Haiti Day #2

Me writing to you is a form of keeping a diary for me as well. Wow. Today we went to the children's hospital and to horse therapy. I got up around 5:30 due to a shrieking dying rooster and one of the kids screaming. It wasn't just me though because most of us woke up then. We had eggs, toast, mango, pineapple, and watermelon for breakfast. It was DELICIOUS. After, we sorted out our donations, we went to horse therapy. On the way there, I was taking a picture in the bus of a truck full of coke-a-cola driving by when all of the sudden a kid runs up to my window and grabs my camera. He would have gotten it but I had the band around my wrist. Ah ha! Thank goodness! I almost got the camera stolen out of my hands! We went with three of the disabled children from Gertrude's to their weekly session of horse therapy. We brought "the screamer" which was a disabled kid that could only communicate by screaming and woke us up that morning, he was still awesome. Also, a beautiful girl named Rosie in a wheel chair. They had a blast riding, but Maddie (another team member) and I were both feeling a bit weird and we just wanted to be home. The horse ranch was also a little weird because it is located in the middle of Port-Au-Prince and everything outside is not exactly "together" but when you go past the gates into the ranch, it is super nice. It was obviously a place for the wealthy of Haiti because they spoke French. Generally, the wealthier speak French and the poor speak Creole. It's such a system that the wealthy won't even allow their children to learn Creole. We came back to the orphanage for lunch and Maddie and I went downstairs (where the kids are) and we sat on the couch with a man named Pierre. He lives near the orphanage and hangs around there. He makes bracelets, paintings, etc. and sells them for a living. He speaks decent English so we pay him to translate for us. He has only been to the Dominican Republic. While we were chatting, I was holding one of the boys and he had a boil on his head. A few of them have one actually. There is a girl from Ohio here and she just graduated from college and is staying with Gertrude for 6-7 months. She also sported a fine boil on her forehead. It looked extremely painful and we all felt bad for her. There was also a man there that was adopting one of the boys from the orphanage. He is from Michigan.

Let me tell you about the children's hospital... It was a little heartbreaking but beautiful. There were tons of babies lying in rows and rows of beds. All of them were very tiny. Their limbs are bone thin, I kept comparing them to American babies and how much bigger the babies in the US of A are. When you picked them up, all you could feel was their rib cage and they would just snuggle up against you and sleep. When you put them down, some of them would cry. We were told they were supposed to cry, and that if they didn't, it was actually a bad thing - symbolizing that their lungs weren't strong enough. Their cry wasn't like the American baby cry - which is a scream. I held onto one girl the whole time and she slept and rested her left hand on my chest. Most of the babies had soaking wet diapers. Some of them had brown hair - signifying that they are malnourished . One baby was so malnourished that I couldn't pick him up because he didn't have the strength for me to lift him underneath his arms. All of the babies ranged from 1-2 years old, but looked more like newborns or even premature. One of the babies at the orphanage is at the childrens hopital right now. They found her abondoned in June. They said her parents abondoned her at the hospital because they couldnt afford the cost. She has third degree burns all over her head and left side because a candle fell into her crib. She was missing her fingers on her left hand and was a little deformed without any hair on her left side. It was so sad and we are all praying for her recovery! (Writing this in the future, she is all better now!) Some of the kids at the orphanage had a fever today. So we weren't able to go to the childrens hospital yesterday because there was a cholera outbreak but it was clear today. The strangest thing happened! We drove to look at where the old guest house was and we ran into the girl I sat by on th plane who was moving here! 

That night, Gertrude told is where she was during the earthquake. She happened to be in the basement of the guesthouse while everything collaped (BUT THE BASEMENT!) Thank you Jesus! No one else happened to be in the guest house at the time. She said it was the scariest thing to ever happen because no one even understood what an earthquake was. The last one was over 150 years ago. It's crazy. For dinner we had spaghetti and it was great! Spaghetti is one of my least favorite foods, but after a hard, emotional day, any food tasted good.

The biggest change I have noticed in myself is that I just don't care anymore. I don't care about what I eat, or look like, or smell like. At least here anyways. After dinner, we did devotions on the roof and Gertrude told us how she came to start the orphanage and all that jazz. Very interesting, at least all the part's that I heard! It was very noisy. It is amazing how God works on mission trips. Just amazing. We are going to the beach this Saturday and that could be a long ride through the country. I am making friends and the two girls from New York. This experience is off to a good start!

Haiti Day #1

Brief info: I am travelling to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti with a group of people from my church. There are 10 of us total. We are staying in an orphanage called Gertrude's Orphanage. More than half the kids living there have special needs and are taken care of by nannies that Gertrude, the owner of the orphanage, pays. Our team leader, Lindsey, has been to Haiti eleven times since 2006 and she has made some pretty great connections in the Port-Au-Prince area. We have an awesome bus driver named Leonard and there will be a man named Pierre who will accompany us wherever we go, translating and enjoying the sites. Here is a view of my first day in Haiti.

We flew from Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport to Chicago, then Chicago to Miami. The flights all went well but on the last flight from Miami to Port-Au-Prince, I got on board to find that a woman and her child took my seat, so I sat on the other side of them (I was originally supposed to have a window seat). The child was getting pretty annoying and I was a little mad that they took the window seat because I really wanted to see Haiti and the ocean and scenery, etc. So before we too off, I  looked back and saw a girl, a few years older than me, sitting with an empty seat next to her. I asked her if I could sit next to her and she said yes. Right off the bat she seemed friendly so we started talking. Turns out she is from Minnesota! She never went to college but she was 19 and was moving down to Haiti to work in ministry and with women. I believe it was God that blessed me with the opportunity to meet her. On the plane we made a list of things we were expecting to see and experience in Haiti. Right when we flew over Port-Au-Prince, all my expectations vanished. It truly is a 3rd world country. Flying over, every building was gray and falling apart. It is like Africa...I guess it pretty much is the Africa of the Western Hemisphere. Only a little greener. Buildings were hanging off cliffs and all the roads were dirt except for a few major ones. The road was complete chaos. We drove from the airport to our orphanage in a green bus (falling apart more than I pictured). Picture a wooden toy bus from the 70s. That was what it looked like. When we got into Port-Au-Prince, we waited longer than anyone else to get our bags. We couldnt find this particular camo bag (the one i origanally wanted). Well after bickering and bickering with the people there, they eventually found it. On the runway. Like...how does that even happen? Anyways, it's all fine. The thing about here is that you get bombarded with people wanting to help you; but for a tip of course. Before we left the airport, Lindsey told us we were to avoid having anyone help us so we wouldnt have to pay them. It was IMPOSSIBLE! It seemed as if there were 50 people and they all attacked us! We kept saying no, but they pushed over our bags and picked them up anyways. It was also very uncomfortable because everyone was staring at us because we are white. You have seen driving in India right? Well it is like that here. No rules and motorcycles are everywhere. Constant honking, but Lindsey told us it isn't in a mean way, but more of a way of saying hello. It's insane. I have always seen pictures of things like this but I never thought I would see it in person. The orphanage has about 50 kids and they are all so lovely. Some horror stories of where they came from of course, but we are thankful to God for their safety and security now. There was a young boy in a green shirt that everyone thought had a mental problem. Turns out he doesn't, but lived by himself in an abandoned house for most of his life and has no social skills. It makes my heart ache. I honestly thought I would see more dogs than I did, but the one's I did see were starving. There were a lot of naked little children walking around as well. Everything is a dump and we drove past a garbage pile with cattle eating in it. Cattle walk around on the road and they are so skinny. Their hipbones will give me nightmares. It is just so hopeless. I dont jnow how it could be better. But, it is so beautiful. The mountains are gorgeous and the people have so much joy, a joy I can firmly say comes from the Lord. I am sharing a room with Maddie (another girl my age on the trip) and Grace (11 year old) and her mom Jennifer. After getting to the orphanage the only thing my mind seemed to be able to focus on was the question of "how in the heck am I going to be able to get through the next week?" I have no clue. For dinner we ate some weird beef and mashed potatoes (I think?!) that were really yellow. Also, we were given slices of tomato with some cheese on top of it (yumm...). We then did night devotionals. Goodnight!