Last August we took a team of eight people on a 10-day trip to Leogane, Haiti to serve at an orphanage called Operation Love the Children of Haiti (OLTCH). It was an amazing experience, and we were able to help Greg and Jasmine Martinson, who run the orphanage, both by doing work projects and by spending time loving on their 40+ kids. Some of our work projects included digging trenches to help lessen flooding from the frequent rains, sorting supplies,painting buildings, and constructing another building for the boys, who were still sleeping in a tent at that point. We also had a blast coloring, playing games, and just hanging out with the kids.
This is my account of our adventures, taken from my trip journal. I didn’t have a lot of time to write, so it is brief at times, but it will hopefully give you an idea of what we did on a daily basis.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 Overview of the day
- Everyone gathered at the church at 8:30am and we were hoping to leave by 9:00am, but we were a little slow getting out of there. It ended up being okay, since our flight was delayed. Mom and Dad and Mrs. Reichel drove us to the Orlando airport. Kim and James also drove so they could spend that little bit of time with Josh. After giving hugs and saying goodbye, we made our way through security and then took the tram to the terminal.
- Our flight was only a little over an hour long, so it went by fast. Landing in Miami, we had only about 40 minutes to trek across the airport to the international terminal. When we found our gate, we had to get seating assignments for Donnie and Sarah and then we were free for a bit. The terminal was packed full of people of all sorts from all around the world. I loved it. There were some globetrotter sorts, some families who looked like they just wanted to get home, and there was a whole pack of Amish, mostly young men, but a few women, older men, and a kid or two. They ended up being on the same flight with us.
- Then we flew from Miami to Port-au-Prince
- Went through customs
- Waited for our luggage
- Nothing came
- Found out they had somehow “lost” it
- Drove to the orphanage – 3 hr drive though a devastated nation. I think I had used that term to describe the country once before, but I didn’t truly understand what it meant. This land truly is decimated, disintegrating, impoverished, without hope.
- Drove with Greg to the orphanage
- Met Jasmine
- Ate dinner, rice with veggies in it and tomato/onion saucy stuff on top. Yummy! Also with plantain. Mmmm!
- They showed us where our tents and the bathrooms were located
- Went to bed
- It took us 3 hours to make a 20 mile drive
- The earthquake lasted 40 seconds
- Greg yelled “Jesus save us!” twice at the top of his lungs, and then it stopped. Their building didn’t fall, but it cracked and all the buildings around them fell.
- Pedestrians have no right of way
- People are always moving, micromanaging, nobody works, no jobs to be had, don’t know what they do all day
- Voodoo is extremely prevalent
- 9 million people in a country the size of Connecticut
- You have to have a horn to drive!
- Tap-taps = small buses, tap coin on side when you want to get off
- Elites are mulattos, lots of French influence, want power, pay people to riot against the government
- Restaveks = legal slavery
- No family structure or fidelity, men don’t take care of kids, moms might have a dozen kids all with different men
- The Martinsons’ generator died, got flooded on Monday night
- People are everywhere, walking, driving…
After disembarking, we had to wait for buses to come pick us up and drive us to the terminal.
Waiting for our luggage.
The baggage service desk. It was a busy place...
Greg and Jasmine Martinson
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
- Ate breakfast - oatmeal (from MREs all mixed up in one big pot) and muffins/breads from MREs. I had almond poppy seed bread.
- Jasmine gave us the tour and told us the rules
- They are living in a field right now, in tents and temporary plywood buildings, because their orphanage building was severely damaged in the earthquake.
- The guys played with the boys and also started digging the drainage ditches along the tents.
- We girls had the kids come into the classroom, little girls first and then boys, to make foam crowns with their names on them
- At one point, some of the team rode along with Greg to get some ice.
- Lunch – mashed potatoes and gravy from MREs. A lot of their food is from MREs that the Canadian military dropped off here as they were leaving. Amazing how God provides!
- Rested, played with kids some more
- Supper
- Children’s mealtime prayer (written by the Martinsons, sung to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)
Thank you, Jesus, for this day.
Bless this food for me I pray.
Thank you for all your blessings.
Give me joy and strength each day.
Bless this home and all my friends.
Hallelujah and amen.
- To see the location of the orphanage, follow this link.
The mess tent
The kitchen tent, where the Haitian ladies made all the wonderful food!
The large white building is the classroom, where we did a lot of coloring, playing games, making crafts with the kids, and it is also where we would have our Bible study meetings in the evenings. The white tent is where the little boys slept. The little corner of the green tent in the upper left of the photo is part of the church meeting tent, and the kitchen tent was just to my left.
This is the tent that we girls slept in, and the guys had another one just like it.
The showers
The generator/tool shed
Daveson (I think) with his crown.
- Devotions – woke up at 6:30 to do them
- Breakfast – bread with peanut butter and honey and hardboiled egg
- Spent the morning painting the side of the classroom building with Sarah and Regina. It reminded us of whitewashing in Mexico. Since we didn't have our luggage, Jasmine found us some clothes to wear, so that we didn’t have to mess up the few garments we had along with us. Sarah wore some pajama pants and a Haiti t-shirt. Regina wore scrub pants and a gray t-shirt. I got a t-shirt with loons on it and maternity jean capris… weird, but Sarah said I sported them well. :)
- Sadly, Courtney seemed to have some heat exhaustion so she rested and stayed inside the classroom building near the fan.
- The guys worked on the trenches some more and made some good headway
- Lunch – Jasmine let us have some MREs straight out of the boxes. What fun! They were Canadian MREs. We got to use the crazy chemical reaction heating pouch thingys. The main dish was spicy chicken and came with mashed potatoes (that we didn’t eat, since Jasmine gave us more rice), applesauce, bread with pb and j, and some other assorted items. It was very nice.
- After lunch, we girls washed our clothes and then offered to wash the boys’ clothes too. They took us up on the offer. They had about twice as many clothes, and it took us about three times longer to wash them because they were so dirty. But we did it and we had fun.
- It started pouring as we were hanging up the last of the laundry. So it all got a second rinse.
- Eventually it slowed down and stopped, so we girls started working on sorting the open/extra MREs in the supply tent. It was pretty hot in there but it wasn’t too bad. Regina was in her element sorting and organizing. We did that right up until dinner, which was at 5:00pm.
- Dinner – typical Haitian diet: rice with bean sauce. Delicious! I mentioned that I like the crunchy rice from the bottom of the pot, so Jasmine gave me the bottom scrapings. :)
- Took a shower after dinner
- Worship/song time at 6:45pm – lovely! Had three girls leaning on me when sitting. Danced with two, one in each hand when standing.
- Went and played cards with Sarah and Regina for a while. Josh joined in eventually.
- Discussion/prayer time in the evening
No, we didn't have to do all of that laundry, thank goodness! The Martinsons pay a lady who comes in to wash all the kids clothes. We just had to do our own. :)
Look what we found in our tent! It was about 5 inches long. From what I can find, it is probably a centipede from the
Order Scolopendromorpha, possibly a
Scolopendra alternans, which is sometimes called the "Haitian Giant." Go figure. :)
One of the more friendly creatures living near our tent. Some sort of anole, I think.
He's a pretty little fella!
Another lizard that hung out by our tent. A Largehead anole (Anolis cybotes cybotes), I think.
Friday, August 13, 2010
- Last night there was loud voodoo music going on right behind the girls’ tent, across the fence. Though the guys were farther away, they all had a hard time sleeping because of it. I only woke up 2-3 times for less than 30 seconds. Just enough time to think “Why on earth are they still up?” or “What are they doing?”
- Breakfast – cream of corn stuff and bread with peanut butter and honey
- We played with kids for a bit
- Then I did some more laundry with Sarah
- David and Josh went into Port-au-Prince to the airport with Jasmine and Greg to see about our luggage. They had said that two of our bags had come in. They were gone all day.
- After the laundry, we all brought the boys in to the classroom building to color. Wilby drew on the table as a challenge to Sarah, so she put him right out. The others mostly behaved.
- As they were finishing, it started to rain so Sarah and I rushed out to get all of the laundry off the line. Regina came later to assist. We managed to get it all in just before/as it started pouring – and I mean cats and dogs! Shane came running up to us (we were under the tarp at the workshop area) to see if we got it all, and we told him we had. I suddenly remembered that I had left our back then flap open to get some air in there, so I grabbed a wash tub to put over me and sprinted to the tent. Meanwhile Donnie and Shane had gotten umbrellas to rescue us, so we had a dry(ish) walk back to the kitchen tent.
- It was lunchtime, so we procured some MREs from the supply tent and decided to begin. The rain had poured, and was still pouring, so the kitchen tent began to flood. We were sitting at the table with about 2 ½ - 3 inches of water underneath us.
- Funny moment – we were sitting with our feet on the rungs of our chairs, and mine slipped off at one point, so I splashed Donnie and Regina who were on either side of me. It made us all laugh.
- Donnie, Sarah, and I decided to split our MREs, so we had beef stew, mac n’ cheese, and chicken cannelloni (or something like that). They were good. And we had so much fun at that meal!
- The kids ate much later, since they waited for the rain to stop and the puddle to subside somewhat.
- After lunch, and after the rain stopped, the weather was much nicer, and the guys worked on making more and bigger trenches to help with the flooding.
- We girls worked on sorting some more MREs and stuff from the supply tent. Only this time, instead of sorting in the sauna of a tent, we took the stuff to the classroom building to sort and sat in front of the fan. It went much faster in there actually. We’re planning to work on that some more tomorrow.
- Josh, David, and the Martinsons came back with all of our luggage! Praise God! And thanks to all the prayers of everyone back home! I’ve never been so glad to see my suitcase!
- We talked about it, though, and we’re glad that God had it happen this way because it gave us a glimpse into the lives of the Haitians, who have nothing. It also got us out of our comfort zone and forced us to rely on God for our EVERY need! And it was neat to see how He used the missionaries and our teammates to provide for each of us. He is so good! If one of us didn’t have something, another of us did, or else the missionaries did. Some odd assemblages of clothing came out of the adventure, but it made us laugh all the more, so it was okay!
- Dinner – rice and more meat/veggie sauce stuff, with fried plantains and sugar cane
- Discussion/prayer time
Girls lining up to go do some coloring in the classroom.
Some girls playing in their little shaded porch, where they had some blocks and other toys.
The kids loved getting their pictures taken. They also really enjoyed singing and dancing in front of the video camera, and then watching themselves on the screen. :)
A neat panoramic shot (taken by Sarah) of the supply tent where we spent hours sorting and organizing.
Sorting supplies in the classroom building.
The guys working on some more trenches.
The amazing rice, which had carrots, plantain, moringa leaves, and other yummy stuff mixed into it.
The tomato/onion sauce that was put over the rice.
Fried plantains.
- We slept in for a little bit
- Breakfast – bread and peanut butter, honey and some weird salty German bread/biscuit things – I didn’t like it very much at all.
- Fed babies during breakfast
- We girls played with the little girls for a while doing jump rope and bubbles. After a while Regina, Courtney, and Sarah each took 2 girls into the classroom to color. I stayed out and blew bubbles for a bit. At one point, one of the girls (Luna, I think) started petting my hair, so I took it out of the ponytail and let her play with it for a while – with her bubbly hands. I washed it well that evening. :)
- I went and got a drink and then headed to the classroom to cool down and got involved in coloring. I took over for Sarah when she went to go get the laundry off the line. The last girl that I helped color was Jenny, one of the smaller girls. She’s adorable. I’ll have to ask Jasmine about her story…
- During the coloring, Jasmine had us help them try to color things realistically. That was a challenge, but some of them were really perfectionists and wanted to do things right.
- We finished the coloring around 11:45am so we could get ready for lunch. Lunch ended up being delayed a little bit, so I played with the boys some. I mostly hung out with the little boy who is mostly blind with cataracts. He’s so sweet and he asked me “What is your name?” So cute! I can’t quite get his name when he says it – I need to ask Jasmine… (His name is Rodner.)
- Lunch was noodle and corn soup. I fed a handicapped 6 or 7 year old who stays with the babies, then ate, then took over for Sarah, who had been feeding the slow-eating baby, Michelle.
- After lunch we took a break and played some cards.
- Then we went out and started working on more trenches. Eventually we girls ended up sorting more MREs and moving boxes of them from a broken tent behind the kitchen to the supply tent in front of the kitchen. Regina and Courtney used their amazing organizing skills, while Sarah and I moved the boxes – buff women that we are. :) We also rearranged the labeled boxes of MREs in that tent. And we did that until supper.
- During our sorting time, Jasmine came over and asked for prayer. So Sarah and I prayed for her. She was feeling very overwhelmed by the chaos.
- God, I pray that you would give her your supernatural peace, patience, and strength to go on. Lord, I also ask that you keep the evil forces at bay here. Haiti is a very dark country, and we are surrounded by people practicing dark arts. Let this be a place of light and love. Please keep all of Satan’s minions far away from this place, these children, these missionaries. Help them to be strong in the face of terrible evil, relying on you for their every need. I pray the same for myself, Lord. And let me be sensitive to and aware of the battle that is raging in the spiritual realm. Please save each of these precious children’s souls, and inspire a great revival of truth and love on this island, for your glory!
- Supper – hot dogs and “true fruit,” which I though might be breadfruit when I first looked at them whole. It had been prepared in boiled chunks and fried thin slices. I loved it! The fried stuff was sort of like potato fries/chips and the boiled stuff was sort of like potato, but not really. It was somewhat sweet and stuck together better than a potato would have. I wish we could get it in the states… I wonder if we can….
- Showered right after dinner, after grabbing a few more true fruit chips.
- Worship service at 6:45pm
- During the worship service, I had one of the toddlers in my arm and Jessica, I think, hanging on me. During the final song, and prayer we were sitting down. Jessica started petting my face and hair so I started touching hers too. It was sweet. And I was right beside Yemima, who has a disorder of some kind (cerebral palsy, perhaps). She was in a wheelchair, and as I reached up to touch her arm, she reached to hold my hand and she held it for quite a while. Oh sweet joy. The love of God for these kids overflowed in my heart at that moment.
- Then we had a meeting and discussion of our presentations for tomorrow’s service. Guys – puppet show. Girls – song, bible verses, skits. We’ll see how it goes.
The babies and handicapped kids that needed to be fed. They were all so sweet! :) From left to right: Katini, Merkenwise (or Mercy for short), Yemima, and Michelle (not sure about the spelling of the names...).
Michelle
Mercy
Yemima
Claudia - It was rare to see her smile.
Felo
Playing with the babies and blowing bubbles.
Taking a break in the classroom.
- Woke up early to practice our song for the church service
- Breakfast – corn flour pudding and bananas
- Went in the classroom and practiced our song and skits for the church service. Our stuff was about doing the loving thing, rather than being unkind and unloving.
- Church service was at 9:30am. Jasmine sort of organized everything. One of the Haitian ladies led the praise and worship time. Then a few of the ladies and Frizline, one of the adopted Martinsons, took turns singing solo or duet songs.
- Then the guys did their puppet show about obeying parents. Sarah and I held their tablecloth stage.
- We girls did our presentation after that. It went pretty well. We sang a song and also did some skits that contrasted being unkind with being kind and loving, and encouraged the kids to choose to do the loving thing.
- Then there was another song and prayer. The song was Chris Tomlin’s version of Amazing Grace. The kids had been singing it off and on this past week. So cute! “Amazing gwace, how swee the soun that save a wesh li meee…”
- Lunch – MREs - all I have to say is don’t pick the grilled chicken one. It comes with cornbread stuffing mush and it’s nasty. Bleh…
- We had planned to go to the beach this afternoon, but a big storm started to roll in, so we decided to wait and go tomorrow morning.
- We had some of the little girls color and play with play dough in the classroom. Courtney and I played Chutes and Ladders with four of the girls.
- However, it was much cooler outside, so then we played with the girls out there for a bit. Duck, duck, goose, an intense game of catch, and some football tossing were the order of the day.
- Then I sat down to take pictures and video of Jenny and Jessica goofing off and singing. While sitting, however, my hair became fair game, and a whole passel of girls began playing with it. Eventually they ran off one by one to get combs or hair bands and began tugging and yanking on my hair in every direction, aka “braiding” my hair. After that whole episode, I’m just thankful to still have some hair left on my head! Courtney joined the “fun” and got her hair pulled too for a while. The girls doing my hair eventually gave up. I think because none of the braids would stay in my hair. They just came undone.
- I took the last girl, Cristella into the classroom to color.
- Dinner – rice stuff (yum!), salmon, coleslaw stuff, and crepes for dessert – handmade by Jasmine and Regina
- Worship at 6:45pm – I sat with Jenny and Argentine.
- Showers
- Meeting/discussion
- Beach tomorrow…
- Stars were absolutely beautiful, and clear tonight. God gave me a shooting star. Just one, but that was more than I expected. :)
Jasmine and one of the Haitian ladies leading the worship time on Sunday morning.
The pews were made of MRE boxes, and each of the kids got some sort of percussion instrument to join in the service.
Jessica and Jenny, as they were marching around and singing until they were out of breath.
Jenny came and sat on my lap for a bit, while some other girls were playing my hair.
Luna (right) and another girl working on Courtney's hair.
While I was stuck getting my hair braided, a few of the girls wandered around with my camera, and they got some good shots. :)
The ladies working in the kitchen.
Frizline
- I was so tired when I was trying to finish that last night…
- Breakfast – cheesy corn grits and bread with pb and j
- Didn’t feel real great after breakfast, but prayed that God would help me feel better so that I could better love the kids. I started playing with some of the girls and I was soon feeling better.
- A little while later we left for the beach. I was in Sam’s (a friend of the Martinsons) car with Josh, Sarah, and David all in the backseat and Courtney in the front.
- We drove through the town and out some back roads and fields, past devastated buildings and a tent city. Eventually we came to a place where it was so muddy that we couldn’t go any farther, so we walked the rest of the way. We walked through some fields and tramped through some mud and at one point took a trail through some mangroves where there was just really muddy water. And there wee little fiddler crabs all through it! It was so much fun! I loved it! Sadly, we didn’t get to come back that way.
- The view from the ocean was very pretty, although the beach itself was kind of dirty – lots of trash in and out of the water. The water was also not very deep and the bottom was mostly mucky, so it wasn’t the most pleasant beach experience, but it was still nice!
- We brought along Philip, Daniel, Anne, and Geraldine, four of the oldest kids. The Martinsons also brought their three girls. We had a lot of fun goofing off with the kids, towing them around, trying to teach them to float and/or swim. The guys tried to teach the boys how to do chicken fights, but they didn’t really like it. Philip seemed hesitant to get in the water at first, and he refused to get up on someone’s shoulders.
- Donnie found a small sea urchin and we held it for a while. (I think I stepped on one too.) It was whitish-greenish and had 10ish purple squiggly, radially symmetric lines. When it was put under water, there were small white fleshy blobs that floated amongst the spines. It was really neat, and Sarah named it “Charles.”
- We found some dead chunks of coral, and I saw a tern and a gull, but otherwise there was no evidence of wildlife. Quite sad and barren…
- I looked for stuff along the beach for a little bit, and found some seabeans, shells and rocks. My neatest find was a pretty hamburger bean. Thanks God!
- We walked back to the car a different way than we came. It was less muddy. Once we got back to the Martinsons’ car, we found Sam wasn’t around, so we thought about trying to fit us all in there, but we realized we couldn’t quite make it. I ended up in the back-back of the car with David and Philip. It was a bumpy ride.
- The others that got left behind started walking, and walked about halfway back before the car got back to pick them up.
- We splashed off in a wash tub to clean up and then changed in the shower room.
- Lunch – MREs? I think some people had MREs, Sarah had just a pb and j, but the kids all ate some noodley stuff which was really salty. Donnie said he thought it had fish in it. Anyway, I didn’t care much for it, so I only ate a little.
- After lunch we played some cards and had a long discussion about Shane’s terrible grammar in today’s Bible lesson. It was quite amusing.
- Then Sarah, Regina, and I worked on organizing/sorting in the supply tent.
- Dinner – more fish, whole with heads chopped off. Also boiled true fruit and plantain. Tried honey on the true fruit and it was pretty good. This batch seemed salty, while the last one was more sweet, which I liked. The true fruit chips were the best, though.
- Showers
- Discussion
- Sleep
- Couldn’t finish this last night, so I’m finishing it now. (8/17/10)
On our way to the beach! (All of the beach pictures were taken by my teammates - I forgot my camera that day.)
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
- Sarah and I woke up at 6:00am to wash laundry. Unfortunately, it had rained last night, so all the clothes were still wet. So we went and helped with breakfast instead.
- Breakfast – MRE cereal and bread with pb and j. The kids had pb and honey in the nasty German “bread,” which they all seem to like.
- After breakfast, Sarah, Regina, and I went and did the guys’ and our laundry.
- Then we started painting the Martinson’s house. Sarah and I did most of it. Regina did some filming and Courtney helped for a little bit, but couldn’t take the sun for very long (she had gotten badly sunburned the day before), so she went and helped Jasmine update the kids’ files.
- The guys worked on constructing a building for the little boys, so they can eventually move out of their tent. Some other missionaries came and helped too.
- Lunch – egg salad sandwich (yum!) and vegetable/noodle soup
- I fed baby Michelle and then Sarah took over for me.
- After lunch we were going to start painting again, but it started thundering, so we put all the stuff away and got the laundry off the line.
- We ended up sorting the rest of the MRE stuff and finished organizing the supply tent.
- We plan to finish painting tomorrow.
- Dinner – was very late, more yummy rice (hooray!) with the tomatoey sauce (I didn’t have any, just rice please!) and fried plantain slices (tostones). Also very yummy. I also split an MRE (Tarragon chicken) with Regina, Sarah, and Donnie. I didn’t care for it, so I ate more rice and plantains.
- Showered after dinner.
- Read my Bible for a while like I’ve been needing to this whole trip. Good God time.
- We all had a short discussion on 1 John 3.
- Watched a video that Jasmine recommended, called Indescribable by Louis Giglio. It was neat. I journaled through parts of it, though, because I was too tired to just sit there and watch it without falling asleep.
The start of the new building for the boys to sleep in.
Floor is complete, now starting on the walls... It began raining, which halted the progress for a while, but the guys went right back to work after it stopped.
The little boys would use whatever was nearby to keep off the rain.
The Martinsons' dog had some puppies, which were popular with the boys.
Monelson, Lowenski, and Daniel. (Teammates: correct me if I'm wrong on any of these names.)
Lowenski, Wilby, and Daniel.
Jethroson :)
- Woke up early this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep right away, so I started journaling. Went back to sleep and woke up at 6:45am.
- Breakfast – corn mush, and we grabbed some applesauce and bread out of the supply tent.
- Sarah and I painted the rest of the Martinson’s house. Regina helped for a while and also did some filming. Courtney played with kids and took pictures.
- The guys all worked on the boy’s new building.
- We painters had Donnie come help us with the high places, since he’s so tall. We finished it up while everyone else was eating lunch and then we ate after we had put the stuff away. We left the painty stuff out to get rained on, since it started raining as we cleaned up. We’ll need to get all of that tomorrow morning.
- Lunch – spaghetti and sliced peaches from MREs
- After lunch we helped around the boys’ building. They were finishing putting the tin on the roof. Sarah and Regina put screen on the windows. I picked up a bunch of trash around the site. David helped too. And we put some of the tools away. Regina, David, and I put the extra wood away in its pile beside the work shed and Rigan, Sarah, Regina, Courtney, and I worked on getting the boys’ beds into their new building.
- This was apparently the record for putting up a building – only two days!
- I helped with putting shutters on the windows – mostly finding and handing nails, pieces of boards, etc. – nothing important, but I did get to help with the boy’s building a little, so I feel like I’m now attached to it or something. It’s always that way when you build a building. Kind of strange…
- Dinner was rice, vegetables in brothy stuff, and sliced hot dogs, carrots, and onions all cooked together. It was good.
- Showered after dinner.
- Packed up most of the way.
- Discovered major ant festivities in our tent. They were coming in through holes in the floor and were eating my granola bar crumbs. We duct-taped the holes shut and killed all the ants we could find. Hopefully they won’t find us in our sleep…
- My, my, it’s hot. I’ll be glad to go back to air conditioning and ice cream.
- That reminds me, Rigan (the nurse here) brought us a frozen chocolate shake with peanut M ‘n M’s in it. It was a little taste of heaven, as Sarah said. We were each very thankful for the few small bites we got! Rigan is sweet.
- After we found the ants, we joined in the worship time, and apparently the kids all sang each of us a blessing, although I didn’t catch it. I think I was too busy keeping track of little people: I had Rosalin, who had wet herself, trying to sit in my lap, and Felo hanging out beside/behind/on me. He’s so cute and he sat down to sing with me, with his sweet little voice sounding out “Halleluia and amen!”
- After the worship time, we all went in the classroom with Greg and Jasmine and some of the kids to pray for them. The kids: Rodner (cataracts), Yemima (cerebral palsy), Claudia (skin disease, development problems, fear/shyness), Rositan and Jessica (athlete’s foot), Oltania (blind in one eye), and Katini (mentally handicapped). We also want to keep Ashley (severe scoliosis) and Mercy (not growing like she should) in our prayers, although we didn’t specifically pray for them tonight.
- So tired…
This is a picture of Rigan that one of the kids took with my camera.
Walls going up.
Putting on the tin roof.
Almost finished.
The Martinsons' house before we painted this side.
Almost done - just have the finishing touches left to do.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
- Finished packing up.
- Ate breakfast.
- Said goodbyes. :(
- Drove to the airport.
- Got to see more of the scenery than we did on our first day here, since we drove in the daylight this time.
- Flew back to Tampa via San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Argentine and I. :)
Our team with all the kids and the orphanage staff.
The view of the orphanage gate from the outside.
Until we left, I hadn't realized that there were people living in little makeshift tents just on the other side of the walls.
Driving behind a tap-tap.
Evidence of the earthquake was everywhere, and there seemed to be surprisingly little effort to rebuild what was damaged.
Haiti was far more hilly and mountainous than I had expected.
Trash was absolutely everywhere, and the Haitians seem to have a habit of burning it, which creates a terrible haze over the island.
One of the many shantytowns that we passed on the way back to Port-au-Prince.
The airport in Port-au-Prince.
The tent cities don't look nearly as squalid from the air as they do on the ground.
Goodbye, Haiti.
That's all that I have for now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. :) And if you want to read some of my teammates' perspectives on the trip, you can check out the blog posts that we wrote after we got back. Start reading from the bottom of the page, since the oldest posts are down there. There is also a really neat video on that page, which was created by Shane.
Our first trip to Haiti was an amazing adventure that left us standing breathless before the throne of God. He challenged us in ways we didn’t expect, provided for us in ways we couldn’t have imagined, and used us despite our weaknesses.
He has graciously provided an opportunity for us to return to Haiti in March, from the 5th through the 12th, and I am so excited to be able to minister to the Martinsons and all of their kids once again! Five of us will be returning, and we’ll have three new team members joining us. We aren’t sure what projects the Martinsons will have for us to do, but there will certainly be no shortage of work. Please be praying for us as we prepare for this trip and as we serve in Haiti!
For the glory of God!
~ Hannah
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