Haiti Day 3 (July 4)

 Today we took a trip to one of the mission's orphanages in Saline Mayette.  On the map, it looks like the orphanage is about 20-30 miles away from the mission's main campus in St. Louis du Nord.  Getting anywhere in Haiti is not easy because there are not many roads.  And the roads that they do have are ROUGH!  I was a bit nervous about this trip, as I easily get motion sickness.  I wasn't sure I would be able to handle the ride.  It was a three hour drive.

This pickup truck was our tap tap for the trip.  All ten of us piled into the back for the whole three hour ride.

Our seats were a 2 x 6 inch board nailed around the back edge.  That was all.  Most of the tap taps we had seen the mission use had a bench like seat with a rail that went behind your back as you sat...so you wouldn't FALL OUT of the truck on the crazy roads.  But not this one...there was not much at all to hold onto except for the narrow board we were sitting on.

We had to hold on for our lives, and I mean that very literally! We traveled into a very rural area, bouncing over massive bumps and holes, going up and down hills, driving through rivers, and praying that no one would fall out!  I managed the trip okay, thanks to the help of a couple of Dramamine (the less drowsy kind...if I would have fallen asleep, I would have fallen out!)  After about three hours, we safely arrived at the orphanage.  We stayed at the orphanage for about two hours, just about long enough for my queasy stomach to begin to settle.  Then we got back into the pickup and headed back to St. Louis for another three hours...it was a long, long day of travel!  And we all most definitely had blisters and "saddle sores" on our behinds after sitting for six hours bouncing on that narrow board!


The orphanage at Mayette houses around 120 kids, I believe.  The orphanage itself was nothing fancy.  They have a room where they eat, a few rooms to sleep and a room for school.  No electricity or running water.  It was very simple, but it worked to provide these kids with what they need.

We spent most of our short time there playing with the kids.  We spent a lot of our time on this trip playing with kids.  Sometimes I felt like we weren't of much aid to the mission or the people of Haiti.  But then I thought about these kids, both at the orphanage and the Miriam Center.  They have workers who teach them and feed them and provide for their basic needs.  But the mission does not have enough staff to play with the kids and do fun things with them and give them lots of hugs and cuddles.  If Americans did not travel to NWHCM on mission trips, these kids would not receive all of this extra love and attention.  And I think it is important for all kids everywhere to receive love and attention!

The kids at the orphanage were so sweet (quite a bit calmer than the kids on the streets outside the mission!).  They each immediately found an American and become your buddy for the rest of the day, never leaving your side, holding your hand, giving you hugs, and wanting to be held (no matter how big they were!).  My buddy for the day with this sweet, sweet little girl.  Sadly, I don't know her name.  She tried to tell me a couple of times, but she was so quiet and I just could not understand her.  She was such a lady, and every time I picked her up and held her on my lap, she always made sure her dress was pulled down and covering her bottom.

Jody's mom made a bunch of dresses for the girls at the orphanage.  We passed out the dresses and took a picture with all of them in their brand new dresses.  So cute!!!

It is so much fun for these kids to see photos of themselves.  At this orphanage, I never saw a mirror anywhere.  I wonder how often these kids even have a chance to look at themselves??   I guess whenever Americans come to visit, which is quite frequently in the summer.  One little girl kept trying to swipe a finger across my camera screen to see the next picture.  I think she has had some experience with someone's iphone!  Here are just a few of the many photos we took of the kids.

We also brought the bubble machine.  That bubble machine was a great item to pack, as it seemed to be a hit wherever we went.

 

When we got back from the oprhanage, we had dinner and devos.  After that, we had a movie night with the kids from the Miriam Center.  We bought popcorn for those that could eat it.  They set up a projector in the courtyard, and we watched Lady and the Tramp.

I snagged up this litle cutie to sit on my lap during the movie.

  Her name is Anastasia.  She is 18 months old, and I think she is just the cutest thing.  So sweet and smart!   Her cleft palate is the only reason that she is currently at the Miriam Center.  She is supposed to have surgery for the cleft palate in November, and then seh will move into one of the orphanages.  I loved snuggling with her during the movie, even after I realized that her diaper was soaking wet and leaking all over both of us!  =)

 

The Fourth of July in Haiti

I seem to be in the habit of going on international mission trips on the fourth of July.  Well, I have only taken one other international mission trip, ten years ago to China, but for that trip I was in China on July 4.  I find it interesting to be in a different country on a day when America celebrates its freedom, and no one there cares one bit about it.  It's a good reminder that there is a great big world out there beyond the borders of the United States.

You hear a lot of "God bless America" talk around the fourth of July.  I strongly dislike that phrase.  I understand why people say it, but it just rubs me the wrong way.  Yes, we can talk about how God has blessed America.  But let's also talk about how God has blessed every other country in the world too.  God is not just the God of America, and sometimes it is easy to forget that when you live here.

There is nothing wrong with being thankful for what God has given us and how he has blessed us.  But are all of these things that we have here in America truly blessings from God?  We have a nice home to live in, plenty of food to eat, plenty of clothes to wear, stuff that fills not only our homes but storage sheds as well, bug free beds to sleep in, air conditioning to keep us cool, health care, education, freedom to worship as we please, etc.  I freely admit that I like all the comforts and benefits of the American lifestyle. I am grateful for them.  But I also think that many of these things are not really blessings from God at all but rather hurdles and obstacles that get in the way of our relationship with God.  Who needs God when we have all this great stuff?

So, with all of those thoughts swirling around in my head, I spent the fourth of July in Haiti, surrounded by poverty and hardships and very few comforts.  Yet, especially when among Haitian Christians, you get a sense of peace and joy in their lives that is so real and authentic.  What a privilege for them to be unhindered by all the stuff and junk and busyness that consumes the life of the average American.

One of the missionaries who spends most of her time in Haiti made this comment, "Honestly, we feel sorry for all of you that have to go back home to America."  Now, I was happy to be back home in America with my family and the comforts of everyday life, no doubt about it.  But I do completely understand what she was saying, and it has left me conflicted.  I'm still trying to figure out how what I learned in Haiti should and will affect the way I live my life in the States.  I'm sure I will have more to say on this subject soon as I continue to process all of these things.

In my next post, I will spare you the rambling thoughts running through my head and tell you what we actually did in Haiti on July 4! 

Haiti Day 2 afternoon (July 3)

After lunch on day 2, we took a walk through St. Louis de Nord to help out with NWHCM's prison and brothel ministries.

When blancs like us walked through the streets, the Haitian children were always eager to come out, give us a hug, hold our hands and escort us to our destination.  Some of them tried to sell bracelets to us, but some of them were just sweet and wanted to be near us.  I liked having the kids hold my hand.  They were good at making sure I got out of the way when a moto (motorcycle)or a truck was headed straight toward us!

I have a a feeling this phrase is going to come up a lot as I write these blog posts:  "I really wanted to take a picture of this, but..."  There was so much that I wanted to photograph:  so many beautiful people, so much that is different from life in America, so many interesting photo opportunities.  But I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked for a few reasons: 

1. We were busy while we were there, and we usually had a child or two attached to us.  It was hard to stop working with the kids or the people just to take pictures. 
2. I felt really, really guilty taking pictures of the private lives of these Haitian people to bring them back to America and put them on display for all to see.  On the one hand, I do want to come back from my trip and share what I learned about Haiti.  But on the other hand, it just didn't seem right to just stand around gawking and taking pictures of the poverty surrounding us...especially with the knowledge that I would bring the photos back and flaunt them on Facebook.
3. When we were on the streets, everyone stared at us everywhere we went.  I felt really self-conscious pulling out my big camera and taking pictures with so many eyes on me!

So with that in mind, here are a few pictures of the streets we walked through:

Our first stop was the jail.  This was a small jail that served as a holding cell until the prisoners were moved to the bigger prison in Port du Paix.  We went in and talked to the prisoners through a translator and prayed with them.

The justice system in Haiti is far from just.  They do not have an "innocent until proven guilty" stance like here.  The accused are sent to prison when they get accused.  Then they stay in prison until they are seen before a judge.  But sometimes it can take years for them to get a hearing with a judge, and they are kept in prison that whole time.

The jail and the brothels were located near each other and near the beach.  Haiti really is a beautiful country.  The ocean, the mountains, the vegetation...all gorgeous!  But there is a lot of trash in Haiti and no system to dispose of it, so trash is everywhere.  Here is a picture of the trash covered beach.  It was common to see pigs and goats going through the trash on the beach.

After the jail, we went to two brothels.  Believe it or not, this was my first time to go to a brothel!  =)  The first one was a little scary because they led us all the way through the brothel, down a narrow hallway filled with rooms where the girls "worked."  It was a little strange, and according to our intern, it was not the norm.  They eventually led us back down the hallway into the main room and introduced us to two of the women who worked at the brothel.  These women were quiet and sad, and it was hard to tell what they thought of us being there.  We prayed with them and gave them some nail polish and Jolly Ranchers. 

Once we started passing things out, we quickly drew a crowd of both adults and children...all with their hands out!  Many of them walked with us to the next brothel nearby, and it got kind of crazy.  At this brothel, there were more women as well as children too.  The women who work at the brothel live there with their children.  Seeing the children there was the hardest part for me.  I just cannot imagine what life will be like for them growing up in such a place.  Will those little baby girls become future employees? 

Again, we prayed with them and passed out Jolly Ranchers.  Jody asked one of the women if her little girl could have a Jolly Rancher, and the woman replied, "She's hungry."  Like a Jolly Rancher is going to do anything to help her hunger.  I felt so helpless at that point, passing out candy to kids and women who were possibly starving and in need of so much more.

One of the purposes of our visit to the brothels was to invite the women to a Princess Party that the Mission was hosting on Saturday night.  We were not able to go to the party because we had left by then, but I hope that many of these women attended and learned how precious they are in God's eyes.

After returning from our jail and brothel visits, we soon headed back into the city on foot to participate in the mission's nutrition program.  Each day, the mission serves a meal to families and children from the town.  They also have a Meals on Wheels type of program (except there are no wheels involved, only footpower!) to deliver meals to the elderly who can't make it to the program.  The mission is at the top of this large hill, and it is difficult for some to travel there for food.  So the mission brings the food to them!

 We took a big bucket of rice and beans, which seems to be the most common food in this part of Haiti, and walked the streets with it. 

 We stopped at the homes of these elderly people and scooped the food out into their bowls and prayed with them.  We ended up doing this with another team of people, so there were about 25 of us and one bucket of food.  They really didn't need our team's help on this task, but we went along for the experience.  Walking the streets was always an interesting and eye-opening experience!

We had dinner and devos that evening, and that was the end of Day 2!

Haiti Day 2 morning (July 3)

We started our morning with an orientation meeting, then we went downstairs to work with the kids at the Miriam Center.

The Miriam Center is an orphanage for children with special needs.  They currently are taking care of 47 children in the Miriam Center.  I have the utmost respect and admiration for the women who run the Miriam Center, who dedicate nearly every minute of every day to caring for these children who have been rejected from most of Haitian society.

The Miriam Center is divided into two groups.  There is a group of children whom they call "severe and profound."  These are children who cannot walk or sit up or talk or eat or do anything on their own.  Several of them are shaped like a backwards C, so that they cannot even lay on their backs.  I believe that cerebal palsy is one of the main conditions for many of them.

On our team, we had an occupational therapist and a speech therapist, and those two felt right at home among these kids.  I was not so comfortable.  Working with children with special needs does not come naturally to me.  I just don't know what to do...how to hold them, how to talk to them, etc.  So I was nervous upon first entering this room.  However, I found that it was easier than I thought.  Even though they can't do much physically on their own, many of these children were responsive.  All you have to do is smile or hold their hand and they will give you the biggest smile in return.

We brought in a bubble machine, and it seemed to be a big hit with these kids.

 

 The other group of children in the Miriam Center are more self-sufficient.  Again, cerebral palsy is a common condition with these kids as well as autism.  That first morning in the Miriam Center, I worked with these kids.  Walking into the room, they were all eager to greet me and play with me.  If you ever have a problem with low self-confidence, just hang out with some Haitian children.  They will make you feel like the coolest person in the world! =)

 

The first kid I noticed was this little guy named Ti Willy.  He was scooting around and trying to play with every toy he could find in the room.  I immediately started crying when I saw him, because his scooting reminded me of Isla.  I was very emotional on this trip, which is uncharacteristic for me.  I really missed my girls a lot and had a much harder time leaving them than I anticipated.  So I found myself teary eyed quite often as I played with these kids and remembered my girls at home.

 Shortly after I started playing with Ti Willy, this sweet little girl named Rachel came up to me.  She ran into my arms and gave me a hug, squeezing my neck just like Audrey does.  And the tears started all over again!

 

Julie is the OT that was a part of our team.  I was watching her work with some of the kids, stretching and moving their muscles.  I had a flashback to Isla's early days of physical therapy, and then I started crying again.  (Seriously I was an emotional wreck this week, it was crazy!). 

 

 We have worried so much about Isla and her development.  Sitting in that room, looking around at those precious kids, I realized how silly all of our worry was.  Surrounded by kids whose limbs are crooked and tangled, who cannot walk or sit or talk, who will probably spend the rest of their lives in the room where they were currently sitting, it was just so clear.  Isla is fine.  She is just fine.  There is nothing to worry about.   All my concerns seem ridiculous and silly in light of the bigger problems that these Haitian kids face every day.  Who cares if she can't crawl?  She can move around and sit up and experience so much more than these kids will ever have the chance to do.

The kids in the Miriam Center are fortunate.  They are loved, they have food and clothes, a place to stay, and they do receive medical care and therapy.  Many kids with special needs in Haiti are just thrown to the curb and left for dead.  Again, I cannot express my gratitude enough to the people who are dedicating their lives to making life better for this group of special needs children.

Haiti Day 1 (July 2)

(Continued from last post, this is the afternoon of Monday, July 2)
 
After lunch, we received a tour of the mission...from the Miriam Center (for kids with special needs) to the birthing center to the medical clinic to the elderly care home and so much more.  I was so impressed with not only the work that NWHCM is doing in Haiti but also with the motives behind their work.  They are doing so much more than just passing out food and medical care and such to the people.  They are providing for spiritual needs as well as physical needs.  They are working to shape the children of Haiti, who will grow up to be future leaders in Haiti.  They are caring for some of the most neglected people in Haitian society.  They are searching for real ways to help real people with the goal of providing solutions and not just adding to the problem.  It really was inspiring to see all of it.

I should have taken more pictures of the mission, but I didn't.  Here is the girls dorm where we stayed.  A lot of people slept outside on the roof under the stars (or clouds).  But with my insomnia problems, I didn't think I would be able to sleep outside.   It also rained two of the nights we were there.

This was the view when we walked out of the dorm each morning.  Not too shabby!

Later that afternoon, we helped teach an English class at the school.  This was a class for older teens and young adults.  We were each partnered with a Haitian student and given a list of vocabulary words to pronounce and discuss with them.  I discovered that my student was super smart and already knew all the words, that I stink at giving definitions to common words, and that I am really not good at pronouncing Creole (the language of Haiti).

When we went out to find the English class, we also had our first encounter with the "bracelet boys" who hang out right outside the missions' gates.  These boys try to sell you a personalized, embroidered bracelet every time you walk out the gate.  They have this practice down to a science.  Most of them know just enough English to walk you through this script.  First, they ask your name and tell you their name.  Then they ask where you are from.  Then they start asking about your family:  brothers/sisters, are you married, do you have babies, etc.  Then they pull out a piece of paper and ask you to write down the names of your family members.  After you do this, they tell you that they will make a bracelet for each person you wrote down, $2 per bracelet.  Before you know it, you have committed to buying a ton of bracelets from these boys.  Of course, once you see that they have a completed bracelet with your family member's name on it, you HAVE to buy one.  If you don't want to buy one, they give you this line:  "You love Jesus?  Buy a bracelet!  If you don't buy a bracelet, you don't love Jesus."

And wow, those boys don't forget about you.  They make the bracelets, and then find you the next day and the rest of the days you are there.  They are very protective of you, and they don't like to share you with the other boys. 

I did come home with eight bracelets, but if these boys would have had their way, I would have many more.  I wish I would have taken a picture with my bracelet boys, Andrew and Tillis, but I didn't.  Here is a picture of our leader Jody with her boys (and a few of her bracelets in hand!):

We spent the rest of the night at the mission for dinner and devos.  There were 130 of short term mission trip people there at the same time.  That is a lot of blancs (white people)!  Our time at the mission felt like church camp in a lot of ways:  sleeping in the dorms, eating meals, going to devos in the morning and evening...all with a Haitian flair!

That was the end of a very, very, very long day.  All of this post (and the previous post) took place on just our first day in Haiti!  And there was still so much more to come!

Travelling to Haiti

We left for Haiti on Sunday, July 1.  We drove to St. Louis and then flew to Miami.  We got settled into our hotel in Miami around 9:30 pm.  We did not get much sleep at all that night, maybe an hour or two.  Just too excited and nervous about the trip, I guess!

Monday morning we got on the airport shuttle at 4:00 am to catch our early morning flight to Port au Prince.  Once we landed at the  Port au Prince airport, we had to take a very short "tap tap" ride ("tap taps" in Haiti are taxi trucks that carry passengers in the back) to a smaller airport.  Once we arrived, we had no idea how long we would have to wait.  We were told that the plane schedule ran on Haitian time, which meant we could be waiting for the plane for 5 minutes or 5 hours!  Here is our group waiting in the Port au Prince airport.

Fortunately, we only had to wait about an hour and a half or so before our plane was ready to go.  It was a small, 19 passenger plane.  It was a very, very bumpy ride.  I usually have no fears about flying, but this flight was making me a little nervous and very nauseous.  We were dropping and bouncing and rocking all over the place.  The alternative to this plane ride was an 8 hour bus ride that would have been even more bumpy.  This flight was only 40 minutes.  I kept telling myself through the flight, "This has to be better than the bus ride.  This has to be better than the bus ride."

That little plane took us to Port du Paix.  From there, a bus from the mission took us on an hour long  trip to St. Louis du Nord.  That bus ride felt like a crazy bumpy ride, but little did I know that it would be one of the smoothest rides we would have in Haiti!  After all that travel, we finally arrived at Northwest Haiti Christian Mission.  It felt like it should be time for bed by that time, but it was only 1:00 in the afternoon.  We got there just in time for lunch!

Initial Haiti Thoughts

We got back home at 1:00 am this morning, after 21 hours of travel.  I didn't get much sleep after that and no nap today, so I am just about to pass out right now.

We had a great trip.  I have a lot to share and a lot to think about.  I'm still trying to process everything and figure out how it has changed me and my life here in the States.  I'm also trying to figure out the best way to post all of my thoughts here.  I don't want to bore any of my few faithful readers with too much info and pictures.  But at the same time, I keep this blog primarily for my own personal records, so I do want to write down as many details as I can so I don't forget anything.

For now, here are a couple of pictures and a few random thoughts  from our trip:

We traveled to Northwest Haiti Christian Mission in St. Louis de Nord.  We got an overview of what the mission does, and we were able to help out with a variety of their programs.  We worked a lot with children.  The mission has been in Haiti for 30 years and they seem to be well established in the community.  They also seem to be dedicated to finding ways to help the people of Haiti in a way that actually works.  Right now they are in the midst of restructuring their programs in order to be more effective in their outreach.  More about this later.  I'm still working through some thoughts about how what we saw and did in Haiti can/should affect the way I live my life in the United States.

 The weather was great.  I was worried about it being miserably hot, but it wasn't bad at all.  I'm guessing temps were in the low 90s.  The sun was hot, and we did a lot of sweating.  But there was almost always a nice tropical breeze which kept us feeling fairly comfortable the whole time.  We were shocked when we got home and saw temps holding steady at over 100 all week.  We picked a good week to go to Haiti!

I am covered in bites from head to toe.  Everyone on our team had a lot of bites, but I feel like I had the most.  I practically bathed myself in 100% Deet bug spray the entire trip, day and night.  I just about used the whole bottle of spray in six days.  Yet still, I'm covered from head to toe with bites.  I don't even think it is possible to count them.  They are not all mosquito bites.  I'm sure some of them were from mosquitos, but we are thinking that the majority of these bites are from another source.  Fleas?  Bedbugs?  Chiggers?  Dust mites? I don't know.  I seemed to get the most bites at night.  I did examine my bed frequently, but I never saw a bug on it.  For now, I have banished my bags from Haiti to the garage until I can figure out how to be sure that no bugs are in them! 

Everyone told me about the Haitian children:  how adorable they were, how much love they would show us, etc.  And everyone was right!  There was always a cute kid around who wanted to hold your hand or talk to you.   It is amazing how children are the same, no matter where they live in the world or what language they speak. 

Drinking cold water is a treat that I will try to never take for granted again.  I underestimated how undesirable a bottle of lukewarm water could be!

Like I said above, I will have many more pictures and more info about our trip to share soon!!