Tuesday, February 21, 2017

True Meaning of Appreciation

Today was our first full day in Haiti.  We started out at 9am after a great breakfast.  Our first stop was about an hour away.  The drive there was a great way to see the city and the Haitian people.  We arrived at the home for the sick and dying for the elderly run by the Sisters of Charity.  This is my first trip to Haiti, I didn’t know what to expect so I was nervous.  We walked up to the building and everyone there was so happy to see us.  We split into men/women groups.  The young girls ran to us with their huge smiles.  I ended up painting fingernails and toenails.  They all loved it.  I couldn’t help but think, “we come from such different places but we all love the same things.”  Who doesn’t love to be all prettied up with nail polish!  As we were leaving a nun came to our “tap tap” (Van) and said that we have touched the lives at the clinic more than we know.  She said even if someone dies tomorrow they had someone there today that cared and wanted to spend time with them.  They weren’t alone.  We provided them with comfort and gave them happiness.

Once we left there we headed to the Haiti Museum.  Wow, did we learn a lot!  We were able to see a priceless crown from a king (literally, millions and millions of dollars) and really pretty artwork.  We learned how the island split many years ago and the history of the slaves.  It was really eye opening.

Our final stop was to an orphanage.  Right when we stepped off the tap tap the kids surrounded us grabbing for our hands, tugging for us to pick them up and hold them. They wanted love, touch and hugs.  The guys acted out a play that all the little ones were super excited for.  Then we brought out the paper bags, glue, color crayons and paper and they went wild!  We stayed just over an hour helping them make their puppets and color.  It was a lot of fun seeing how excited they were over something so simple.  You could tell they were grateful we had spent time with them. They did not want us to leave.   



Tomorrow is our day to deliver water.  We are all looking forward to another adventure filled day!

Doreen


This was my first full day in Haiti. I was nervous for our first stop at the home for the sick and dying for the elderly because I had no idea what to expect or what was expected of me. We immediately split up into gender specific groups. The male group offered to give massages with lotion or give lotion to the men if they preferred. It turned out to be much better than i had envisioned, it was a fairly clean environment and the men were very appreciative of us being there and doing things for them that they couldn’t do for themselves. 

The next stop was the Haiti museum. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about everything in the building. My favorite thing to see was the anchor of the Santa Maria. 

The third and final destination was the orphanage. I thought it was a really powerful thing to see the kids run out to the tap tap and be so excited to see us and have some people to love and care for them. The language barrier with the children was difficult. The kids loved to climb on us and play around. after they made puppets out of paper lunch bags and colored their pictures, I showed them how to make paper airplanes. As we were leaving they were throwing the airplanes at the tap tap. I am still nervous about tomorrow because everyday will bring different things, all of which I have yet to experience. 

Mason