Haiti Mission Trip: Day 3

Monday

 

On Monday we woke up in time to get ready and do our devotionals before breakfast at 7:30. This would be our morning routine for the rest of the week. We had pancakes and fresh mango & pineapple for breakfast. We were all able to start on projects after breakfast. Some of our team did work around the compound putting up monkey bars for the kids and staining chairs.

 

 

 

 

A few of us also worked to inventory and organize the clothes, shoes, toys and tools we were able to bring with us (shout out to FBC Natchitoches for all of that!). The things we brought went into their store and the kids are able to buy them with points they earn for good behavior.

 

 

 We were also asked to bring supplies to put together bags for the kids to bring to the elderly so that they could practice sharing the gospel and serving. We had the kids help us put the bags together, and they seemed to enjoy looking at everything they would get to give.  

 

 

 

 

We had a little bit of time around the compound before lunch. Some of the girls tried washing clothes, which was a lot of hard work! They made a squeaking sound with the soap that I don't think anyone was quite able to get the hang of.

 

 
 

 

 We had some time to play outside and to play cards!

 

Emmanuel insisted that everyone cheated at Uno... except for him, of course!

 

For lunch we had BBQ chicken and rice with red sauce- delicious! After lunch most of the boys went back to work and the girls had the opportunity to give pedicures and manicures to the ladies who cook, wash clothes, and do other “house mom” duties for Hands and Feet.

 

We Washed their feet with soap and scrubbed their nails with toothbrushes. Someone even dug up a real brush and a pumice stone! They loved it! Some just sat and smiled looking at their nails when we finished.

We asked each one how we could pray for them when they were finished. They all had immediate responses, and once they saw us praying, several ladies asked to be prayed for as soon as we finished their nails! Several ladies asked us to pray for their spiritual walks and others had prayers for friends or family members, or even for the one doing the praying! They were all so unselfish and humble.

 After this we hung out with the kids some until dinner time. They were interested in our manicures and pedicures and some painted each other’s nails... Even the boys!

  

For dinner we had sloppy joes. They were a little different from our version, but they were very good. After dinner we played an American vs. Haitians soccer game at the insistence of the kids. They beat us terribly, but we had a great time! The game was going so badly we started picking up the ball and running with it. It turned into more of a hilarious rugby game than soccer! We all did lots of laughing and running around until we all eventually got tired. We sat around and talked on the field until time for our nightly meeting.

 

 I know there are more soccer pictures somewhere, I'll have to find them!

Once again, pictures were taken by the wonderful Mrs. Tanya!

Haiti Mission Trip: Day 2

Sunday:

We woke up around 5:30 to get ready for church. Once we were ready we ate fruit and toast while doing our daily devotionals. It was a special day because eighteen boys and girls and two men were being baptized in the ocean before church! We loaded up in trucks and made the short trip to the ocean.

 

There was some singing that we didn’t understand, and then the people were baptized three at a time in the ocean.

 After all of the baptisms the men stood in the water and prayed together.

 It was my first experience seeing so many people baptized at once and seeing people baptized in the ocean! It was a really neat experience, but sort of strange to have a baptism where people were enjoying the beach and bathing in the water not too far away!

 After the baptisms we headed on to the church. We were there about an hour before church started, so we sat and had time to talk until then. This time the service was in Creole, so we didn’t understand much of it.

 There were several different groups that sang and we knew a few of the songs. Even so, it was difficult to remember the words that I thought I knew so well when they were singing in a different language! 

 

 We were able to enjoy communion with the rest of the church with bread and real wine. The whole service lasted nearly three hours, and in our exhaustion most of us may have dozed a bit during some of the prayers- oops!

After church we went back to the compound for lunch. We had fried chicken, delicious Haitian slaw, and seriously the best French fries I've ever had!

Half of the kids left for camp, but we were able to go back to the ocean with the rest of the kids after lunch.

 The ocean was very calm and we swam and played. The kids really opened up to us at the beach and it was neat to see the walls fall down. They loved being pulled around in the water, being thrown, and chicken fighting.

 

After the beach we went back to the compound to clean up and play until dinner. Some of our girls got to help cook! Since there weren’t as many kids we were able to eat a yummy pasta at their tables with them. We played some more after dinner and were exhausted by bedtime from a long day!

 

 

(By the way, most of these beautiful photos were taken by Mrs. Tanya!)

Haiti Mission Trip: Day 1

Saturday:

When we arrived in Grand Goave we went straight to the compound. It had high walls which were either topped with broken bottles or with razor wire all around. There was also a guard who stood at the door to keep up with which kids went out and where they were going.  When we got there all 31 kids (ages 10ish-17) were there. Half would leave on Sunday to go to camp in Jacmel.

compound walls and some of the ladies

 We expected the kids to be very excited to see us, since we were so excited to see them. But our greeting really wasn’t very warm. Who can blame them with a new group coming in every week over the summer? Several kids helped us to get our luggage to our rooms. The girls and the guys each had a place to stay with 4 bunk beds, a toilet, a sink, and a shower. We were so thankful to see a toilet and a shower there (but flushing TP was a no-no!) because we were prepared for, well, other things. The language barrier was difficult at first. Most of the kids understood some English, but some would not try to use it to speak to us. We settled in and played some with the kids and chatted with the missionaries that work at H&F.

Here's a little picture tour of the compound!

bedroom

 

where we met and ate our meals



playground, rock wall, and the well/water tower

soccer field

 

our favorite place to sit and talk

missionary house on the left, kids' showers on the right

kids' bathrooms

basketball court

kitchen

monkey bars the guys installed between the boys' rooms

 We ate spaghetti for dinner and it was very good! The Haitian sauce is a little oilier than American spaghetti sauce and it had onions in it.

After dinner we were playing with the kids when we were told we were leaving for church in fifteen minutes! They canceled the English-speaking service on Sunday because of a conference going on, but they had one on Saturday night. The church was close by, but we rode in the truck anyway. We fit ten adults and one child in the back of the pickup- all sitting! The church building is temporary and is made of wood posts and a tin roof. To enclose the building they used lots of beautiful curtains. It really gave the building a neat feel. Haitian people seem to have a gift to turn plain things into beautiful things. The service was mostly in English with a Haitian translator. They sang some songs we knew and we were still able to sing along when they sang in Creole!

outside the church

 

 After church we met with our team for a bit before time to get ready for bed. Not long after we got to our rooms it started to rain. It was super loud on our tin roofs, and we couldn’t even talk to one another over the sound! We were all exhausted after a long day of traveling and exploring, so we were ready to get to bed anyway.

Haiti Mission Trip: Traveling

Haiti mission trip: July 5-13, 2013

This series of posts is mostly for our memory, but I'm going to break them up into days so it's not so much to read in case you are interested in our trip!

 

This was our first mission trip out of the country, and we were chaperones. gulp. Thankfully we had a great group, and knew we wouldn’t have any problems from them! There were five high school students: Emily, Madison, Tyler, Maygan, and Austin, two recent high school grads: Josh and Scott, three college students: Katie, Hannah Lee, and Kevin, and Mrs. Tanya, Josh, Leslie, and myself.

We left for New Orleans on Friday night on a BCM bus so that we could catch our flight early the next morning. We were all excited that this week had finally gotten here after planning this trip for nine months! We went to dinner together at Acme Oyster House and stayed at the Baptist Theological Seminary.

On Saturday we woke up at 2:30 am to get to the airport with plenty of time before our flight. We flew from New Orleans to Miami and then from Miami to Port Au Prince, Haiti. We were in first class for both flights, and we were definitely spoiled! I’d never gotten a meal on a flight or had seats that go to “sleep” position. Both flights were about two hours long and were easy flights. We had three students with us that had never flown before, and we warned them not to get used to first class treatment!

Reclining in first class

I had heard a lot of things about Haiti. It was poor, hot, humid, and even dangerous. But no one told me that Haiti is also beautiful. I was surprised flying in to see so many mountains and clear ocean water all in the same place!

Sorry for the bad quality plane photo...

We got off the plane and got through customs relatively easily. I learned quickly that it really does pay to try to learn at least a few words in the language before visiting. We were greeted by the missionaries from the Hands and Feet Project and we all loaded in a van to make the two hour trip to Grand Goave. We rode with the windows open and experienced all of the new sights, sounds, and smells.  We learned quickly that driving is very different in Haiti! There was a lot of honking and passing whenever someone wanted. There were very few personal vehicles, and most people in colorfully decorated “tap taps” (trucks that were built for people to sit in the back of that you tapped if you wanted to get in for a ride) or on small motorcycles. Leslie quickly noticed that there are very few road signs there, so you better know where you’re going!

Tap tap!

We drove through towns where there were marketplaces and many people walking through the streets trying to sell things. While we were stopped people would walk up to the window to try to sell us things. I realized quickly that smiling gave boys the wrong impression after I got some unwanted attention- oops!

 

Goats and chickens were seen everywhere on the side of the road, up in the mountains, and even on the beach later on! They seemed to be everywhere in Haiti.

 

Most of the buildings were colorfully decorated. It seems like everyone there is artistic! On the way there I did not notice too many homes, more stores and marketplaces and scenery. It was overwhelming and wonderful to be in a new place.

 

 

 

 

Catch-Up and Summer Excitement!

I feel like I am always playing catch-up on this blog! This time I’ll try to keep the updates short because I have something more exciting to share!

Leslie and I are staying busy as usual with trips to visit family and friends, his work, and my school. Linus is almost a year old and he is SO big! He keeps us entertained, for sure.

 

Leslie is still working for Northwestern State as one of the assistant athletic trainers. We’re not sure who will be paying him next year since his contract with the hospital runs out in July, but we have confidence that it will be figured out before he gets dropped! He will most likely be working with the soccer team primarily next year which I am thrilled about because of their short season and decent schedule! There is also a possibility that Leslie may get to begin his PhD program earlier than planned, but more on that as more details come together!

I am STILL working on my masters! NSU made some changes and added two 60 hour counseling programs. I chose to switch to counseling with a focus in school counseling. Some states require a 60 hour program, so I decided it would be worth the extra semester in school. Besides, who am I kidding, I love school! This program will allow me to work as a school counselor or (once I pass my NCE and do my LPC internship hours) become a Licensed Professional Counselor. Still not sure what I want to do with this, but I’m excited about the possibilities!

Now on to the more exciting part... Leslie and I are going to Haiti! Neither of us have been out of the country before, so we were very excited when we were asked to go with the church’s youth on this trip. We will be traveling to Grand Goave on July 6^th and will stay until the 13^th with our group of 14 people.

 

 As I learned earlier, Grand Goave was very close to the epicenter of the earthquake that devastated Haiti and experienced extreme damage.

 

During our trip we will stay in a compound run by the Hands and Feet Project (started by the lead singer of the band Audio Adrenaline... check out the website!). We will get to work with an orphanage and do some construction within the compound. The language most commonly spoken there is French Creole, and we have tried to learn some, but it is tough! Thankfully we'll have guides with us who live in Haiti and can translate for us and tell us what is safe to eat if we ever find ourselves eating outside of the compound.We have gotten updated on all of our vaccines and are taking pills for malaria and typhoid fever in addition. We know it will be a completely new experience and, although we have tried, know that we cannot totally prepare ourselves for it. We covet your prayers as we get ready to go in just 10 days and as we spend time in Haiti. We are so thankful for this experience, and I can't wait to share more with you when we return!