Our trip to Haiti - Days 1 and 2

Our first trip to Haiti was special, because of the people, both Haitian and American. The American team we travelled with was from different places and different walks of life, but with a common love of children. A love we wanted to share with the orphaned children of Haiti. The Haitian people who made the trip special were pastors, children, linguists, teachers, mamas and support staff, all with a passion for nurturing and educating the orphaned children of Haiti.

The team we travelled with was led by a woman and her husband from Columbia, MO who had travelled to Haiti many times. She was also in country ahead of us as she helped lead a Vacation Bible School (VBS) in the northern part of the country, Gonaives, the week prior to the rest of us arriving. She was strongly supported by a woman and longtime friend who also arrived ahead of us to work the VBS and had been to Haiti many times. This woman and her husband were the ones from O’Fallon, MO who introduced us to Global Orphan Project, the organization which connects us to Haiti and facilitated some logistics for the trip. Next on the team was a young father who is friends and business partners with the O’Fallon couple and lives in St. Louis. One couple joined us from Denton, MO, was related to our trip leader and traveled way more than the rest of us, requiring 4 flights to get to Port au Prince, Haiti. Another pair, were a father and daughter from Aurora, NE, with the daughter having just graduated from the University of Nebraska in December and knew the couple of O’Fallon. Cori and I completed the American portion of the team, a couple of career vagabonds currently calling Niceville, FL, and our extended family at First Baptist Church, home. Despite our apparent diversity, we really became one team quickly, establishing a comfort and a genuine enjoyment of one another’s company within the first 24 hours. Our creative Creator is somehow more apparent when He brings people together in this way.

 Friday, January 3rd
We depart for Miami Airport (MIA) via Pensacola Airport (PNS). Moving nearly 250 pounds of luggage to and from airports is actually fairly strenuous exercise it turns out, especially when some bags don’t have wheels. Overnighting in a Courtyard Marriott near MIA worked well, but hopefully we won’t be competing with Orange Bowl ticket holders for a room next time we go to Haiti and can stay someplace a little better suited to us.

Saturday, January 4th
We are helped through the check-in process masterfully by a SkyCap named Travis Washington. Somehow we went from attempting to check bags curbside, while actually needing to be inside by policy, to being fully checked in, with no baggage fees and seats changed to the exit row. I’m not really sure how he did it, but I am thankful Travis was there to bring us through the truly chaotic international check-in area of American Airlines. We met our team at the gate for our flight to Port au Prince (PAP), and for each of us it was the first time we had met most of the others. The flight to PAP was uneventful, but on the ground in Haiti, the adventure began. While escaping PAP airport was not the free for all it had been in the past, we had many locals trying to ‘help’ us with claiming bags and getting to the van. Ultimately, everyone’s bags arrived and made it safely to the van, which had made it safely to the airport ahead of us with our leader, translator, security guard and driver of course. With an amount of tipping that would have made other Caribbean airports envious, we were on our way.

Our drive took us past evidence of continuing improvement in PAP and yet parts of the city containing the most deplorable living conditions I have ever seen in my travels. The absence of waste removal, a comprehensive sewage system and the means to maintain personal hygiene, combines badly with a lack individual interest in keeping the resultant mess away from dwelling spaces. Add to that livestock given freedom to roam in the city and cap it with burning waste in the midst of it all, and you have a smell and a haze that at best were disheartening and at worst was oppressive. We learned that Port au Prince has 2.5 million people living in it, and each alleyway or nook was filled with people or make-shift housing.

Our first two nights in PAP we were privileged to stay in guest quarters at Pastor Moise and Francois’ home. There we got hear Pastor Moise’s heart for the lost and hurting worldwide and be filled by Francois’ skillful cooking. Together they made us feel like family and enabled us to experience Haiti in a special way.

After dinner we finished combining and sorting the supplies we each brought for the orphans and caregivers at three different sites. While doing so, Pastor Moise sneaks off to buy us some delicious piña colada and rum raisin ice cream. Anything that is cold is a treat in Haiti, which we appreciate even more after a few hot days.

En route to Haiti, we had been offered the chance to teach and follow Jesus’ example from John 13 by washing the Léogâne children’s feet. This added a little anxiety to the adventure, but with a couple of days to prepare, we readily agreed. Just before going to bed that first night in Haiti, we find out we get the opportunity to do the same at the first orphan home we’ll visit in west PAP overseen by a church called Source de la Grace. Tomorrow afternoon is even sooner than we’d planned, but washing orphans’ feet is a privilege, so we read and pray to be ready by then.


Sunday, January 5th
Sunday morning starts slowly after the first of what would be many tough nights’ sleep. Roosters, dogs and cats are all nocturnal in Haiti apparently (sarcasm)! That was the good news. The bad news was one of our team had been up all night with a stomach bug he’d brought with him (we learned later his son in the States had it too). But, a hearty breakfast and a few cups of coffee later we were off to church, Source de la Grace, which Pastor Moise had planted, and he was going to be preaching this morning. That may sound strange, but Pastor Moise by God’s grace has planted some 6 churches now and spends most of his time training and discipling young pastors.

To describe for you how brightly the church shines in the midst of the poverty and hardship, is hard without spending more time characterizing the surrounding community. However, in spite of poverty, filth, voodoo, corruption, drugs, gangs, prostitution, and many other forms of heartbreak surrounding the church, it shone brightly as Christ’s city on a hill. It was immediately clear how much pride and care the members took of the church campus which included a school and orphan home also. In addition, the Haitians love to really dress up for church, and it is a beautiful sight to adults and children decked out in Sunday finest. We were welcomed with headsets (to hear the translator) and
reserved seats. We worshipped in Creole and French with passion, crying out to God as though our very lives depended on it as though it was essential to bring us close enough to God to not be separated from him in days until we could gather again. One of the choruses we sang, “Dieu, Nous voulons voir ta glorie. Descend, enseigneur, parmi nous » translates to «God,we would like to see your glory. Descend, Lord, among us”. One of the readings was Psalm 108:3, “I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations. I will sing of you among the peoples” which summed up exactly what we were doing as we worshipped in a language we don’t even speak. It was clear that God’s favor falls on those who cry out to him wherever there are and from whatever darkness they may be in. Later during the message we are reminded of how important it is to live in the presence of God, to recognize that He truly dwells within us and that wherever two or more are gathered in His name he is present. Jezi Kris, Jesus Christ, is alive and at work in Source de la Grace. Glory to God!

Following the service, we learn that we will get to personally deliver some of our supplies to the orphans at Source de la Grace. We are stunned. Never did we imagine that we would get such a privilege. Cori and I work together to arrange the shoes we had brought on behalf of Boy Scout Troop 553 in Niceville, while others set out dresses for the girls and hats for the boys.










In a room of the church, we get to fit each child for the shoes and clothes that best suit them. There is no feeling like seeing Jergen’s or Jasmine's eyes light up as we put a pair of sandals on their feet.

These children were not shoeless, but for many, they are growing so fast that they were clearly ready for a next size or two up and they had gotten most of the ‘goodie’ out of the only pair they had.









 Later as we toured the children’s home, we saw the new pairs of shoes laid on each child’s bed marking them as a possession now unique to that individual child. After each child has come through, we grab a quick snack of mashed hotdog salad, called “pass” and head out to the orphan’s home to spend the afternoon playing.
 
With our trip team altogether in the orphans’ home, we play a little and then quickly move to washing the kids’ feet. Our translator Zimbil Hans reads John 13 in Creole and then Derek briefly explains Jesus’example in washing his disciples’ feet and that we will be washing their feet. The team enthusiastically brings the kids to the water basins two at a time and carefully washes each dirty little foot. The kids, giggle and squirm and beam and enjoy the attention.

The orphans are not big on personal space, but prefer to soak up as much physical contact as they can, readily taking hands of our team members and holding to arms and clothes when the hands are full! All of the kids really enjoy the camera, often taking pictures for us and always wanting to see the “preview” of what the photo looks like afterwards. After the washing Derek makes friends with Modlin Pié and eventually they join an UNO game that Cori has started with a large group of children. Cori bridges the communication gap with French which some understand, and despite some squabbling, some obvious cheating and eventually dispatching of the rules altogether, UNO entertains for nearly an hour. Part way through UNO, Derek makes two new friends in Wilna who has some disability in one or both of her legs and Sarah the youngest and daughter of one of the “mamas” or on site caregivers. Eventually they break away from the UNO game and the two little girls make quite a game out of tackling a seated Derek into a dried spot of chicken poop he was unaware of. After much cackling and chanting Derek learns from the translator why they are laughing so hard and promptly relocates them to another part of the grounds for dancing, twirling, piggy back rides and some hide and go seek. One of the older girls, Samantha who is 13, has been pretty stoic and unwilling to smile for most of the afternoon of playtime but then she stumbles upon the front of Cori’s notebook that is covered in pictures of our 3 kids. She loved pointing at each girl and hearing about their ages and then chanting back their names to us. After that smiles and hugs were regular from Miss Samantha.

We returned home to a delicious dinner of beans and rice with red sauce, fried chicken, potatoes and carrots, beets, and a dessert treat of cake. During and after dinner, we got the privilege of hearing Pastor Moise share his heart. He shared his testimony of how God has called him into church planting, his vision for the orphan care and loving these 25 children as his own, and his hopes for future church planting. God has done amazing things through this man and he has endured much hardship, but he displays humility and passion, giving God credit and glory in all he does. We will be praying for Pastor Moise, his many ministries and his wonderful wife Francois whose servant heart ministers to the family, orphans, and church constantly.