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| Airport Picture! |
On Friday, April 17th, my team and I met at the airport (another 6 am flight...) to begin our journey to Haiti. I was so excited about the trip, and nervous as well, because I had no idea what to expect. Our flights were so short compared to Togo, which was awesome! By 12 pm (Haitian time- they don't participate in daylight savings) we touched down and were ready to go! We went to the orphanage first, to drop off our luggage and have a chance to sit down for a few minutes before heading out.
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| Front view of where we stayed at the orphanage |
After settling in, we went out for a tour of Port Au Prince. We were taken to areas of devastation such as the President's Palace, which the locals called "House of the Devil" because of the corruption, and the national church, both of which were completely destroyed. We were able to go inside the church but there was still falling debris so we were asked to leave. There was a man inside who was mourning the loss of his grandfather, one of the 25 who died inside. Unfortunately, while getting back into the car at the palace, I lost my camera. It was a frustrating bump in the road, but I did my best to not let it bother me.
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| The front of the destroyed church |
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| The inside of the church |
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| The President's Palace |
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While we were out, we also visited the deaf camp. In the camp, every family has at least one member who is deaf. The children inside the camp were so sweet! There was a little girl who immediately ran up to me and held my hand. I held her while I walked around and when we had to go, she wouldn't let me put her down! She started crying and it absolutely broke my heart!
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| Me with the little girl |
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| The Deaf Camp |
That afternoon we got to go back to the orphanage and play with the children. They had a beautiful mango tree that the children all gathered under to play. Our time there was absolutely amazing! Most of the children had severe disabilities and yet, they were the sweetest, happiest kids I have ever seen in my entire life! They were all about helping each other and they had so much love to give. That night we had an opportunity to worship with them. They played an American worship DVD and the children knew all the words. This was one of the most memorable experiences of the entire trip. It was such an awesome reminder that no matter what culture you are, what you look like, the language you speak or where you are, we all still serve the same God.
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The mango tree |
The next morning, we woke up early (5 am) for coffee and then planned to get on the road. It's always light outside REALLY early in Haiti, usually around 4am. We hit another bump in the road when one of our team members fell and hit her head. Her blood pressure was low, so Jen stayed with her for a while to make sure she was ok before making her travel to the hotel. The rest of our group loaded up in the other two cars and headed for the hotel. It wasn't too long after we checked in and settled that Kendall and Jen joined us. It was good not to worry! Kendall was such a trooper! She decided to go up the mountain with us to Chadirac, instead of resting. Our hotel was absolutely beautiful and our first breakfast was yummy! We had pancakes and fresh fruit!
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| This is where we ate our meals |
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| View of the hotel from the pool |
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| View of beach and pool from balcony. |
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After breakfast, we loaded up for our first trip up the mountain to Chadirac! The first day we planned to help with some coffee planting and get to know the people. We also learned we would be doing church for the youth. Surprise! Our team did awesome with pulling together and being flexible throughout the whole trip!
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| Church |
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| Coffee Planting! |
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| The coffee planting project |
Everyday we traveled up the mountain, started with coffee planting and then split up for church. Half of us went to do youth ministry, the other half went to do children's ministry. On Tuesday, we switched it up and traveled to a different church, farther up the mountain. It was quite the climb! On the way to the church, Jen slipped and broke her ankle. It was awful! She was such a trooper the whole time and had such a positive attitude about it! With the help of Leonard, she was still able to climb the mountain to get to church everyday and back.
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| This is a picture of us going to the church closer to us, the other one was much harder! | | |
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| This is a picture of us just starting off to the other church, way before it got hard. |
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On Wednesday morning, we split up and half of us went to work on coffee and the other half went to work on the road. I was getting a little bored of coffee, so I thought I'd try working on the road.
Turns out, while we were working on the road, the other team was having fun playing with kittens. ;)
Who can blame them? They are precious!
Here are some Misc. Pictures:
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| View from Chadirac |
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| Piglets! |
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| Josh starting a trend with the Haitian kids. At least he admits he's not cool. |
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| Vote for Pedro! We taught them how to do the Little Rascals wave. |
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| The bathroom! |
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| The women planting coffee |
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Since I lost my camera, I didn't have any pictures. All of these pictures came from my wonderful team! Great pictures guys! Hopefully at our final team meeting, I will be able to get some more to post!
I also want to thank everyone, again, for your support. I wish words were enough to tell you how grateful I am! We just purchased our plane tickets for the South Africa trip and I couldn't be more excited!! That means I'm going on both trips! I'm blessed beyond belief.
