I'm back from Haiti and I have been for almost a month now. I've been thinking about sitting down to write a blog about it, but I am still trying to process everything that I saw while I was in Haiti. While Haiti was a life changing experience, I started learning more about myself even before I ever stepped foot in Haiti. While most of you know, I had to send out support letters to help fund this mission. This was an extremely scary thing for me to do, as I hate to ask people for money. I had to put my pride aside and realize that I would not be able to go on this journey without financial help and more importantly prayer. Throughout this process I learned a lot about my faith and how I was not trusting God 100%. I was stressed about getting enough money, and finally after talking with my mom, I realized I had to let all of the worries go and that God would take care of me. In the end, God was there for me, like he always is and always will be.
I was in Haiti from May 29 - June 5 and I stayed at the Mission of Hope Haiti, if you have extra time you should really check out this amazing organization. Even though we had team meetings before the trip, I was still unsure of what all we would be doing and I really did not know what to expect. As I sit and try to think how to best capture my experience in a way that you will understand, I think maybe the best way is to include some excerpts from my journal and some pictures... so here goes:
Saturday May 29: Day #1...My day started around 1:30 in the AM! Those of you who know me know that I needed to do so me last minute packing before we had to meet at the Church at 3:30. We left OKC around 6 am and flew to DFW, DFW to Miami, and then Miami to Port-au-Prince.
The flight from Miami to Port-au-Prince was only about an hour and a half long. The view from the air was absolutely breathtaking!!
The flight went by really fast as we were all preparing ourselves for what our eyes were about to see over the next week. The plane was filled with Americans going to serve in Haiti, even some of the U.S. Army was onboard. As we were descending, the pilot came over the intercom and recognized each organization on the plane and told us all how grateful he was for us, it was awesome to hear and everyone started cheering!! As we were getting closer, I looked out the windows of the plane, and Haiti was absolutely beautiful. There were mountains everywhere, which was something I totally did not expect to see! Unfortunately, as we were getting closer to landing, now all I could see was blue & white tents everywhere. It hit me right then, for the first time, that I was about to be in Haiti.
Around 5 p.m., after over 12 hours of traveling, we arrived in Port-au-Prince (PAP). There wasn't much of an airport and we had to take a shuttle to customs/ baggage claim.
Note: Do not take pictures in baggage claim/customs in Haiti or you will get in trouble, trust me i know.
All of the guys went to find our luggage while the girls stood off to the side and waited. While walking out of baggage claim we all had to surround the carts so that people didn't try to take them from us (Haitians wanted to carry them for us so that we would have to tip them). It is difficult to describe but walking out of baggage claim was possibly the scariest moment I have ever experienced. It was the first time that I was in a place that I did not understand what was being said or what was going on. The walkway was made of rocks, which made it impossible to push the luggage on the cart. There were 3 of us per cart and about 8 pieces of luggage per cart. We start pushing the carts and as we are going down the path the carts all tip over and luggage starts going everywhere. We are just each trying to grab as much luggage as we possibly can carry. We get to the end of the walkway and now we have to start walking a couple of blocks down the road to meet the bus. As we are walking I look in front of me and behind me and see that the closest familiar face is about 40 feet away. There are people everywhere and I will never forget as I am walking down the road, a lady in a taxi uniform is walking and trying to go in front of me. I stopped and was planning on letting her go in font of me. All of a sudden she says "STOP! STOP! THIS IS MY COUNTRY!!" For just that one moment I thought maybe this is a bad idea, maybe I shouldn't be here, maybe this isn't safe like people back home said. Thankfully, I gathered myself and realized I needed to stay calm and just get to the bus.
I finally get to where the bus is and there are people begging us for money. It was devastating, because I just wanted to give some of them money but then I knew I didn't have enough for everyone. All the women had to hurry and get on the bus while the men waited with the luggage outside. We had to wait for over thirty minutes on the bus while we were waiting on the luggage truck to arrive. Once it arrived we started making our way to the Mission of Hope (MOH), which was about a 45 minute bus ride.
While we didn't get to see a lot of Port-au-Prince on this ride, in that 45 minutes I saw things that I have never seen before. Most people in PAP are currently living in tent cities. There are hundreds if not thousands of tents grouped together everywhere throughout PAP. The thing that amazed me the most was how much trash was everywhere in the city, apparently they do not have a trash system in Haiti. As we were driving we saw a tent city named "Obamaville" and there was an endless amount of tents all over the side of the mountain.
I started getting emotional throughout the ride because I couldn't even begin to imagine living in conditions like this. Next we came to the mass grave which was on the side of the mountain. There was a cross marking where over 220,000 people were buried after the earthquake. Seeing all of this was a lot for me to process in such a short amount of time.
Finally we arrived to the MOH and saw where we would be staying! While it seemed like a shack to me (with no air conditioner!), I knew that it was like a mansion to the people living in tent cities and I was grateful. We got to meet the staff and the families that live at the MOH.
The MOH is on a mountain that overlooks PAP and the the first day ended with me overlooking a breathtaking view of PAP. My team leader asked the question of "When did you realize that you were actually in Haiti?" My answer: When I saw multiple signs (that were kind of like billboards) that said "WE NEED HELP!"
Here is the link to a short video that shows a glimpse into our recent trip to Haiti, Enjoy! http://vimeo.com/12714932
