Today was our last day serving the people of Haiti. We started off our day by doing two water truck stops. Water truck day always brings on tons of emotions. It's overwhelming, fun, exciting, heartbreaking, and eye opening all at once. Being on the water line means you are directing and holding the hose. If you aren't a part of the water line, you are helping carry the buckets of water being filled up or loving on the kids. Today after delivering a bucket, Abby and I had the opportunity to help some ladies wash their laundry. Washing laundry in Haiti is not throwing all your darks in one pile, your lights in another, and then throwing them into a machine. Washing laundry in Haiti starts with a large bucket of soapy water and your hands. Clothes become clean when you rub your hands back and forth with the fabric in the bucket of soapy water until it makes a squeaking noise. We helped them wash clothes for about ten minutes. Most of the ten minutes was spent laughing at the fact that we had no idea what we were doing. This was actually one of my favorite experiences I have had while in Haiti. It really allowed me to be apart of the culture here and that was super cool. Something I have always loved about water truck day is watching the kids dump the water on themselves and dance while they're doing it. It shocks me every time how joyful the Haitian people are even though they are living in the conditions that they are. The littlest things can and will put the biggest smile on their faces.
-Rachel Nagel
After our last water truck stop we went to the grocery store! The grocery store is always a somewhat exciting adventure. The best part of going to the grocery store is the air conditioning. Besides AC we enjoyed buying a whole bunch of different Haitian food such as ice cream, candy, and drinks to try! Dana was especially excited about finding limeade! After finding all of our delicious snacks we got on the taptap to go to the home for sick and dying babies. When we arrived we were led into two different rooms of babies. Each room had at least 30 cribs. We started off by feeding each child their lunch which was soup. After lunch we were allowed to take the babies out of their cribs and bring them outside on the playground. Some kids had to be held because they were too little and sick to play. In America we have the luxury of technology and here in Haiti they have little access to care for the sick. This was one of the most heartbreaking experiences of the entire trip.
-Rachel Nagel & Grace Rieckhoff
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