Friday, June 8, 2012

Haiti Mission Trip Day 7 -- Mission Accomplished


We rose on our last full day at Ecole St. Barthélémy to enjoy the flag ceremony for a final time. The children sang "How Great Thou Art" in either French or Creole and we were thrilled to recognize the tune. At breakfast, we enjoyed bread for the first time in several days (after likely depleting the supply ourselves) topped with the sweet homemade honey we've all come to love.

We planned to tour the northeastern part of Haiti at some point during the day, including a jatropha farm known as a pepinye, the town of Phiaton and Fort-Liberté. At breakfast we received the news that our adventure would not be until the afternoon, so we had another leisurely break. Several people napped, read or played cards, while some interacted with the children at the school.

After lunch, we loaded into the tap-tap and began our journey. We drove first to Fort-Liberté, where we drove through the town and out to Fort St. Joseph, which sat on the rocky coast of Liberté Bay by the Atlantic Ocean. All four of our youth shed their shoes and dipped their feet in the astonishingly clear water. We then walked around the fort and climbed to the top, where you could see the ocean all around.

We headed from there to one of the jatropha pepinyes, where we saw how the plants are grown in rows and relaxed for a minute under the only two trees in sight. Afterwards, we drove over to see the building where the Haitians train people to farm the jatrophas. Here, we saw several piles of shells and beans. A few of the youth retrieved beans from their shells and sorted them into the appropriate piles.

We piled back into the tap-tap and rode over to the beach at Phiaton, where Gary and Adrian had visited on their trip to Haiti eighteen months ago. At that time the area was doing very poorly, suffering from a loss of tourist activity. The people were very desperate and the beaches were almost completely empty.

We arrived at a gate constructed since that time and were surprised that they asked for an entrance fee. Our interpreter, Edward, negotiated a fair price. We drove in to find what Adrian called a "Haitian Fort Lauderdale." He and Gary were thrilled to see that the area was thriving. Many people were swimming in the water and structures had been constructed -- all great news for the people in Phiaton. Again, several of us dipped our feet in and we enjoyed a few minutes observing the area.
With our spirits lifted, we headed to our last stop to see how the jatropha plants are placed in a machine where the juice is removed. We were excited to learn about how each part of the plant is used somehow, whether to create the biodiesel or for another integral process.

Unfortunately, when we arrived we were unable to see the machinery, but Adrian and Gary shared the information with us and we will look at pictures from their last trip during our down time at the airport tomorrow.

When we returned we ate dinner and shared our nightly devotion, then broke into small groups and talked about what we will take away from this trip. Many of us talked about how much we learned about the culture here and how excited we are to bring our newfound passion for Haiti back to Athens to share with all of you.

We are excited to return home tomorrow to family, friends and air conditioning, but the departure is bittersweet leaving the people we have come to love here. We hope to continue our relationships with them and will always remember our time spent in Haiti.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Haiti Mission Trip Day 6 -- One Fish, Two Fish, Stinky Fish...Ewww, Fish


Today, we helped feed 160 families in a nearby, secluded village called Patrico, and then returned to Ecole St. Barthélémy to serve another 200 families.  We rode in a tap-tap to the village and had to deal with the wonderful smell of the fish we packed the day before.  During our ride, we had to avoid branches smacking us in the head as we drove down narrow, dirt road.  The people at Patrico were very appreciative of the bag of rice, two bags of spaghetti and fish we passed out.  Unfortunately, we only brought 134 food bags, but handed out 160 tickets for families to get food.  Even though we were short, the people in Patrico never seemed upset.  The people of Patrico gathered around us as we were heading out and all thanked us for helping to provide for them.  A couple people, including the local pastor, rode back to Ecole St. Barthélémy to get the extra food.

On the way back from Patrico, before we arrived at Ecole St. Barthélémy, we stopped at Peré Bruno's farm to help water his cattle.  Peré Bruno had purchased some mangos for our group and then we washed them and enjoyed the sweet, juicy fruit.  We returned to the school and helped distribute food to local families.  Several of the families coming to receive food have students in the school.  It was nice to see the children outside of their uniforms and school discipline.  People trickled in all afternoon turning in their tickets to receive their bag of food.  During our down time, we played some cards and enjoyed each other's company.  We also played with Lulu, the four year-old boy who lives with Peré Bruno and his wife.

We had an afternoon of leisure.  After dinner, we walked into town for some ice cold Coca-Cola, which happened to be Will's first ever Coke.

We ended our evening as we do every night, with a devotion studying the Bible examining a different passage involving light imagery.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Haiti Mission Trip Day 5 -- Bumpity-Bump Bump


Question: Of the following people, who was able to walk the 7 kilometers to the top of the Citadel: a varsity football player, a dancer, a soccer player, a trumpeter in the marching band, a 77 year old doctor, 3 moms or a girl who ran three miles before coming to Haiti?  Answer: NONE!  It was the youth director who was able to handle it.  Nine people rode horses to the top of the Citadel while one walked.  We spent most of the morning getting to the top, bouncing on the very bumpy road.  We rode to the Citadel in a tap-tap (the local taxi where people literally hang off the side and tap the roof to let the driver know they want off), riding in the back, getting bounced around on the unpaved road.  Then we bounced some more on the way to the top of the Citadel.

After we arrived at the top, we toured this old fort, built in the early 1800s.  We learned the history of the building and enjoyed the great views.  You literally could see for miles in any direction, so we were able to see most of Haiti from the top.  The view was stunning!  We enjoyed our guided tour and lunch in the Citadel before heading back down.  The horse ride down was more uncomfortable than going up due to the steep angle and the bumpity-bump  bump that the horse riders experienced.

When we returned to Terrier Rouge, we helped pack food bags for our food distribution tomorrow.  We packed bags of rice, spaghetti, and fish, breaking down 110 pound bags of rice and boxes of salted fish.  We will visit a small village and distribute food to those in need.  We will also distribute food at the school for the village of Terrier Rouge.  Apparently, the village has been recently hit by hard times and there is a shortage of food.  We will help with the food distribution tomorrow.

Today was a wonderful adventure up to the Citadel, back down, and even packing food afterwards.  We enjoyed the trip today but not the bumps and bruises.  We look forward distributing food tomorrow and interacting with the locals.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Haiti Mission Day 4 -- A Different Shade of Blue


Yesterday afternoon, after the blog was posted, we had an impromptu soccer game with several of the local children who attend the school.  We brought a soccer ball with us and brought it out to play with six children.  We divided up and had a couple Americans on one team and a couple on the other and had several Haitian children on each.  Communication with teammates was difficult, but everyone understood "pass" and "match" to begin or continue the game.  We played for at least an hour with our Haitian friends, enjoying many laughs and many high-fives.  Almost everyone on both teams scored (sorry, Will Corry), including Sara Cotton scoring one of her two goals on Adrian.

The match was a great experience for everyone involved and a great way to get to know some of the children.  We saw some of the same kids Tuesday morning and wanted to play more soccer.

On Tuesday morning, we had the opportunity to observe the kindergarten classes and participate with the children as they worked on writing.

After lunch, we finished painting the inside of the clinic that we were instructed to paint.  As it turns out, we were able to paint more than anticipated.  Near the end of the our painting, several Haitian children came to the clinic to see us and we wound up playing different games (tag, hand games and other things children enjoy).  Several of the hand games (patty-cake type games) were the same rhythm and cadence as we enjoy in the states.  The children also tried to teach us "The Macarena" and were surprised when we knew what they were doing.  Beth taught some of the children "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" and they laughed so much at her performance.  Several of the youth gave piggy-back rides to the children and the children in turn gave flowers to a couple of our girls.

Words cannot describe the fun and excitement we had today.  We look forward to uploading pictures and videos upon our return home.  Until then, envision our youth playing games with Haitian children!

Monday, June 4, 2012

Haiti Mission Trip Days 2 and 3


Yesterday, we had a great walk through the village and saw a lot of the area that is helped by the school and clinic.  Gary Fleming saw several people that he knew from his previous trips and would up sharing pictures he took of them last time he was here.

Later in the afternoon, we watched a soccer match between the day school in Terrier Rouge and a rival school.  The game was a very one-sided, with the home team winning 7-1.  It was great to see the school spirit.  Many children from the community came out to cheer their team to victory.  The soccer field was cleaned up, nets installed and lines marked off.  Both teams came with a lot of energy, but the students from Ecole St. Barthélémy were bigger, stronger and faster.  The match was fun to watch and fun to cheer on the home team.

Today (Monday, June 4) we watched the opening ceremony for the school.  It is always fun to watch the children line up and say the Lord's Prayer and Psalm 23, then sing the Haiti national anthem.  The band played really well and with confidence as hundreds of children and adults sang along with them.

After lunch, we helped paint the clinic (Clinique Espérance et Vie).  We were asked to paint a hallway blue.  The walls had three different shades of blue on them already and we were given two more shades of blue to use.  We wound up painting the walls only one color of blue.  We spent a couple hours working and will come back tomorrow to continue to paint more in the clinic.  We cannot paint when there are patients in the clinic, so we have to wait until the hottest part of the day to do our work.

Speaking of the hottest part of the day, we all have struggled with the heat.  It is really hot and sticky during the day, but no one is really complaining about the heat.  We are drinking plenty of water and trying to stay cool, but that is more a challenge than we would like since there is no AC in any of the rooms.  The school is even beginning and ending an hour earlier to account for the heat.

We are excited about our work and ministry in northern Haiti and are looking forward to continuing to soak up the culture.  Please continue to pray for us as we continue to seek to follow God's call on our lives.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Haiti Mission Trip Day One -- We Made It!


Our travel to Haiti took an interesting turn.  Normally we travel from Atlanta to Port-au-Prince on a commercial airline and then pick up a local twin properaller plane from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitian.  Just to make our lives more entertaining, the small airline made a new policy that you have to purchase tickets in advance which we did not do.  As it turns out, we had to drive from Port-au-Prince to Terrier Rouge.  Our 45 minute flight turned into a seven and a half hour drive through windy, bumpy, unpaved roads.  During our drive, unfortunately, three people got sick.  (Just for the record, none of the four guys had trouble, but half of the women did.  Draw your own conclusions from that....)

We began Sunday morning with a wonderful worship service led by Pere Bruno, who spoke recently at First Presbyterian Church of Athens.  Several youth recognized him from the worship service back home.  We spoke about Nicodemus and the transformation he experienced through his talks with Jesus.  We related that to our transformations of our experiences and perceptions of Haiti.

Later today, we hope to walk through Terrier Rouge and see some of the local village.  We are excited  about our time in this place and look forward to learning more about the Haitian culture.

Please pray for us as we continue our journey.  We hope to keep you updated on our travels and experiences.  Please feel free to comment below.