Day 7. It’s our final day here on the island, and I can’t believe the week went by so fast! Our leader, Bruce, told us at the beginning of the week that the days would be long but the week would go fast, and that couldn’t have been more true. The days did get long and somewhat hot, but the week flew by. We spent the morning doing a little more touring of the town. We walked down to the market to see what that was all about. They have everything at the market from clothes to shoes to fruit and food to machetes. You really can get everything you need here at the market, but the people have to have the money to be able to buy the items, many of which don’t have. Each person who has a stand at the market sets up their shop on a wooden table-like platform with a canopy over the top. There were hundreds of different shops set up and the market went on forever it seemed! After the market, we stopped into the grocery store. The grocery store was very small and crammed, but had many of the items you would find in a US grocery store. Bread, boxed/packaged goods, diapers, etc. There was a security guard out front of the store and you were not allowed to bring any bags into the store. After our morning, we packed up our things and headed towards the main island to begin our trek home. We loaded our luggage into the pickup, loaded ourselves into the pickup, and drove to the boat dock. We then loaded ourselves and our luggage into the boat to take us to the main island. Remember my day 1 post about the garbage?! It was the same on the way home. The captain of our boat had to stop at least 5+ times because the intake was getting plugged with garbage. The ride back to the main island was a bit more rough than coming over, but we made it! When we arrived at the boat dock, we got into the van and headed for the airport. The van ride got long. Again, it was a lot of stop and go just like on the way here. It took about an hour and a half to get to the airport. We checked in, went through customs, went through 3 different security checks, and finally made it to our terminal. We boarded our plane, took off, landed on US soil in Atlanta, then to Sioux Falls where I was surprised by my husband and dad! It felt so good to be home. This experience is something I won’t forget, and a place that I will hold in my heart. I’ve never experienced something so eye opening and life changing. It’s amazing what a week of poverty and limited resources changes your perspective on life and how you live. There are many things I start to complain about at home and then I take a step back and remember that I have it much better off than many people in this world. I am forever grateful for this opportunity, and I hope to go back in the near future.
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This morning we worked at the school. Today was our last day at the school. Remember yesterday when we told the kids to bring their books back to school? Well, most of them remembered, and we read the books to the kids one class at a time. Let me remind you that the kids and people at the school speak Creole, so we had to have a translator with us to read the books. We would read a page, then the translator would translate, and we would continue reading the book page by page. The kids were excited to have us read to them, and they were excited to see what was happening in the story as we went through the book. After reading to each class, we played with the kids. We blew bubbles, threw frisbees, and just hung out. The 3rd grade teacher was gone today, so we really helped to entertain the 3rd grade class for the day. Most of the boys played soccer, and a few girls played frisbee. I never knew how much fun a frisbee from the $1 section at Target could be, but I played with a little girl for over 30 minutes. It’s amazing to see that what we consider “just another toy” is pure fun and joy for someone who doesn’t have toys. Before school was out, one of the guys on our team, Caleb, flew his drone over the school while the kids watched. It brought so much joy to their faces and our faces when the drone flew up to the sky. The kids have never seen a drone before, and to watch them try and figure out what was happening was so entertaining! Once the kids were told that the drone was taking their photo, they got even more excited. They swarmed Caleb to see themselves on camera. Such a fun and exciting morning for us and for the kids. We headed back to the house for lunch, and when we arrived, there were Haitian vendors starting to set up their items for sale on the front lawn. After we ate lunch, we were able to go down and buy souvenirs from the vendors. The rest of the afternoon was filled with more down time, supper, and then another movie night. Tonight’s movie was The Jungle Book. When we got there, the church was again packed with kids. We again helped the cooks make and bag up the popcorn. We filled over 200 bags of popcorn, and everyone in the church got some! Yeah! The movie lasted until 8:00. At that time, everything was shut down and it was time for the kids to go home as it was their curfew. The kids went home, and so did we. One thing that I found so interesting about the Haitian culture is that the kids are able to come to events like this without their parents. I just think of how us as parents in the US would react if we let our kids go to events by themselves at the age of 5-6 years old. Overall, another great day being able to serve God and the people of Haiti by doing things that are so small to us, but so big to them. Today was such an eventful day! There were many opportunities to see God work though our team in Haiti today.
We started the morning with breakfast, hotdogs and spaghetti, of course! We then loaded into the back of our pickup in route to Zetwa. Zetwa is a small village about 7 miles from Anse-a-Galets. To get to Zetwa, we drove on a trail like road, which took about an hour. If you have ever been to the Black Hills of South Dakota, or ATV trail riding through the mountains in general, that is what our ride to Zetwa was like. Lots of rocks, water, and a very bumpy ride. Once we arrived, we walked on a short trail up to the Hello Doctor clinic. This is the same clinic that Dr. William has in the lower level of his house. He services this clinic each week. There were lots of women and elderly folks who were sitting outside of the clinic waiting for the items they were about to receive. Before handing out the items, we sorted clothing, personal hygiene items, shoes, etc., and made rice and bean food bags. When all of our items were sorted and the food bags were made up, the people were able to come into the clinic and pick out a few clothing/hygiene items and they were given a food bag on their way out. The people who came to the giveaway received 2-4 items and a food bag, which is not nearly enough, but it is our hope that it will help them to get by a little bit longer. The people were so appreciative of what they had been given, even if it wasn’t much. It makes my heart hurt thinking back to this day and how poor these people are, but how appreciative and happy they are with life. After our giveaway was over, we loaded back into the pickup and headed back down the bumpy road to the school. By the time we got to the school, the kids only had about 30-45 minutes of class left for the day. We didn’t play with them much today, but we did hand out books to each child at the school. A woman from Watertown so graciously donated children’s books that she had written. She made sure there were enough books for each child at the school. The children were excited to receive a new book! We told them to bring their books back tomorrow and we would read it to them! When school was over, the bus was there today to take the kids home. The kids packed into the bus, and when I say packed, I mean packed! The kids were crammed in this bus…definitely not like the US where each child has to be seated while the bus is moving!! We waved goodbye to the kids, they took off, and we loaded into our pickup. As we started driving down the road back to the house, we started to notice a few kids in RMI school uniforms walking on the road. Then we came upon the bus driver, Mr. B, flagging us down for a ride. We picked him up and asked what happened to the bus…it ran out of gas! This seems like a typical relaxed, go with the flow, Haitian thing to me…not checking for gas before you drive the bus! So Mr. B rode with us back to the house. But as we were driving, we came upon more kids from RMI who were now walking home. The kids saw Mr. B in the back of our pickup and were so mad at him for riding with us! They started chewing him out for catching a ride instead of walking! Even though they were shouting in Creole and we couldn’t understand a word they were saying, it was one of the most entertaining events of the whole week! I am reminded that a kid is a kid everywhere you go. Once we got back to the house, we ate lunch and had a bit of downtime before eating supper and hosting our movie night. The students at RMI were invited to come to the Methodist Church, watch The Lion King, and eat popcorn. When we arrived at the church, there were many kids there already waiting for the movie to start. It took a little bit to get everything set up and the movie showing, but once the movie was going, the kids were so engrossed in the movie. Many of these kids have no form of television or movies, and limited electricity, so this is a big deal for them! While the movie was playing, we went out and helped the cooks make the popcorn. The popcorn was made over a charcoal fire. They poured oil and popcorn seeds into big kettles, stirred it, and let it pop. Once it was popped, they poured it into big bowls, salted it, and we bagged it up. We made 150 bags of popcorn this evening, and did not have enough for everyone who came to the movie. Another heartbreaking moment for the kids who didn’t get popcorn, but I know for the kids who did receive popcorn, it may have been their only meal for the day. Like I said in the beginning, today was a very eventful day. Many glimpses of God throughout our whole day! A few Day 4. I can't believe we are half-way through the week! This morning we went out to the school again. We touched up the gate that we painted yesterday, and also painted the fence posts to match the color of the school. When the kids came out for recess, they immediately swarmed us, gave us hugs, and just wanted to be loved. We got out the bubbles and blew bubbles with the kids. They LOVED this! They would pop the bubbles, just like any kid in the US, and they each wanted turns trying to blow the bubbles themselves. We helped feed the kids again today, and the guys continued to work on the kitchen! The cooks are getting closer to a new kitchen each and every day! Once we were done with our projects for the morning, we headed back to the house for a bit of down time. After a restful afternoon, we took a little tour of Anse-a-Galets. Our Caribbean limo (aka. pickup) arrived, and we embarked on our tour. Our first stop was the Weslyan hospital. This compound is the only hospital on the island of LaGonave. Our next stop was the soccer field. Soccer is the preferred sport in Haiti. There are some small soccer fields on the island, but this was the main field. It is an all dirt field with goals on either side just like the United States. Our final stop was the "Saline" area of the island. This is the poorest area of the island. The government owns the land here and if the people don't have enough money to purchase their own land, they can live here. This area is closest to the water, and when the tide comes in strong, this area floods. There is Saline 1, 2, and 3. The poorest people live in Saline 3, closest to the water. Since it had rained quite a bit, we were only able to drive through Saline 1 and 2. This area was just heartbreaking. The people lived in very small houses, and often times lived with a family of 5-6 people. There is no electricity or water in any of these houses. A few people were outside of their home washing clothes. It was a small bucket with water and they were scrubbing their clothes by hand. It just really opens your eyes to how good we have it here at home. After driving through Saline, we drove past Dr. Williams new home that is being built, and then headed back to our house for the evening. It's day 3 already! This morning we got up and had some sort of soup for breakfast. This was probably my least favorite meal of the trip as it was just...interesting. Right before we left, there was a woman who was getting water from the well outside of our house. In Haiti, they collect the rain water and it dumps into a well underground about 8-10 feet deep. To get the water, they have a bucket tied onto a rope. They throw the bucket down, pull up their bucket with water and pour it into their own bucket. It's just amazing to me how hard people in Haiti have to work for their water or how far they have to walk to get water, when all we do is turn on the faucet. Once we were ready to go, we piled into the back of the pickup and drove to the school. It took about 10-15 minutes to get to the school from our house. The school, the Rob Marchand Institute, was opened this past fall and holds 113 students, grades 1-4. You can see in the photos that the second level has been started, and once completed will hold grades 5-8. Each classroom has wood-bench type tables/desks, a teacher desk, and a chalkboard. The students go to school from about 7 AM to 12:30 or 1 PM, have 1 recess break, and lunch. Today, our jobs were to help with the kitchen, paint the front gate, the backside of the school, and love on the kids! A few of us women started painting the front gate grey, while the guys helped to haul concrete into the kitchen. There are no cement trucks on the island of LaGonave, so the concrete was hand mixed. You can see in the video that the man would carefully dump the concrete and water and mix it to the right consistency. Again, it's just amazing how much manual labor there is especially when we would simply call for a cement truck and it would be delivered to us. When it was recess time, the kids were all over us. We were like magnets. They wanted to know our names, feel our skin because it was white, take pictures and see themselves, and play soccer. Shortly after recess, it was lunch time. We were able to serve the meals to the students. The students had a rice, bean, and carrot mixture for lunch. After serving the kids lunch, it was time to head back to the house for the day. We got into the pickup and as we were driving away, the kids were being let out of school. They, of course, ran after us. We lost some of the students on the way as they had to go a different direction to get home, but it was amazing to see how far some of the students have to come to get to school each day. Some of the students live pretty far away from the school and walk that far each day. There is a bus, but it has lots of troubles...definitely a need, and something to add to your prayers! Once we got back to the house, we had lunch, hung out, took a nap, and relaxed. We did not have much on the agenda this evening except to meet with the teachers and principal of the school. The teachers and principal came over to our house and we thanked them for their time and service to the school. The teachers then had a chance to give us feedback or suggestions on what they would like to see in the future at RMI. It was a very valuable meeting with lots of great insight and suggestions from the teachers and principal! Lunch: pancakes (which were amazing!), and fresh fruit Supper: rice and beans, goat, beet salad, and fish It's Sunday morning! Today we are headed to the Methodist Church service, and we will pack bags for Mothers as it is Mother's Day in Haiti today! Once we woke up and got ready, there was coffee waiting for us. The coffee here was black black! It was very good and smooth with the option to use real cane sugar as a sweetener! Breakfast was served including Haiti's famous spaghetti and hot dogs with peppers and onions, lettuce, and fruit! The fruit was so fresh here and the mangos were unbelievable! Following breakfast, our pickup arrived to take us to church. We piled into the back of the pickup bed (remember the wood boards?!) and drove down to church. It was not a far drive from the house to the church, but as we were driving, I couldn't help but think about how much I felt like royalty. Everyone we drove by would stop and look at us (because we were white) and many of the children would wave as they were so excited to see us! Once we arrived at church, we found our seats, which again were wood benches. Church was just starting when we walked in with some singing and praise band music. The church service lasted 2 hours, which is normal, and was spoken in the language of Haiti, Creole. The service consisted of many singing groups, lots of music, a message, and a woman giving her testimony. The woman who gave her testimony had been in an accident with her family. She was thanking God for saving her family in the accident. Our team was also recognized during the service for the mission work we planned to do this week. After church, we came back to the house and had lunch. Just a light lunch, a peanut butter sandwich (or Shakeology for me instead), and fruit. When we packed to come to Haiti, we were able to bring a checked bag and a carry-on. All of the items in our checked bag were donated materials (clothes, books, school supplies, hygiene items, etc.). After lunch, our team split into men and women. The women grabbed everyone's checked bag and sorted through all of the items. We had things from adult clothes to baby clothes, underwear and socks, toothbrushes and toothpaste, books, school supplies, and shoes. We sorted through the items, taking out what should go to the school, and saving some of the items for Zetwa in a few days. While we sorted and went through the items, the men were downstairs in the clinic bagging up rice and beans. The rice and beans come in big, 50 pound bags, so they scooped a container full and put the rice and beans into smaller bags for distribution. After everything was sorted, we made little care packages for 80 mothers. Each package had rice and beans, clothes, and a hygiene item(s). The mothers would arrive at 4:00, so once we were done packaging, we had a bit of downtime. Downtime today consisted of a soccer game, a good book, and a Sprite. If you know me, you know I am not a pop drinker at all! I think I drank more pop in Haiti than I have in 8 months, but I believe I can tell you the reason. It was cold! Our water came from a 5 gallon water jug, but it was not cold, just room temperature. There was a small fridge at the house with Sprite, Coca-Cola, and Limeaid (best drink ever!). Every day I seemed to find a new drink in the fridge, simply because a cold drink tasted good on a hot and humid day! Once 4:00 rolled around, we handed out the bags to the mothers. Each woman that came had a ticket they had to present, and then we gave them a bag. The women were dressed in their best clothes to receive these bags. They take so much pride in what they wear, which was so eye opening to me! People who are so poor will make sure they are wearing their best clothes for something like this. The women were so appreciative of what they had been given, which warmed my heart! Even though it wasn't much, to them, it was something that could get them by a little longer. When the Mother's Day giveaway was over, we ate supper (rice, goat, fried chicken, plantains, and lasagna), and then headed to the Mother's Day celebration at the town plaza. We walked to the celebration. As you can see in the pictures, the roads are dirt roads, the city is filled with garbage, and there are goats everywhere. There is no garbage disposal here, so everything goes on the ground. Once we arrived at the Mother's Day celebration, we waited. And waited. And waited. (We are now on Haitian time!!) The celebration was supposed to start at 3:00 pm. We arrived at 7:00 pm and the show had not stared. We stood and waited for the show to begin, and left at 7:45 pm...still no show. Haitian time! We walked back to the house and relaxed, for tomorrow we would be going to the school! The day is finally here! It's 6 A.M. and we boarded our first airplane in Sioux Falls, SD in route to Atlanta, Ga. Then we hopped on another plane and ventured from Atlanta, GA to Port au Prince, Haiti. After getting off the plane, paying our $10 entrance fee, and going through customs, we were here and swarmed by Haitian people outside of the airport wanting to take our bags to the van. Once we got to the van, our luggage was loaded and strapped to the top of the van while our team sat inside the van trying to get all of the cool air we could! We then embarked on our hour long van ride to the boat dock. After pulling out of the airport, it was clear to see that there were no street rules in Haiti. People walked in and along side the road, cars were trying to pass each other on a two lane road, and it was constant stop and go traffic. Once we arrived at the boat dock, more Haitian people were waiting to unload our luggage from the van. We walked down a steep hill and had arrived at the dock. The boat was lined with boards all the way around the perimeter as seats. Our luggage was loaded into the middle and front of the boat. We made a 2 ft. step down from the dock and found our seats on the first of many wood planks. Our boat had a captain and a man who ran the motors. I wondered why there was a man who's job was to run the motor, but very shortly I would find out. The island of LaGonave is about 14 miles from the main island, and so we embarked on the next leg of our trip. We took off at great speed and had nice water. As we got going, I noticed how much trash there was in the ocean. Bags, bottles, wrappers, you name it, there it was. As we were going along, you could hear something was wrong with the motor. This is where the motor man's job came into play! He lifted up the motor to find trash stuck in the propeller. He cleaned it out, and we continued on. This happened 4-5 times during our trip across the bay. Once we arrived to the island of LaGonave, we were again greeted by more Haitians who were willing to take our luggage. Our luggage was loaded into the back of one pickup bed, while the team loaded into another pickup bed. I bet you can't guess what our seats were made from...if you guessed wood planks, you're right! We packed in, held on tight, and headed towards the house where we would be staying for the week. Upon arrival, we hauled our luggage upstairs. We found our rooms and started to get excited about the week! The house, of Dr. William and Dr. Natalie, was very nice! As you can see in the picture, it is two levels. The bottom is the Hello Doctor clinic, and the top is where we stayed. There was a small kitchen, a living room, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, no air conditioning, and a patio where we would spend most of our downtime. After getting all settled in, a shower felt nice. The showers were cold and dripping. Even though it wasn't like what we have back home, the cold shower felt good to cool off from the warm air. We just hung out for the rest of the evening at the house, as our work would start tomorrow. Even on day 1, I was already appreciative of many things we take for granted at home. Supper: rice and beans, plantains, beet salad, coleslaw, goat with peppers and onions. |