Haiti: Day 2

Our morning started off with hot coffee, conversation, and plenty to choose from to eat.

Then we had some hang out/picture time in the courtyard waiting for Kyle and the girls to arrive.

"It's gonna be good!  It's gonna beeee gooood!"  Thank goodness for Nathan!

In the back with my bus buddy!

There is one road into Leveque.  A one lane, bumpy, dirt road.  Major props to Roby for getting us in and and out of there everyday!

When we arrived we realized church had already started.  Eek!  As soon as we stepped off the bus the children came running.  These were the kids who were not already in church.  The little guy I'm holding below had on nothing but that yellow tank top.  His friend grabbed ahold of Dana.  Little did they know we were used to stinkers like them!  After about 15 min. of sitting quietly in church, boys will be boys and they got bored.  Even though we spoke no Creole and they no English, the look of a teacher is universal!  At then end of the service one of the men looked at Dana's boy and said, "Trouble."  Ha!

Same hairdo!

That's "Trouble" leaning out in the photo above. 

After church the kids who had flocked to us scattered.  The kids who were there with their families hung around while the adults chatted.  Just like church here!  These kids were all in their church clothes and it was neat to me to see that these families saw the importance of going to church on Sunday morning.  I tried to "talk" to some of them.  I wasn't very successful past smiling.  I would have liked to have know some Creole before traveling.  If you plan to go to Haiti I recommend learning some!

A new church building is being built on a hill.  It was lovely up there to look on either side and see all the houses.  And how meaningful that the church will be on a hill in the middle of all of it.  We gathered here to pray over it all.

Cute stuff on the right is totally posing!  Could you not eat them up!?

Here is what the homes in Leveque look like.  I LOVE those bright colors!

You can see the new homes being built in the foreground.  The buildings with the four doors are latrines.  The hill on the left is where the church and school will be.  We spent the afternoon prayer walking.  Dana, Nathan, and Jenna captured the shot above on their walk.  It is a great story and I'm hoping Dana will write about it (hint Dana!).

When we went home that night Kyle shared one of his many stories.  This particular story Amy had been chomping at the bit for us to hear. 

You will have to read about it in his book (rumor has it that there will be one) or ask me because it is too long to type, but it has to do with that tattoo around his leg.

Day 2 was awesome and we had no idea of the awesomeness that was still to come in Haiti!

A great shot taken on the balcony by Dana of the soccer field across the street from our guest house.  God was all over this trip!

Haiti: Day 1 Comes to a Close

After leaving Part au Prince we headed about 45 minutes north to the city of Caborat where our guest house was located.  It was very nice! 

We women shared two bedrooms downstairs each with 3 bunk beds.  Dana and I were bunk mates and shared a room with Kathy, Terri, and Chris.  Another lady, Kat, was already settled in when we arrived.  She will be working in Leveque for 5 weeks.  She is highly skilled at deaf ministry and will be a huge asset to Kyle and his team.  

I loved girl time with these women!

In between these two bedrooms was a bathroom with a shower.  I preferred one of the two outdoor showers though.  At night it was so nice to wash away the sweat and dirt even if I did start sweating again shortly after getting clean!

Upstairs the guys shared two bedrooms and a bathroom.  Frankie and our driver, Roby, also shared a room upstairs.  The kitchen was also upstairs and the sweet ladies who cooked for us pulled mattresses out onto the open room just inside the upstairs balcony to sleep.  There was also a night guard who slept during the day in another small house on the compound. 

 

The food was wonderful all week.  We were so fortunate to have such a nice place to recharge each day.  The ladies had made everything look so nice for our arrival.  

After dinner each day, we would gather together for a time of worship, sharing, and prayer.  This was one of my most favorite things of the whole trip.  God really revealed to me how important community like this is.  I need relationships.  I'm so thankful for each person on the Dream Team!

Finally, it was time for Day 1 to come to a close.  We had been up for 20 hours and it was time to crash!  Although we had no air conditioning the fans in our rooms kept things bearable.  That is until about midnight when we woke up sweating to the noises of the barking dogs and thumping club music.  The generator had shut off.  It had been drowning out all of the night noises.  It is probably a good thing that we were just so tired because eventually we all fell back asleep.  (After making a fuss in true American women fashion!)  We needed our rest because Day 2 was going to be our first trip into Leveque!

Haiti: More Day 1

We loaded the bus and headed out.  As I mentioned, Amy was the only one who had ever been to Haiti before.  The rest of us were shell shocked by that night.

Pictures do not do it justice, friends.  And I know this.  For years I have looked at pictures on my computer screen of impoverished places.  I'm accustomed, no strike that, I'm numb to such images almost.  But, this was the first time seeing poverty with my own eyes.  There.  Real.  Oh my gosh, it is real.  And it hit me.  Hard.  To know my son, my son, came from a place similar to what I was seeing outside of my bus window rocked my world.  Seriously, why is this okay, people?  Their houses are made of tin and tarps and plywood.  There is no sanitaition system.  There is no sewage system.  And I sit here is my temperature controlled house with x number of rooms with running water and electricity and a pool in the backyard that is used for recreation.  What the what.  Friends, it is a blessing that you were born in America.  I know you know that, right?  Our rich people problems, (and you know you're rich, too, right?) make me sick to my stomach sometimes.

As we left the airport, we headed to La Piste, a temporary Salvation Army community that is doing little good to help the people in Haiti.  Oh, did I say that out loud?  Anyway, we were headed there to do what I love to do most-love on people.

Deaf Haitians, like others with differences in any part of the world, have been sent to the margins.  Outcast.  Pushed aside.  Not given a second thought.  Kyle and 410 Bridge are trying to build up the deaf community in this area by helping them move out of La Piste and into Leveque where each family would have a home and land.  Many challenges go along with that goal.  Please read about all of it in Kyle's blog.

La Piste is truly the least of these.  I'll talk more about it when I get to Day 5 as we spent our entire day there, but on this particular day we got to spend about an hour meeting some of the deaf leaders, learning some sign language, and witnessing some of the need of Haiti first hand.

It was very neat to hear some of the deaf leaders' stories.  Solomon (My favorite-so sweet and so handsome!) shared his via Elizabeth and also made us practice our signing!  Some of us got name signs this afternoon.  A name sign is given to you by a deaf person and is quite an honor!  My name sign is the letter S held to my cheek rolling the wrist twice.  After our lesson, it was time to head on.  Anywhere we went during the week we always headed home about 3:30 as it is not the best idea to be out once it gets dark.

To be continued...