Overwhelming...(a look back at Day 5 -Friday)

Day 5

Overwhelming….

Today we started our day at 6:00 AM enjoying a Haitian Church Service at Church on the Rock (Tent Church)!  The beautiful Haitian people welcomed us and you could feel the Holy Spirit fill the church.  This particular church holds church every day and service can last up to 4 hours.  We stayed for about an hour.  The Haitian’s have a very open and freeing way about how they worship.  Most are constantly walking up and down or in between the aisles, hands in the air, while praying either to themselves or repeating the Pastor’s words of praise.  It truly puts one in awe to watch.  I felt challenged by this as church attenders in America don’t embrace the same freeness; at least at the churches I’ve attended.  It was a wonderful experience and the view was amazing.

Then we went on a little road trip of sorts.  To say that the trip was sensory overload may be a bit of an understatement.  The sights, sounds and smells we experienced are hard to put into words.   Looking out the window of the “top top” (our transportation vehicle) was mile after mile of more people than should ever be located in a given space.  Canals and streets heaped with trash as far as the eye can see.  People going about their lives in such a way that would seem unfathomable to many of us, but for most smiles and contentment radiating from many of the faces.  Traffic that just makes you wonder how in the world these people can possibly get to where they are going (the MN zipper has not found it’s way to Haiti), yet this organized chaos seems to work and amazingly people get to their destinations unscathed.

We headed off toward Carrefour to check out where they make beautiful Einstein wooden bowls.  It’s great to see the Haitian’s being so resourceful.  They try to make the most out of everything they have and use.

We visited the La Lou Orphanage/School where we spent a beautiful afternoon with the children there.  It doesn’t take long for the children to warm up to us.  Typically they either come right up to us or as soon as we make contact with them by saying BonJou or BonSwa they are jumping into our arms.  We painted their faces (and some painted ours!), played and sang songs.  Always a little bittersweet leaving these special places, but hoping that we were able to bring a little sunshine and lots of love to their day because we know they bring lots of love to our day. 

Our last stop of the day was at the General Hospital in Port-Au-Prince.  This was truly an eye opening experience for those who have not visited hospitals of this kind before.  Being as blessed as we are in the United States, it is hard and sometimes very frustrating to take in the conditions that some must endure.  Walking into rooms filled with babies in rusted cribs and not so clean sheets can seem to us, very unfair.  But in their reality, these children are in the best possible place they have.  It was an honor to pass out little bags of supplies to the mothers and fathers sitting with their children, being able to hold these precious babies and share in the beautiful music that Jeff provided.  We are so blessed to be traveling with Jeff—it is truly amazing to see the powerful impact of music on all people!  The grateful looks on the parent’s faces were more than we could have possibly hoped for!!  Music is a universal language of love everywhere!

We ended our day sitting outside sharing pizza and fellowshipping together.  What an awesome group God brought together to Love the special people of Haiti!!!

We love you Haiti!

Hey y’all – these are the North Carolina girls (Kim, Emily, and Grace).  It’s our last night here, and our turn to write the blog, so here we go!  Tonight it rained and it was wonderful – like nature’s air conditioning in the sauna that is Haiti. 

Haiti.  That has become so much more than a noun to us this week. We’ve gone from the lowest of lows in Citi Soleil to the highest mountain tops that Haiti has to offer.  Rather than delivering water today, we shopped and bartered with street vendors, enjoying the view of Haiti from above.

This experience encompasses one of our words of the week: Two-fold.  Haiti is easily the most beautiful place we have ever seen.  The landscape is mesmerizing and the people are absolutely gorgeous.  Yet it is one of the most destitute places in the world.  Older women staggered to the truck with buckets, desperate for water and struggling to carry what little possessions they had. Naked children climbed out of metal shacks littered with trash and ran to us with arms wide open, screaming, begging to be loved.  Children found cracks in the water hose and put their mouths to it, hoping that drips of water would reach their tongues because they had no buckets to fill. 

But these children also laughed.  They smiled and squealed with delight as we played ring-around-the-rosy and London-bridges. We giggled along with them when our Creole was less than perfect. They braided our hair and we sang songs.  The women’s smiles lit up their face when we offered to help them with their buckets and give attention to their children. 

This country and the people that inhabit it are hard to explain because you cannot understand the intense beauty of these people unless you see it for yourself.  They are beautiful.  They are not trash, or useless, or hopeless or hardened – they are not what surrounds them.  But they are also not beautiful because of what surrounds them.  Being surrounded by trash and desperation and not having food and water does not make them beautiful.  They are beautiful because of what is inside them.  They are beautiful because they are humans just like you and me.  They are beautiful because they have passions and fears and hopes and dreams.  They have things that make their eyes get hard and empty with rage.  They have things that make those same eyes squint and well up with joyful tears.  They are people, and they are stunning.

            This is Haiti, a land of both great beauty and great sorrow, two-fold in a sense we weren’t really expecting. And we hate to leave it for both reasons. 

We also hate to leave our amazing team.  Minnesota and North Carolina are not as close as we would have hoped, so this is really tough.  We are going to miss:

-       The Fabulous Dana and his pink fingernails

-       Bob the Machine

-       Lois and her amazing love story (way better than ‘The Notebook’)

-       Abby with her Rapunzel hair and her dub-smashes

-       Our photo model, Kelly, who always wears her heart on her sleeve

-       Stacy (Grace’s long lost sister) and her blue skull tattoo (too bad she doesn’t take naps…)

-       Lisa W. and her mafia ruthlessness paired with her quick-witted one liners

-       Kimberly, and her matching wardrobe (and because she’s Emily’s older sister….duh)

-       Maddie, the baby of the team, who knows no language barrier

-       Jill, our team Mama, who is always taking care of everybody else

-       Tara, because she’s the cooler version of Emily (and she can jump rope in Citi Soleil)

-       Jeff, for his incredible gift of music (“Hey Jeff, do you know a song…I think it’s called Deep?”)

-       Lisa, the ultimate tour guide, for her encouraging smile and her willingness to help in any way.

WE LOVE YOU HAITI AND WE LOVE YOU MINNESOTANS!!!

Hands and Feet of Jesus

Day 6

Dana and Bob here. Hello from Haiti. We are two of three men in our group and first-time goers.

Today was our second water truck day that brought us back to Cite Soleil, which we’ve learned is poorest slum in the Western Hemisphere. The area holds 300,000 residents covering a three square mile radius. Most of the people of Cite Soleil live in extremely small structures made of primarily sheet metal. While the conditions are poor, the people are incredible — especially the children.

When first stepping off the Tap Tap, we are greeted by a swarm of children looking for nothing more than love and attention. We delivered water to two separate locations today, at both stops the team were the hands of feet of Jesus sharing our time, love, playfulness and faith.  We held and interacted with all the kids and adults we came in contact with, played games, sang with, helped carry water containers back to their homes.  The picture above was taken in one of those homes we delivered water too. 

While most of the houses in Cite Soleil are made of metal, our second stop today was in an area where the residents reside in two-story concrete structures. We were told that these properties were built in the past few years by the Haitian government. One of our team members had a chance to peak inside one of the homes and stated that the it was well-maintained and spacious. It was a very pleasant surprise to see that amongst the devastation, the living conditions in this area were so decent.

Upon our return from Cite Soleil we had the opportunity to play with the boys that live around the Guest House and also listen to the amazing songs from our group leader and an amazing 14 year-old Haitian girl named Loutchina.

For many of us, this was a bittersweet day. This marked our final day of serving n the field and second to last day in Haiti. The week has gone by so fast, and while home and family are deeply missed, there is a sense that we haven’t had enough time. Haiti is a hard place to leave.   Each of us has a special bond with Haiti that came from all the interactions we have made with everyone we encountered.  Our hearts have been touched by the people of Haiti as have all of the people we have come in contact with every day.

Beauty and Transformation

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Day # 3 of amazing opportunities to SERVE!

There are many words to share today some which are almost indescribable; however, two in particular that resonate: beauty and transformation. 

We were able to visit Grace Village, do Elder Visits and, along with the transition boys from Grace Village, we handed out ‘Feed My Starving Children’ manna-packs to the Haitians around Titanyen. 

Transformation was seen at Grace Village with some of the children since last year.  They have been transitioned to family style housing almost one year ago.  This family style housing has rejuvenated Grace Village and you can see new beginnings and promising futures for these children. 

We were able to visit three elder homes after our visit to Grace Village.  We washed their hands and feet, rubbed them with lotion, delivered them a meal, prayed and worshiped along side them.  The JOY that was felt between those walls was beautiful!

Today brought a sense of healing, hope and inspiration in a broken country. 

- Kimberly Flemino & Tara Halverson