Wednesday, August 5, 2015
The Long Way Home
We are through immigration and customs. (Almost lost Leah again. Her passport wouldn't scan and they wanted to hold her. Haha. Not her day. But... we have her, no worse for wear) We have settled into a long layover. As of now, flight is on time and boarding should begin in around three hours.
Parting is such sweet sorrow.
This morning we woke up and there was a flurry of activity as we packed things up, cleaned up after ourselves, sorted out things we were leaving behind, and said our last goodbyes to our host and some of our guides.
A
We headed to the airport in our Haitian Tap-Tap for the last time and said goodbye to our guides and translators.
After some exciting moments (they tried to tell Leah that she couldn't come home. Hahaha. Don't worry, Dan and Becky, I have her.)
We are in the airport at the gate and preparing to board.
They are calling us now. So, au revoir, Haïti...et jusqu'à la prochaine....
A
We headed to the airport in our Haitian Tap-Tap for the last time and said goodbye to our guides and translators.
After some exciting moments (they tried to tell Leah that she couldn't come home. Hahaha. Don't worry, Dan and Becky, I have her.)
We are in the airport at the gate and preparing to board.
They are calling us now. So, au revoir, Haïti...et jusqu'à la prochaine....
Many Great Days
After a number of days with no wireless service, it has magically reappeared this morning, as we prepare to leave.
We have done many fantastic things in this second part of our trip and I am sorry that we could not share them with you as we went. I will still post them to this blog so that you can see the blessings we have been able to share with the poorest of the poor in Haiti and also so you can see the ways in which they have blessed us.
As always... when we come to Haiti to serve, we leave immeasurably enriched.
I am gathering the kids up to leave, but keep an eye on this blog and we will post many many things that we have seen that you would not ever have imagained.
We have done many fantastic things in this second part of our trip and I am sorry that we could not share them with you as we went. I will still post them to this blog so that you can see the blessings we have been able to share with the poorest of the poor in Haiti and also so you can see the ways in which they have blessed us.
As always... when we come to Haiti to serve, we leave immeasurably enriched.
I am gathering the kids up to leave, but keep an eye on this blog and we will post many many things that we have seen that you would not ever have imagained.
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Sunday
SUNDAY
We got up this morning early to get ready for church. We headed back to St Christopher where we
worshipped with the village. I had the
very good fortune of having smiled at a baby as soon as we had arrived. The grandmother who had brought the baby to
church noticed my interest and quickly hustled the baby over to me and I got to
snuggle a very beautiful Haitian baby girl on my lap all through Mass, which
was about the greatest thing EVER!!!)
They had asked our host to speak after the Gospel and he
involved our kids in an interactive homily on sin. (Since many Haitians can not read, there is a
lot of interactive participation and also nearly everything is done in a
call-and-response fashion which was very interesting for me to see, although I
am not sure how much the kids were able to follow.)
After the homily, we passed out hygiene kits to all of the
people in attendance. They also put me
on the spot and asked me, as the group leader, to address the congregation
before the closing prayer. We sang the closing hymn and then as people
filed out of the church, many (MANY!) of them came over to us to shake our
hands. We also received many hugs of
welcome. Afterwards, we mingled outside
briefly and, having brought more translators, were able to have a more
productive conversation.
Afterwards, we went to lunch at Yolti’s (There are not that
many “safe” places for Americans to eat – even at restaurants, so Yolti’s sees
a lot of traffic when groups are in town!)
After lunch, we went to a small Haitian orphanage in the
village of Source Matelas. We took
soccer balls and a selection of small toy balls and spent some time playing
with the children. It is a small
orphanage which houses 18 boys and girls whose ages range from about five years
old, to about thirteen (In Haiti, ages are often approximate.) There are many many orphanages in Haiti and
the majority do not receive support from the state. That makes life in a Haitian orphanage very
difficult for the children who are there.
Many orphanages often can only afford to feed one meal a day and this
is sometimes a meal just meant to curb
hunger which is not nutritionally balanced.
The orphanages may be hard pressed just to keep the children relatively
safe and alive, so they often can not educate the children and do not have resources
to buy clothing or toys. Ignite Your
Faith Ministries found this orphanage in that condition and has tried to come
along side the orphanage by helping fill in the gaps in funding to help with
meals. We were able to do a small part
by bringing down children’s clothes, and providing each child with a hygiene
kit, as well as some educational supplies and toys. It is hard to see the level of need and not
be able to meet it all. They still need
so much more. We tried to make up for
the lack of material things by showing them as much love as we could in the
time that we were there.
After the orphanage, we headed back to the mission house. There was a little while before dinner, so the kids really got involved with the Haitian boys who live in the house as well as spending some time with our guides/translators. There was a Fifa tournament going on in the living room, Connect Four challenges in the kitchen, and students talking and journaling up on the roof. A few kids helped Tom prepare for dinner. Riley and Ashtin were grill masters, preparing enough hot-dogs (you were expecting filet mignon?) for the approximately 25 people who were there. We had leftover sandwich meat from the night no along with hot-dogs. Chips and fruit rounded the meal out again. IT will be hard in this leg of the trip, because vegetables will be limited. IN Haiti, vegetables are usually purchased from street vendors, but - as Americans - We have to be quite cautious about exposure to bacteria and about consuming biotic elements which the Haitians can eat with no problem, but which our bodies can not handle. I don't want anyone getting sick!!
After the orphanage, we headed back to the mission house. There was a little while before dinner, so the kids really got involved with the Haitian boys who live in the house as well as spending some time with our guides/translators. There was a Fifa tournament going on in the living room, Connect Four challenges in the kitchen, and students talking and journaling up on the roof. A few kids helped Tom prepare for dinner. Riley and Ashtin were grill masters, preparing enough hot-dogs (you were expecting filet mignon?) for the approximately 25 people who were there. We had leftover sandwich meat from the night no along with hot-dogs. Chips and fruit rounded the meal out again. IT will be hard in this leg of the trip, because vegetables will be limited. IN Haiti, vegetables are usually purchased from street vendors, but - as Americans - We have to be quite cautious about exposure to bacteria and about consuming biotic elements which the Haitians can eat with no problem, but which our bodies can not handle. I don't want anyone getting sick!!
After dinner, we had reflections together and then a few hours before bed to continue getting to know each other and our Haitian hosts better.
It was a good day. There are a few photos below. And, yes, yes that is a lizard in the house. I believe that I may have mentioned that the windows do not have screens? Or glass. Windows in Haiti are pretty much just places where the wall has an opening.
Useless-but-fascinating-teacher-fact: the word window is derived from "wind hole." A whole in the wall where the wind can come through. Also, as it turns out, lizards.
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Saturday - Good-bye and Hello
SATURDAY
This morning we woke up and, after breakfast, loaded up the
truck, saying good bye to our new friends in Bon Repos and heading off to go
even deeper into Haiti. We boarded the
trusty truck and our driver braved Saturday morning traffic in Port Au Prince to
take us to our rendez-vous at the
Airport. We were met there by our new hosts and guides, who helped us
transfer our bags and ourselves to our new transportation. It was a TRUE Haitian Tap-Tap!!! After hasty introductions, we loaded up the
Tap-Tap and piled in to head off to our second base location. We arrived at the mission home, unloaded our
stuff, and hustled right back into the vehicle to head off to our first work
with Ignite Your Faith Ministries. We
went out to do a “kids club” at St Christopher.
We arrived at the village and parked at the edge of the highway. The dirt roads climbing up the steep hills
are really only accessible on foot.
After about a 10 minute climb we arrived at the church there. The church has a frame of two-by-fours and is
covered with corrugated tin. The pieces
are mismatched and cobbled together, in an attempt to mostly enclose the space
within. The rutted dirt floor tells the
story of the driving rains that sweep the hillside from time to time. The church was packed (we later heard that
someone had counted 145 children. The
children and the youth ministers had been expecting us a lot earlier (traffic
really was a problem) and they had been praying and singing and playing games
for several hours before we arrived. It
was around 95 degrees today and the coordinators had tried to send them home as
it got hotter and hotter, but the kids had insisted on waiting on us. As we began to walk into the building, the
children cheered and clapped. They were
so genuinely glad to see us. It made us
feel really great to be so welcomed.
After the group was introduced, we got to pass out water (They had
waited all that time with no water, as – of course – there is no electricity or
running water at all in the whole village.)
We were introduced one at a time and the staff made a game out of
remembering our names (more about that later.
This would come up again.) Then
one of the coordinators told the story of Noah, and we all got to play a part
in acting the story out.
Haslom (one of the youth ministry coordinators) led some of
our students and some of the Haitian children in a dance to a song that is very
popular in Haiti right now (A Christian song!! Popular on the pop radio!!) After it was all over, they stationed some of
our kids at the door and we passed out some suckers that we had brought as well
as more sachets dlo (the little bags
of drinking water which are the most popular way to distribute clean drinking
water)
Outside, we got to mix and mingle and we found our first
major communication barrier of the trip.
In Haiti, everyone speaks Creole.
All business and all school is conducted in French, so anyone with a
minimal level of education can understand some French. Those with several years of education will probably
also begin English (depending on the kind of school that they go to) Up until this point, at Jesus in Haiti, we
had been interacting with people who spoke French and possibly some English. Enough members of our group had some French
that we were able to communicate in at least a basic form. However, for the members of St. Christopher,
this was an entirely different story.
There was very little French and no English at all. Most of these children do not even eat every
day, so the thought of going to school is out of the question for most of them.
(There is no free public education in Haiti - going to school costs money…more
money per day than the average Haitian family makes.) They chatted at us and hugged us and held our
hands. Our translators tried to help,
but there were just too many kids there to be able to keep up. We had to convey our good will with our
smiles and our hugs. The children held our hands and walked us back
down the mountain to our vehicles. Our
guides promised them that we would be back again.
After waving good-bye, we headed out and went back to the
mission house. We settled our sleeping
arrangements and some people helped get dinner ready while others began
organizing the donations we had brought. The mission home also includes a boys home for some orphaned and/or homeless children. The majority are older but there are some small boys who live here. Dickie is five and Bikende is six. A few students were playing video games (FIFA, of course!) with the older boys while we had brought down a train set that I had gotten a good deal on at a garage sale and a couple of the students helped set it up for the little boys.
Our missionary host, Tom, and his high school helpers had laid out a meal of cold meat sandwiches, chips, and fruit and we gathered together in the living room to pray before eating. Tom informed them that this was to be a dinner "date" and that they had to choose someone that they did not know to eat dinner with and learn as much as possible about them and their lives. He assigned pickers, starting with our Haitian guides and translators. The kids did a great job mixing up and as I went around, the "dates" seemed to be going very well. The kids seemed to be into it and were very sincerely conversing with their partners. I was so gratified to see that they were quite serious and all giving their complete and sincere attention to their dinner partners.
After dinner, we did a quick clean-up and went upstairs to the open-air second-floor/roof/patio for proper introductions and reflections on the day. Each person had to do an introduction and share information about their "date." Then each person was asked to reflect on the day and share their most memorable moment. The participation was great and we spent well over an hour on the roof, sharing each others company, getting to know each other a little better, and reflecting on the day. Darkness fell before the reflection meeting broke up.
It is hot in Haiti with no air. We also don't have screens on the windows. But we are blessed to have electricity, running water, and a solid structure, which most houses in Haiti do not have. We are also blessed with an opportunity to be in communion with these people and to try to serve the needs of people who are not as blessed as we are. This will be a tougher four days in some ways. And a more rewarding four days, as a result.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Pray for us to see what God is trying to show us as we dive deeper into Haiti. Pray for us to be committed to serve.
After dinner, we did a quick clean-up and went upstairs to the open-air second-floor/roof/patio for proper introductions and reflections on the day. Each person had to do an introduction and share information about their "date." Then each person was asked to reflect on the day and share their most memorable moment. The participation was great and we spent well over an hour on the roof, sharing each others company, getting to know each other a little better, and reflecting on the day. Darkness fell before the reflection meeting broke up.
It is hot in Haiti with no air. We also don't have screens on the windows. But we are blessed to have electricity, running water, and a solid structure, which most houses in Haiti do not have. We are also blessed with an opportunity to be in communion with these people and to try to serve the needs of people who are not as blessed as we are. This will be a tougher four days in some ways. And a more rewarding four days, as a result.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Pray for us to see what God is trying to show us as we dive deeper into Haiti. Pray for us to be committed to serve.
Friday: mass grave, Yolti's, Rosie's Boutique, Church mission
*****************Josie Burton************
Hi! Josie here! I'm going to tell you guys about my perspective of our adventures on Friday.
After breakfast, we went to the Mass Grave: a site that holds thousands of souls set to rest together due to a replete amount of casualties after the earthquake in 2010. The emotions were overwhelming while standing on the memorial being built on top of this gravesite. Many people that I have talked to in Haiti were personally affected by it in many ways mentally spiritually, and emotionally; knowing this made this visit very special to me and I was able to send prayers to the names of people who were in great need; I have met many Haitians that have asked me to pray for their family members who have passed because of this great tragedy of their lives.
After the mass grave, the group visited Yolti's, a Haitian restaurant that we have visited earlier in the week. Yolti is very proud to have us and is extremely hospitable every time we visit; she takes great pride in her restaurant. The menu included fish, beef, and chicken with picklies: pickled onions and peppers, beets, and boiled plantains with mango juice.
It is so reassuring knowing that we are giving back to Haitians and we experience firsthand the impact that we make on their lives. Such was also with Rosie's, a boutique that helps Haitian women to be entrepreneurs, something that I was extremely proud to support. We visited that next; I am sure you will see gifts coming home from there!
Since we had extra time after going to Rosie's, we went back to Victory Bible Church to help finish painting the back that we had started earlier in the week and also to finish installing the playground. This was the highlight of the days of most everyone with me because when we installed the playground, the guides with us, all in their late twenties, were SO excited. Tyson, our 28-year-old driver of Big Blue, our truck we all ride in, was having the time of his life swinging and riding on the merry-go-round. The joy on his face always will be remembered when he clutched on to the swings and laughed the hardest I have seen him this whole trip. Just imagine how happy the kids will be when they see it installed the first day of school! The teachers will have a very hard time getting them to pay attention. Every ounce of work put into fundraising was immediately worth it when I saw that smile.
After dinner, a couple of us started talking to the security guard of Bel Fle named Jean Wincelot who is going to the university of Haiti to become a lawyer. When we started talking to him more, he opened up; Leah and I taught him English, he taught us French with some tattered books he had.
We are headed to the airport and Ms. Bubb is reclaiming her computer. Orevwa!
Hi! Josie here! I'm going to tell you guys about my perspective of our adventures on Friday.
After breakfast, we went to the Mass Grave: a site that holds thousands of souls set to rest together due to a replete amount of casualties after the earthquake in 2010. The emotions were overwhelming while standing on the memorial being built on top of this gravesite. Many people that I have talked to in Haiti were personally affected by it in many ways mentally spiritually, and emotionally; knowing this made this visit very special to me and I was able to send prayers to the names of people who were in great need; I have met many Haitians that have asked me to pray for their family members who have passed because of this great tragedy of their lives.
After the mass grave, the group visited Yolti's, a Haitian restaurant that we have visited earlier in the week. Yolti is very proud to have us and is extremely hospitable every time we visit; she takes great pride in her restaurant. The menu included fish, beef, and chicken with picklies: pickled onions and peppers, beets, and boiled plantains with mango juice.
It is so reassuring knowing that we are giving back to Haitians and we experience firsthand the impact that we make on their lives. Such was also with Rosie's, a boutique that helps Haitian women to be entrepreneurs, something that I was extremely proud to support. We visited that next; I am sure you will see gifts coming home from there!
Since we had extra time after going to Rosie's, we went back to Victory Bible Church to help finish painting the back that we had started earlier in the week and also to finish installing the playground. This was the highlight of the days of most everyone with me because when we installed the playground, the guides with us, all in their late twenties, were SO excited. Tyson, our 28-year-old driver of Big Blue, our truck we all ride in, was having the time of his life swinging and riding on the merry-go-round. The joy on his face always will be remembered when he clutched on to the swings and laughed the hardest I have seen him this whole trip. Just imagine how happy the kids will be when they see it installed the first day of school! The teachers will have a very hard time getting them to pay attention. Every ounce of work put into fundraising was immediately worth it when I saw that smile.
After dinner, a couple of us started talking to the security guard of Bel Fle named Jean Wincelot who is going to the university of Haiti to become a lawyer. When we started talking to him more, he opened up; Leah and I taught him English, he taught us French with some tattered books he had.
We are headed to the airport and Ms. Bubb is reclaiming her computer. Orevwa!
Thursday - church camp and visits
Ok - I am trying on this again. Sorry the blogs are a little spotty. Each time I do one, when I go to publish it, I find out I have lost internet connection and I lose all of the work. Alternately, I have internet connection, but it freezes when I try to upload a photo. That is the nature of things in Haiti, so I have to remind myself to not get too frustrated. It is hard because I really want to share with you the amazing things that we are doing, so you can see how your support has blessed these people who are so full of joy, despite their suffering. I hope you will be patient and I will update as frequently as I can. I am going to upload shorter blogs so I don't lose connection as I type and send them without pictures, and then try to upload some photos separately and see if that goes better.
-----------------
Thursday was a great day. We woke up this morning bright and early, looking forward to spending the day working with children. We worked at a camp for children and then toured the school and had a brief lecture on the background, organization, and function of the school. The last pieces of the playground that we fundraised for had just been delivered, so that was very exciting. All of the equipment was not fully assembled and it still needed to be moved into place and anchored, but it was all there. It is really beautiful and very strong looking, so we are excited that the children will have the joy of playing on it!
So - this is how the events of the day went:
After breakfast (oatmeal...turns out the kids were not fans; good thing for toast with peanut butter and jelly!!) we gathered up our things and headed off to camp. As the children started arriving, we greeted them and took them to stations. There was jump rope and colored chalk. We had make-shift "Go Fish" games they figured out with colors and shapes flashcards we had brought. Soccer was a wildly popular station with the older boys. An impromptu hair-braiding station popped up when the girls got there and saw my group with their long very braid-able hair. After stations the kids played a couple of Haitian games directed by the youth group leaders. It was a lot of fun and such a joy to play with and love on the children. Even if we got tired and had to sit down, we did not miss out on loving the children, because as soon as you make a lap, you have at least one, if not two children who plop down on it. Then others begin creeping up, and soon you will have a child or two on your lap and one leaning on each shoulder. Some children have no parents, or only one parent and many siblings. If there are parents, they are often so busy with the business of survival that the children do not always get the attention they want and need. It was a lot of fun.
After camp, the kids were bussed back to the villages and a few students had been chosen to ride home with us. These kids rode in the trucks with us back to the village and we walked them home (You park at an entrance to the village, but it is all pedestrian roads within the villages.) We divided into three groups with two students each and an American leader (me or one of the adult missionaries who are here) and two Haitian guide/translators. We walked our children home. When we got to the house, we got to meet their families. We spoke briefly and learned about their family and they learned about ours. When we left, each family was asked what they needed, and each family asked us to pray for them. It was very powerful to pray with the children and their families. They are such a good reminder for us to trust in God and His plan and to know that He has us in His hands.
-----------------
Thursday was a great day. We woke up this morning bright and early, looking forward to spending the day working with children. We worked at a camp for children and then toured the school and had a brief lecture on the background, organization, and function of the school. The last pieces of the playground that we fundraised for had just been delivered, so that was very exciting. All of the equipment was not fully assembled and it still needed to be moved into place and anchored, but it was all there. It is really beautiful and very strong looking, so we are excited that the children will have the joy of playing on it!
So - this is how the events of the day went:
After breakfast (oatmeal...turns out the kids were not fans; good thing for toast with peanut butter and jelly!!) we gathered up our things and headed off to camp. As the children started arriving, we greeted them and took them to stations. There was jump rope and colored chalk. We had make-shift "Go Fish" games they figured out with colors and shapes flashcards we had brought. Soccer was a wildly popular station with the older boys. An impromptu hair-braiding station popped up when the girls got there and saw my group with their long very braid-able hair. After stations the kids played a couple of Haitian games directed by the youth group leaders. It was a lot of fun and such a joy to play with and love on the children. Even if we got tired and had to sit down, we did not miss out on loving the children, because as soon as you make a lap, you have at least one, if not two children who plop down on it. Then others begin creeping up, and soon you will have a child or two on your lap and one leaning on each shoulder. Some children have no parents, or only one parent and many siblings. If there are parents, they are often so busy with the business of survival that the children do not always get the attention they want and need. It was a lot of fun.
After camp, the kids were bussed back to the villages and a few students had been chosen to ride home with us. These kids rode in the trucks with us back to the village and we walked them home (You park at an entrance to the village, but it is all pedestrian roads within the villages.) We divided into three groups with two students each and an American leader (me or one of the adult missionaries who are here) and two Haitian guide/translators. We walked our children home. When we got to the house, we got to meet their families. We spoke briefly and learned about their family and they learned about ours. When we left, each family was asked what they needed, and each family asked us to pray for them. It was very powerful to pray with the children and their families. They are such a good reminder for us to trust in God and His plan and to know that He has us in His hands.
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