Dancing at the orphanage!!

Friday, June 25th--Day Three

On top of the Petit Bwa Mountain!

Today's Plans:
Wake up at 4:00 am (yikes!), pack up the Love Bundles (care packages), and hike the 3 miles and 3,000 feet to a village, and distribute the Love Bundles. We'll then back to the village, and do some painting, put together some water filtration buckets, and build some benches.

We soon found out that plans continue to change quickly around here...

Loading up the mules with the Love Bundles took awhile, but still, we were pretty much on time. None of us realized how utterly exhausting it was to hike 3 miles up hill on very rough terrain. Some were able to do it without much effort (mainly the Haitian people with baskets on their heads!). We finally made it about 2-1/2 hours later.
When we arrived in the village, it was the most breathtaking views you could ever imagine.
We found the people to be much different than in the village we were staying in. These people were friendly, quiet, peaceful and respectful.
After unloading the mules, they turned around and went back down the mountain to re-fill their packs on their mules! Simply amazing! We handed out the bundles to every student at the school (about 250), including the 9 teachers.

We met the local pastor and voodoo priest. We actually got a tour of his house and where he practices his voodoo. Very interesting! Our plan was to leave about 9:30am from the village, but we got delayed and finally started down about 12:00pm. Unfortunately most of us were without water by the time we were halfway down, so some of us experienced heat exhaustion. All are okay now, but it was pretty scary.

When we recovered from our big adventure, we began building school benches and painting the school director's office (small building next to the school). It was an adventurous day that none of us will forget!

Thursday, June 24th--Day 2

The hill above Prayer Rock

Today's Plans:
Start the day going up to Prayer Rock for devotions and prayers.
We spent the rest of the day visiting various places around the village--seeing the school, the kitchen (where we hoped to see Kids Against Hunger food being made), the clinic, walking around with children from the village, and bringing some of the KAH food down to the ocean to be delivered to needy families on a near island.

We soon found out that plans can change quickly around here.

As we left to deliver the KAH food, we took 2 trucks--one was the same one that picked us up at the airport, the other was a pick-up truck (some of us in the cab, some outside in the bed).
The road on this trek was also pretty nice--another surprise.
We arrived at the dock, unloaded the food, and headed back.
The big truck took a trip to the nearby ocean beach, to search for shells. The pick-up headed back home.

The beach where we looked for shells

As the pick-up drove up the main road to the village, we were stopped by some of the locals--a young woman was pregnant, ready to give birth. Not sure what to do, we just stepped aside, as they laid her in the back of the truck (yes the back, outside, not in the cab!), and we all hopped in--us, her husband, a voodoo priest, and her midwife. There was a clinic about 5 minutes away. About 2 minutes later she screamed to stop the truck--the baby was coming.
Don, our host, was a missionary nurse--he had delivered babies before. We hopped out, Don came back, the mother laid back, and in less than a minute the baby was born. We used a shoelace to tie the umbilical cord, and cut the cord with a razor blade. The mother was praising Jesus, the father was very proud, and we all just stood around in shock. It was one of the most amazing experiences we've ever been through. Jesus' spirit was all over this miraculous birth.

This was one of those times when plans change!

Later in the day, we walked through the village, seeing the houses and buildings and other parts of the property. As we stepped through the steps of the village, we were surrounded by children, each one pleading to hold our hands...just to hold our hands and feel a little piece of love and affection this day. They were incredibly kind and had the most beautiful smiles. We won't lie and say that a few also pleaded for help--shoes, money, jewelry, sunglasses, etc. But who can blame them? Wouldn't we do the same if we were in their place? This was both an incredibly fulfilling and challenging experience. Our comfort zones were stretched considerably! But, it is all part of our time here, and it was something we will never forget.


Day 2 ends with each of us feeling and wide array of emotions....what will tomorrow hold?