Friday, Saturday & Sunday

Friday was the hardest day of my 2 week stay in Haiti. I allowed the enemy to fill my head with anxiety about not leaving with the majority of the team on Saturday. I was also anxious about getting the sickness that was spreading like wild fire throughout the entire team. A couple of years ago, I got really sick in Haiti for the most of my time there, and I NEVER want to be sick there again! So, I did the only thing I knew to do. I dove into God's word and spent the day in prayer.
A 15 year old girl named Wilda came in for surgery. Wilda was born with some form of Cerebral Palsy. Her mother brought her in to have surgery in hopes that she would be able to walk. At about 8pm, she quit breathing. After 4 times of shocking her heart, it started beating again. However, she was not breathing on her own and her outcome did not look good. The amazing part is how all the Haitians responded to Wilda taking a turn for the worse. They broke into worship, and I mean worship! You could hear their singing all over the mission. As I finally turned in for the night, I fell to sleep with the sound of God's children honoring their Savior. The sounds of crying out for a miracle.

Saturday at 4:30 a.m., the team that came for only one week left. It was sad to see them go, as we have all grown very close.
My day was spent in the minor room, and we were jam up busy! Saturday was supposed to be a slow day, NOT! It turned out to be a fantastic day!
Anxiety? Nope, my God took care of that battle for me!

On Sunday, I finally got to go to the far West! I have been wanting to visit there ever since I started going to Haiti in '06. Everyone that goes there always says it is absolutely beautiful and nothing like the parts of Haiti we get to see coming and going out of the mission. Boy were they right!
Diane, Emily, Pam and myself loaded up in the back of a pick up truck along with the two missionaries, Curtis and Danielle who live out there and and an interpreter.
We crossed the river that is multifunctional. It serves as a laundromat, car wash, bath tub and bathroom!


























































As soon as we got to our destination we went to church. It was the last day off a week long revival. People traveled for hours to help the church celebrate the revival and also the church's birthday. We sat through a 4 hour service! After church we had lunch at Curtis and Danielle's house. They then look us on a walking tour of the land to show us where their new house is being built along with the future orphanage they will run.



Curtis and Danielle






We also got to enjoy the beautiful water! The water was many different shades of blue and the mountains were gorgeous!














When we got back on the beach, some sea shells mysteriously appeared by our towels while we were swimming. Some of the children on the beach found them and put them on display in hope of making a sale! After some negotiation, I paid $2.00 and a bag of Skittles for a beautiful conch shell!














When it was time for us to load back up into the truck, we had quite a few more passengers than we did on the way in! Some of the people who made the long journey earlier in the day to attend church, hitched a ride back to town with us. Chickens and a dog were part of the group as well!
Sunday was truly a gift from God. It was so nice to see the beauty of His country. Away from the city life, the filth in the streets, the stench in the air, the corruption and the noise, lies a land of mountains and clean water. Another sweet kiss from Jesus.
We found out once we returned to the mission that Wilda had died during our time away.
God gave us a day away from all the sadness of death.




My new "do" compliments of 4 hours in the back of a truck!

Diane, my traveling buddy!

Tues, Wed & Thurs in Haiti April '09

I learned a new creole word on Tuesday. It is La Kanciel, which means rainbow. As Diane and I were leaving the missionary’s house, one of the orphans was pointing at the sky and yelling over and over to us, “La Kanciel, La Kanciel.” We had no idea what she was trying to tell us until we saw the most beautiful rainbow in the sky! Yet another sweet kiss from Jesus. He made the same covenant with all of His people, and He loves to remind us of that covenant no matter where we live or travel. The little girl who taught us La Kanciel is a new resident at the mission. Her aunt dropped her off because she can not longer provide for her. It in not common for children to be raised by someone besides their parents. It seems like it is the normal for fathers and mothers to just up and move to the big capital city of Port-Au-Prince and leave their children behind to fend for themselves.
Wednesday was a busy morning in the minor room. The afternoon and night was spent with a pillow over my head thanks to a migraine!
Ah, the rising of the sun and the setting of a headache! Thanks to my miracle drug, Treximet, I woke up feeling great! Thursday was a day for some of us to get off the mission and go to the island of Tortuga. I have never muster the guts to go to Tortuga in trips past. All I can envision are the Haitian boats you see on the news that try to make it to Miami, but sink! Yep, that is exactly what they look like!



And the best part (not!) is Haitian men put you on their shoulders to carry you to the boat! Talk about feeling uncomfortable, and ready to drop at any time! Our ride to the island was absolutely beautiful! The water was so many different shades of blues and greens. Once we got on the island we were greeted by a handful of children. They were so happy to see us “blancs,” which means, white people. The children that go to school took a break so we could do a little VBS for them and fed them lunch.




















They sang us a couple of songs and then we told the story of Noah and the Ark. As the story was being told, a boy drew a picture in the sand of a big boat, a sunshine a rainbow (La Kanciel!) and water. How priceless to watch him draw us a picture of the story he was hearing!











I saw something I will never forget. A little boy sitting beside me was picking skin off the bottom of his feet and eating it. It made me so sad and made me feel sick at the same time. I suppose when you are hungry enough, you will eat anything. How is it, I can go to any restaurant I want and order what I want, and this child is eating his own flesh?


When we got back to the mission, I had a visit from a couple I met almost 2 years ago when they brought their 18 month old daughter to the mission. Her name was Lovely and she came in to have a hernia repaired. Unfortunately, Lovely ended up dieing 2 days after her surgery. I spent the entire day of her death and burial with the family. I witnessed the very different way their culture deals with death than how we deal with it. I visited Lovely’s home before I left that year and promised to keep in touch with them each time I come back to Haiti. Last year they asked me to bring them pictures of Lovely the day she died. Word had gotten out that I was back at the mission, so they came to see me. It was great to visit with them. They seem to be doing better financially than they were last year.














It is nice to meet up not only with friends that come from all over the U.S. each year to serve at the mission, but also the Haitian friends made over the years of serving God in His country.

First 3 days of my 2 weeks in Haiti

Yea, God sent me back to Haiti! This was my 4th mission trip to the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Mission Monkey was so glad to be going on another mission! For those who don’t know his story, he travels on all my mission trips. He also goes on mission trips with my friends! Last year he managed to go to Haiti once and Africa twice! He is one lucky monkey!


Savannah Airport, 5:30 a.m. Last time of being fresh and clean for 2 weeks!
Myself, Rosanne and Diane with Mission Monkey


Our day of travel was uneventful, which is always good! Watching the reaction of the first timers, brings me back to my first time traveling to the mission. Words cannot describe the filth and the stench of the streets. How do people live like that? It is all they know. They don’t know about hygiene or sanitation.



























Our first full day on the mission started out with going to the church across the street. I love to watch different kinds of worship. One thing I can say about the Haitians is, they love to sing...and loudly they do it! Their worship puts us Americans who looked like we are bored to death singing, to shame!
The rest of the day was spent cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning! There was a lot of things to do to get the 2 new operating rooms ready for surgery the next day.















Before I went to bed, I pulled out my journal to write down my thoughts of the day. It was then I found a note my dear friend Jody, had written to me last October when we were in Haiti together. She had written it the last day we were there and stuck it in my journal. I had not seen it before. God knew exactly when I would need to read her words and His timing was perfect! One last sweet kiss from Jesus before I drifted off to sleep!

My assignment for this trip was to work in the minor room. This room has two bays in it. People who need stitching up, lumps removed, circumcisions, extra fingers removed (very common to have 6 fingers in Haiti), broken bones set and basically anything that does not need the major operating rooms, come to the minor room. The hallway outside the minor room is very very crowded, chaotic and loud! People walk for hours to see the doctors. They also are really patient to wait in that hot hallway ALL day.
A man brought a 8 year old boy to the mission after watching him get hit by a motorcycle. Motorcycles are a form of taxi, and they are dangerous. Each year we see more and more accidents because of how crazy they drive them. The man who brought the boy in, saw him get hit and also watched at the driver kept on going. So he tackled him off the motorcycle and sat on him until the police came. After they took the driver to jail, he brought the boy in for medical care. The little boy had a huge gash under his eye and also a broken clavicle. The man stayed until the boy’s parents came to the mission. He explained to the parents that they had better give thanks to God for the mission. Neither one of the parents were Christians. They did allow us to pray with them but did not want any part of Jesus. In a culture where men generally do not have a lot to do with children, it was great to see this man praising Jesus for being his Savior and also for taking care of the little boy. He blessed us all by seeing his unselfish ways to take care of one of God’s children.