Thursday, September 25, 2014
Don't forget Haiti
What a week this was. Coming home is always a bit jarring.
On our last morning in Haiti we all sat down with the director of JIHM to re-hash our week.
We talked about the good times of hanging out with our new friends, playing basketball, swimming in the ocean.
We remembered the hard times such as the riots, the fact that people still eat mud pies, and how broken this place is. We talked about the devastation of the earth quake and how so many people are in the Mass Grave that we saw earlier in the week.
We talked about what we learned and who made an impact on us.
We left it with hope. Hope that Haiti can succeed, that their people can all learn about and grow in their faith. Hope that each day the sun will rise and that is something to celebrate.
We were sent home to re-adjust after everything we've seen and try to get back to normal. For me, that's not happening very quickly. A piece of my heart stayed down there a I fell hard for yet another place so far away.
Haiti for us was a place where we learned to listen. To listen to God, to each other, and to ourselves.
As we travel home we are different people, but we all have a bond now. (Our little group) we all experienced this heartbreaking yet amazing trip together, as a team. I honestly can say I have 10 new friends and I can't wait to see them all again.
We all went home with the message, "Don't forget Haiti."
Cue the tears..... 😉
Haiti: some of our new friends.
Lele, one of the boys from the Samaritans Purse village. Also the same kid from the kyak story. If you can't tell from the picture he is an attention grabber. He is loud and energetic but is one of the sweetest kids deep down.
Mesenord: he's 13 and is very out going. He really knows how to walk into the room and make friends with everyone. He could be a politician, seriously. But instead he wants to be a contractor and build houses for people. He told us if we ever wanted to move to Haiti he would build our house. We got pretty attached to Mes this week and it is hard to say good bye to him. God has something big in store for him. I guess we all just get to stand by and watch. In his village they call him "busico" which means "little big boss".
Dunle: This sweet kid has a reserved personality. He was nervous about the water but braved his way in and had a great day at the beach.
JD: he's one of the Beacon boys. If you can't tell from this picture he had us laughing all week.
Georgie: he drove us around all week and how could you not love Georgie? He's a big guy with a very soft heart. He spent a lot of his time starting dance offs with the local village kids.
JIHM staff: what an honor it was to peek into your world for the week. You do amazing work and my God bless you each and every day.
Johnson: part translator part bodyguard, he spent the week with us. He's very outgoing and loves life. When he wasn't helping us work he was singing on the truck keeping us all laughing so hard we cried. Trip would not have been the same without this guy! (Back 2 Back)
Haiti 9/11/2014
Today we got to go to the beach!
We all loaded into the truck and headed north. Along the way we picked up some of the kids we've hung out with all week.
A business owner in Haiti owns a private beach home and allowed us to take some kids up there and spend the day. We all had a blast. Swimming, kayaking, and playing soccer was pretty much all we did!
My most memorable moment of the day was kayaking with a 4 year old (who doesn't swim.....yes cue the anxiety!). He kept looking around pointing at the ocean and the coral and kept saying "belle" (pretty).
Haiti 9/10/2014
House building day.
We loaded the previously assembled sides of a house, siding, tools, coolers, and 18 people into a truck and took off for Cabaret to build a home.
Carl Eric is a student with JIHM who needed a better home situation so he could focus on his school work. He lives with his grandmother and two younger boys. This morning they were living in a tent that has a crazy green house effect going on. Tonight.....it's a bit better.
Ok, so we loaded everything up and started to drive. We made a pit stop in a small village to ask for directions and turned off into a dirt road that took us up into the hills. Needless to say, this got a little sketchy.
Once we arrived we got straight to work. I was told later that day that the grandma could see us coming up the hill and was so excited she started to thank God and cry. In reality, she could have been praying for safety because a bunch of Americans were trying to drive a house up a mountain and could have easily flipped it all over. But.... That didn't happen so we shouldn't dwell on it!
Grandma kept saying how she was not in a position to ask anyone for help and just kept praying. Again, another demonstration of un-wavering faith.
The house went together pretty easy all things considering!
It was an emotional project for all of us, I think, as we got to meet the family and see how much they needed this place.
Everyday I've been here I have learned something from the Haitian culture. Today, it was cherish your family. This grandmother gave everything for the kids she was raising and you can tell she worked as hard as she could for them. Possessions come and go but it's the people in your lives to cherish.
I pray that this small house will only be able to help her be a better and stronger support to the boys she is raising.
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