Day 6 - Water, Farming & Salsa Saturday

Mikayla: Due to our first thunderstorm in Haiti, that actually had rain instead of just lightning, the residents of Cite Soleil had some of their own water. Since our supply was extra, our team was able to serve in a different way this water truck day. We were able to focus in on the people and kids and connecting with them, our focus shifted from the survival aspect of providing the water to the survival aspect of love and human contact. The kids all had huge smiles on their faces as they dumped their buckets of water on each other's heads and played in the water. I laughed almost the entire time at each stop as I tossed kids up in the air and caught them or tickled the ones who were sitting off to the side. I also had a lot of group hugs today with many little ones! Although it was an amazing day, I definitely noticed the language barrier today as a lot of younger kids were trying to talk to me and one particular girl, who stuck by me for one entire stop, asked me something that I did not understand. As she realized I did not understand, she helplessly just continued to say the phrase, because there was nothing else she knew how to do either. A mini goal I've set is to learn more Creole phrases to ensure I am able to communicate clearer in the future. In saying that, both water truck days were valuable and cherrished experiences. 

Sienna: Today's water truck experience was a lot more fun and lighthearted than the first. By chance, at one of the water stops, my mom and I were lucky enough to run into the brother of one of the host girls that stayed with our family in Minnesota for three weeks in July 2015. After meeting her brother, we were led back to their house to meet her other brother and mother. We were welcomed into their home with lots of hugs and love. They even brought out the photo album from the summer she spent in Minnesota to show us the pictures of the girl my family hosted and I playing soccer and having fun. The host girl wasn't actually home as she was off playing soccer. They said they would reach out to her to have her meet us at the next water truck stop. We were busy carrying water buckets and loving children and up she walked.What a joy to see her and hug her!

Her English has really improved too! Unfortunately, today is my last day in Haiti because my fall semester at the University of Minnesota starts Tuesday. I had truly a wonderful week here at Healing Haiti and anxiously await the next opportunity to come back to this amazing country. 

A little more on the adventure we had today:

The Farm, Fleri Resto & Salsa Saturday:

Today, we were able to tour Healing Haiti's newest addition, a fruit farm. We were able to learn about the various fruit trees growing, and the future plans of expansion and job creation that this farm will make possible. 

After our long day of water trucks and farming, we headed to Healing Haiti's restaurant called Fleri Resto that we visited earlier in the week. We were able to enjoy pizza and the company of the long-term missionaries we had met during the week. The language barrier was not an issue as the Haitian staff knew English very well. We appreciated time at the restaurant as it allowed us to strengthen our bond with our teammates.

Tonight, we also had the opportunity to attend a salsa dance performance at a hotel in downtown Port-au-Prince. Although severely underdressed, it was a fun expereince to see both Haitian and Dominican dance teams perform. I (Mikayla) learned the hard way that you really do regret the chances you don't take instead of the ones you do that don't work out. One of the Healing Haiti staff members that has worked there the longest, who took us to this event, got us front row seats. At a mini intermission, people from the audience went up to the stage to dance. As we were sitting there, a Haitian guy around my age (21) came up to our group and asked one of my fellow teammate's (Tunji's) permission to dance with me as he thought Tunji and I were together. After he extended his hand to me and everyone in our group poked my back encouraging me to dance with him, I respectfully said I did not know how to dance. However....about a minute later, the Healing Haiti staff member who took us asked me if I wanted to try it, and although I was still hesitant, one of my leaders whispered "stretch yourself," as this had been a theme for us all week so I decided to give it a try. So not only did I turn the Haitian guy down at the very front of the room so everyone could see him....I danced with someone else one minute later, not one of my finest moment. I definitely did not know what I was doing up there, but I had a good teacher and it was a lot of fun. Despite telling my group I would have danced with the other guy if he had asked me again, they jokingly laughed and did not let me forget turning the young man down and then going up with another person minutes later. I learned two things from this. First was, even without their teasing I realized the value in taking chances and only regretting the ones we don't take. The second was that we should not let language  be a barrier, as that was one of my main reasons to say no because our Haitian staff member knows English. At least next time, if I'm ever in this situation again, due to my mini goal and what the Haitian staff member taught me, I will know a little more of what I am doing up there.

Live life, take chances, come to Haiti!

Mikayla (21) & Sienna (19)

Day 5 - A Day Dedicated to the Children

Bonswa from Haiti!  Today was filled with love, laughter and tears.

For some, the day started with 6 AM church service at Church on the Rock, which is walking distance away (unless you're Scott who considered it to be a long drawn out "death march" - psst, Scott, hit the gym!).  The service was very energetic and passionate. It was also interesting to follow considering the service was in Creole.

Upon their return, we all gathered for breakfast which was, as usual, delicious. Then we headed out in the tap-tap to La Pharre Orphanage.  This orphanage was started by a Pastor after the 2010 earthquake. It's currently the home to 17 children. Our introductions started with the children singing to us.  They sounded beautiful!  Then we sang to them... not so beautiful.  :)  The main activity of the day an engaging art activity. A shout out to Amy (a former team member from a trip that was cancelled in July) for organizing and donating the project - it was a success!  The kids proved to be talented artists with creative designs and precise detail.  They also had fun jumping rope, playing soccer and teaching us Haitian jax, which was very cool!  Our visit ended with a heartfelt thank you from the Pastor.  We could tell from his parting words how much compassion he has for his children and the Healing Haiti family.

   

The next endeavor of the day brought us to Papillon (which means butterfly in Creole).  Papillon was founded by a women named Shelley Jean.  Shelley, her husband and two children went to Haiti in 2007 to adopt a child.  She soon realized that the biological parents of the child they were to adopt only placed him there due to poverty; they didn't want to give him away.  Realizing that many Haitian parents were in the same situation, that they wanted their children but could not support them, she felt a calling to help.  Her firsthand experience sent her on a quest to create jobs to prevent parents from losing their children to an orphanage.  After much hard work and years later, Apparent Project then Papillon were born.  Papillon is now a company which supports over 200 employees who, in return, are able to support their families.  Unfortuantely, due to civil unrest and cancelled trips to Haiti in July of this year, production has slowed to only 30 employees.

Our visit to Papillon included a tour of the production facility, a stop at the cafe for lunch and some serious shopping at the Papillon marketplace.  It's amazing to think that almost everything made at Papillon is created by recycled materials, primarily cereal boxes, recycled glass and dirt (to make clay). To see some of the beautiful creations made and sold at Papillon, visit it's website at: papillonmarketplace.com. 

At this point in the day our team divided into two groups.  One group went back to For His Glory Orphange and the other went to the Home for the Sick & Dying Babies.  At the orphange, our team took a tour (given by the oldest girl at the orphange), played games with the children and our team member Beatrice got her hair braided.  It was an exhausting but enjoyable, afternoon.

The group at Home for the Sick & Dying held babies, fed toddlers and took some little ones out to the playground. Though we understood the importance of being there, our hearts were broken as we left crying babies who were reaching their hands to us, longing to be held.  There is no denying that God was working through us to help give comfort and love, but it was a struggle to hold our composure.

Back at the Guest House... a shower, a chance to gather our thoughts and for many, a time to try to connect with those we love at home, crossing our fingers that wifi was working. Dinner consisted of an excellent meal and a thought provoking, honest, deep conversation.  In addition to what we do during the day, our evening time is equally as powerful.  It's hard to put into words through a blog what we've seen and how we are feeling, but it's been a pleasure and a gift to talk about it each evening as a group.

As we reflect while writing this blog and based on tonight's devotions, we all agree that there is nothing more important than the human touch.  You don't need to speak the same language, it doesn't matter your age, demographics or skin color, all people need to feel love.

Thank you for reading our blog and for keeping us in your prayers.  We are comforted in knowing we are in the hands of God and that we are safe under the love and care of the Healing Haiti staff.

Orevwa,

Linda & Jeanna

Day 4 - The Selfishness in Service

There is a certain aspect of service that one can only be introduced to through experience. Service is all about humbling yourself for others' sake, but there is a certain joy that I achieve when I serve others. I beleive that this joy is multiplied when you help those who cannot help themselves. For example, today, I had the pleasure of serving an elderly man.  He was the most appreciative and humble man I have ever met. He was showered with compliments about his appearance and his home and he gave the glory to God. No matter what happened, he kept giving all of his fortune to the Lord. I was happy that I was able to give my blessings to that man, but he gave me something as well. He gave me the lesson of patience. When people tried to offer him food, he ignored the food and chose to introduce himself and thank everyone for coming. He was so patient that he could wait for something so precious in Haiti like food and simply tell people his name. I found that inspiring and it taught me that the most valuable attributes of a true servant of God are patience and humility. You need patience to wait for God to answer your prayers and for something to happen in your life. (My spiritual moto: P.U.S.H - pray until something happens) We have to be humble to help us recognize our insignificance in the grand scheme of things. Only through those two things can we become as faithful a servant as the elderly man we met.  

The team being greeted by the elder as we entered his house.

Me (Tunji) amd team member Josue washing the elder's feet.

Josue and Me (Tunji) preparing the elder's feet to be washed.

God Bless,

Olatunji  (Tunji) - 16 years old

Day 3 - Recycling, Recovery, an Orphanage, & Home for the Sick & Dying Babies

Today was a rollercoaster of a day. After a nice breakfast as a group, we stared in wonder at the piles of gravel that had been dumped in the street and blocked the access of our tap tap (the vehicle that transports our group around) from accessing the street. These were not the little piles that we see on the American gravel roads, but rather about six feet high and taking up most of the street, as well as they had scraped away much of the street, so the curb was dug down about 18". We had to use the tap tap from the other Guest House, but the road was still precarious. The ladies gasped and expressed concern over the precarious ride while the guys seemed to enjoy the adventure. More about these roads later, though.

Our first stop brought us to a better part of the rollercoaster, though. We went to a small entrepreneural venture called PeaceCycle, which is a little business that started in order to solve multiple problems. They collect about 1,000 small baggies per day that Haitians use for fresh water (a similar concept to water bottles, but smaller and less packaging), and have a process to clean, iron, sew, and fabricate the baggies into amazing products, such as handbags, wallets, and my favorite, a wine bag to carry several bottles of wine! The little business employs almost 20 Haitians and reuses a product that would otherwise pollute the environment.

Continuing on our high notes, we stopped at a little shop called Papillon, another small business that provides jobs through a nice cafe and gift shop of locally made products. Their smoothies were wonderful!

Our rollercoaster crested as we went to Haiti Teen Challenge, which is a similar model to the Teen Challenges around the world with the mission to address and help young Haitians struggling with numerous types of addiction. The founder shared his story of being a pastor in America and coming back to Haiti with the mission of helping the youth struggling to break free from addiction, and he was proud to share the success they've had, spreading their message throughout multiple facilities and being a well-established church now, but his vision did not end there. He was a man of vision and action whose commitment has improved the lives of many, many young people and their families, which we heard directly from the emotional testimonials of some of their successes.

Having started our day mounting a challenging road, seeing a successful business, relaxing a bit, then hearing the emotional stories, we piled into the tap tap, and bounced along the roads to our next two stops where we'd split in two. Half of our group went to For His Glory Outreach orphanage and spent time letting the children there bring a smile to everyone's faces! While they were orphans, the children were smiling, very bright, and active, and enjoyed playing with the members of our group, demonstrating their mental and physical agility with games like jump rope, memory, blowing bubbles, and playing with a parachute.

The other half of our group went to the Home for the Sick and Dying Babies. This was a much more somber visit where we fed, held, and played with the many infants and toddlers who were in their care for illnesses ranging from malnourishment to terminal illness like HIV and others. We put on our brave faces and laughed and acted silly to bring smiles to the little ones' faces. The heroic nurses that work with these children daily are commendable.

After a somber ride home as we reflected on the activities of the day, we ended up with our tap tap getting stuck as it decided to rest on the precarious edge of an intersection due to the impromptu road construction from earlier. Luckily, we were only a block from our home base and were able to walk back while the driver worked the nimble little tap tap loose.

Our team gathered for some time to eat, pray, reflect, and decompress after what may well be the most emotional day of our journey. We look forward to being able to help in any way we can for the rest of the week, and it is days like today that we're brought with the saddest in humanity, yet reminded of the hope that exists. Hope that we who are able will lend their skills and resources to our brethren in places like Haiti to help lift them out of poverty. Hope that those in Haiti will continue their courage and resiliance, as businesses like PeaceCycle spring up and solve problems while providing meaningful jobs and income. Hope that the amazing technologies and abilities we have today will continue to bring solutions like clean water and infrastructure to alleviate suffering.

With hope,
Brad

Day 2 - Water Truck

There are hardly words to describe the impact of today.  Whether it was a first time experience or a return trip, Cite Soleil (the poorest slum in the Western Hemisphere) made an imprint on our hearts which we will never forget.

Today the tap-tap took us to three different locations within Cite Soleil. The neighborhood is located at the western end of the runway of the main airport in Haiti.  Construction of homes, for 52 families, began in 1958.  Through a series of fires in a handful of slum areas, Cite Soleil grew.  By 1983, it had grown to approximately 82,000 residence.  Estimates today are over 400,000 people.

Our first stop, Water Stop 4: before we even got off the tap-tap, we were bombarded by a mob of little kids saying "Potem" (which means pick me up). Some of us scooped up children while the rest filled up jugs with water or carried water buckets for people. "Hey you!" is something we heard often as the children were trying to get our attention.

Hope Church: built on a dump... The foundation has over 80 feet of garbage below it.  How ironic that something so beautiful and spiritual was built at a place that once had so little value. "Imagine the children of Cite Soleil having a place to know God, to be safe, to dream of a better life, to sit and breathe in hope...Imagine."  Our group got to meet the Pastors, see the classsroom, walk through the clinic (which is still under construction) and we got to sit in the pews at the church.  It was awesome!  We felt peace and excitement for the people, especially the children.

Our second waterstop, Four Coffins: from Hope Church we walked to the next waterstation where a newly filled water truck was waiting for us; so was our largest crowd and longest line!  At this point we were all hot, sweaty and filthy dirty from lovin on the kids and carrying multiple heavy buckets of water. But no matter the shape we were in, it was easy to be fully engaged and present.

Special Stop: the tap-tap stopped at a filling station where we didn't get gasoline, rather we picked up the final two members of our team: Beatrice and Tunji.  They came from New Jersey and have family here in Haiti - how cool is that!

Water Truck Fill Station: Our next excursion took us to where they filled the water trucks.  We got to see four huge trucks being filled simaltaneously.  It was also time to clean up, hydrate, have a snack and bond as a team.  We are all certain that the stars lined up right and that God had a plan to put us all here together - we were having such a great time!

The third waterstop: the people at this stop were a happy bunch, waiting for us in a calm and organized line.  Like the children at the other two stops, the kids were eager to see us, friendly and highly affectionate. Though we were there to help them, their sweet little faces, hugs and smiles made us realize that they were giving us a gift.

Thankful:  As we review the day we have many things to be thankful for: our Haitian staff who made us scrambled eggs, oatmeal, pancakes and freshly squeezed juice for breakfast and chicken yakisoba for dinner, our drivers and guides who got us safely through town and taught us about their city, our Leaders, Tamara and Kristin who prepped us with everything we needed to know to be well prepared and finally, our team, who came from Minnesota, New Jersey and Canada; we worked together cohesively, with purpose and we had fun!

Until tomorrow... Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

Linda and Jeanna

Day 1 - Arrival Day

For most of our group, the alarm went off early enough so that we could all meet at the airport by 4:30 AM.  It was easy to find our group since we were all in our gray Healing Haiti shirts.  One of our words of the day (from one of our leaders Kris) was "smooth."  We agree that everything at the airport went as we had hoped for and before we knew it, we were in Altanta where we connected with Mikayla and Josue (from Canada and New Jersey).   After a short layover, we were back on the plane and one step closer to Haiti.  Our flight was 2.45 hours,  just long enough to fit in two movies and complete our customs forms.

On the way to the Guest House, our team noticed many differences between the USA and Haiti.  The heat is a very different kind of hot.  The roads are part dirt, part asphault, with many potholes and lots of refuse along the sides of the road.  One of the last potholes we drove over almost bottomed out the tap-tap (our transportation).

As we arrived at the Guest House, the staff came to greet us with big smiles and even hugs for those they recognized.  Even the dogs came to greet us. We unloaded the tap-tap, met the rest of the staff and headed to our new home for the week.  We had delicious tacos for dinner and did our "word of the day."  This was a powerful team bonding activity because we were able to reflect, share and listen to each other's perspectives.  It was great!

At this point, everyone was feeling very tired; however, we pushed on; there was a soccer game that needed to be played! We decided that we could muster up the energy to head to the lot next door to meet some of the local boys and check out the families, their homes and the darling little kids (humans and goats) who came out to greet us.  Once the sun went down, we returned to the Guest House where we read our daily devotions and reviewed the day together.

It was a full day and everyone is now ready for bed, but even moreso, we are all eager and excited for tomorrow and everything it has in store.  Until then, bon nwit and orevwa!

Jeanna & Linda

Day 6

God is...

The final day began with many of us watching the sunrise and helping with breakfast. We sat down for a final team breakfast before heading off to Grace Church to attend a Haitian church service.  As we made the hour trip to church, we sang and worshipped God.  We love singing as a group and today was special as we prepared our hearts with praise and gratitude on the way to church.

God is greater than barriers!

Church in another country is an incredible experience.  Although many of us know minimal to no Creole, the presence of the Lord knows no language barriers and worship is powerful no matter if you can understand what’s being said or not. Something really evident this week was that God was greater than a language barrier. Most of our communication is through our actions and tone and we were able to communicate with others and worship without having to say a word.

God is majestic!

After church, the team traveled to Kaliko Beach Club to unwind and have a day of fun at the beach as a team to wrap up the week.  The team was able to spend all day on the beach and enjoy a delicious Haitian lunch. The beauty of God’s creation at the beach in Haiti left all of us in awe of His majesty as we stared out at the water and the mountains nearby. The sight of it all felt like a painting or a screen saver.  God is majestic. The ocean water felt like bath water and was so clean and clear that you could see your feet.  A couple of the team members rode on a jet ski and others rested on the cabanas and swam in the ocean.   Throughout the week, we have all grown so close, and the fun that we had together today after an emotional week was priceless.

God is in the details.

We traveled home after the beach to have our last dinner together as a family. On the way home, it began to rain - the only rain we saw all week.  We were in the Tap Tap which is a truck with benches and open air cage like encasing so the rain hit us and got us wet.  We started to sing ‘There is a Cloud’ by Elevation Worship in that moment and it was powerful because God’s rain of blessings bestowed our hearts all week.  It was a perfect touch from Him as our week was coming to a close. It was a small detail, but if you are paying attention, God is always speaking.

God is in control!

After dinner, we had our last devotional time together as a team. Those who hadn’t shared their testimonies shared and afterward, we headed to the balcony and sat together as a family and had an intimate moment of communion and prayer.  Each of our prayers were full with such gratitude, emotion, and love.  Everyone was so thankful for the love that God had shown through each person on the team, through our service to those in Haiti, as well as our service to each other.  We were so grateful that God had a plan and perfectly weaved the eclectic group of people He had for this week.  The hearts He connected and the way each member was uniquely moved to be here as a piece of the puzzle overwhelmed us.  We can’t see what God is doing in moments at times as we are walking through a moment, but when you take another look, it all makes sense.  It reminded us of how God is in control and makes no mistakes.  He knew who He wanted together for this mission and though we were uniquely different, together we were complete unit and perfect fit.

God is so good!