Family Team / Day 6 / 7.20.19

Today we did water truck day at the beginning and end of our day, and spent time with area elders of Cite Soleil at Hope Church in between.

The first water truck stop was stop #17 which was in the heart of the poorest place.  The place was packed to the brim with Haitians with water jugs. The kids were climbing up everyone’s back to get on their shoulders and sit. They had the biggest smiles and laughed endlessly. As the buckets were filling up, we would help carry them back to their houses and say Merci which is thank you. I met a girl named Sabrina who was 16 years old and had to get 4 full buckets of water for her family, which consisted of her mom and super young sister and brother.  Our 2^nd stop (after spending time with the elders) was to “4 Coffins” which was a little further down the street from stop 17. It was also very hectic with many people and most of them were young kids who wanted to be picked up and held. But the other half was young adult females getting water with kids who were too small to pick up the water so we had to step in and pick up the water and bring them to their house. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the first water stop, we went to Hope church for the elder visit.  Approximately 30 elders from Cite Solei, near Hope Church, were there waiting for us. We decided to do a Spa Day for them so we had 7 people washing feet, then we would lotion their feet after they dried.  We would rotate every elder in until everyone’s feet were washed.  The remaining people polished ladies’ nails if they chose and we took polaroid photos of everyone.  Many of whom haven’t seen themselves or had a picture of themselves in years, if ever. After every elder was done with their feet washing, nails and picture, they were given a meal along with water and juice.

 

 

 

 

 

After we got back from Hope Church, we were able go outsides the gates of the guesthouse to play soccer, draw with sidewalk chalk, and jump rope. We were outside for maybe 1-2 hours and had a blast. The local neighborhood kids were really good at playing soccer.

~Jaxson and Colton

Family Team / Day 5 / 7.19.19

Today was another amazing day. We started with a 5 am wake up! Our team plus the team in the other guesthouse loaded into the tap tap at 6 am and headed for ‘Church on the Rock’. Wow! It was filled with such an energy for God! The beautiful Haitians would walk and pray aloud, some would dance, others raise their hands up. What a unique experience. We feel so blessed to have been able to make that happen. After early morning church, we walked back to the Guesthouse to eat breakfast and prepare for the day.

We hopped into the tap tap and headed to Titanyen for a visit to Grace Village and do a few Elder visits. Titanyen is sparsely populated compared to Cite Soleil. Grace Village is such a blessing to this community; to Haiti. As we drove up the hill, it was beautiful, overwhelming and joyful to experience. After meeting some of the staff and a few of the families that live there, we headed to visit the Elders.

During the Elder visits, we had the opportunity to love and pray over them in a way that touched us so deeply. Each of us were able to wash the feet of these beautiful elders (such an example of being the hands & feet of Jesus!) Some even got nails painted! One received a back massage. We wished we could have stayed and pampered them all day. As we were washing feet, painting nails and talking with the Elders, Katie from Grace Village joined us for some worship with her guitar.  This experience filled hearts in a big way.

 We ended the day by visiting Fleri Bakery + Restaurant for some amazing pizza and mango crème brule. Fleri is a part of Grace Village and operated by Haitians. Another example of Grace Village blessing Titanyen!

As we sit and reflect on another amazing and impactful day of serving, we are reminded that God is good. While our intentions are serving the Haitians, they have in turn, served us. We are so thankful for this team, who have embraced the uncomfortable and loved on the beautiful Haitians without hesitation.

~Shane and Stacey

Family Team / Day 4 / 7.18.19

This morning we had the opportunity to visit the Haiti History Museum. The kids on our trip were tasked with remembering at least one thing they learned and share it on the blog:

• The Haitian flag has changed multiple times.  At one time it was red and black, and now is red and blue (Rylee)
• The Haitian flag was desgined from the French flag, but the white (for white people) was removed (Wade)
• The remains of the four most important founding fathers were at the museum (Sawyer)
• There has been one female president in Haiti’s history (Colton)
• Haiti invented BBQ (Smoked food for preservation) (Emma)
• In 1789, 462,000 people were enslaved in Haiti (Genna)
• Captain Morgan had an island off the cost of Haiti.  His ship sank and excessive amounts of alcohol were found there (Jaxson)

The anchor from the sunken Santa Maria was on display at the museum as well. A small circle was taken out of the anchor and made into a medallion and given to Charles Lindberg after he flew across the ocean. 

~Marcia



After our museum visit, we went to CBG which was a Church and a School and there were 140ish little kids sitting in a small L shaped room. The kids were very friendly and accepting. They were first dancing around when all of us came inside.  Then they called attention to everyone in creole which was very fascinating because none of us could understand but the kids all went from being crazy to straightening up quickly. Then everyone was split into two groups. The kids who wanted to go play basketball and soccer went to play on an extremely hot concrete floor. The basketball hoop was a makeshift one and was cemented into the ground and the soccer goals were made out of medal with nets tied on it. The goals were about two feet in height and the same in width. There were only boys who went outside to play sports. The kids who stayed inside were mostly girls and they made necklaces from elastic string and colorful beads. The kids would make beautiful necklace’s and bracelets. We could not communicate with the kids so we mostly did hand jesters to try to elaborate what was trying to be said. Before we left, we were able to feed them some fruit juice and crackers and the kids loved them. Unfortunately, some kids didn’t get any at first because there was an abundant amount of kids. But we were able to get other drinks so no kids got left out.

Speaking of drinks… After we departed CBG, we voyaged towards Superstar, a Haitian grocery store on the mountain. The view we all witnessed was breath taking, and it wasn’t the high-altitude change. There were houses all along the mountain side, practically stacked upon the other. There was mountain side shopping, stands set up along the road showcasing art. At Superstar we shopped for “Limonade,” “Fruit Champagne” and other goods. Looking at the prices I was convinced that my conversion rate was incorrect. The soda pop (591mL) I was about to purchase was 35 Gourds, which is 38 American cents. Low prices speak volume. It’s crazy that prices must be that low to have an effective product in Haiti. After Superstar we headed our way down the mountain back to the guest house. And yes… my ears did pop.

~Wade



Family Team / Day Three / 7.17.19

The day started out like the others with a well prepared breakfast made by our wonderful cooks. 

We then started our day with our first stop at Hope Church, school and clinic in Cite Soleil.  We were overwhelmed by the greeting we received as we arrived.  Neighborhood kids came running and were so excited to see us.     Hope Church and clinic was a remarkable oasis of hope amidst extreme poverty.  On the tour of the church we were told that it had been built on a garbage dump and they had to dig down thru 80 feet of trash for the foundation to get to solid ground.  

 

After the tour we had our first stop with the water truck.    Many of us were unprepared for the controlled chaos that occurred as we provided water to families who live there.   Without this ministry of Healing Haiti delivering water 6 times per week they have no other access to fresh water.    As soon as we got off the Tap Tap (bus) we were inundated with children wanting our attention and love.   Many of the guys would be holding three kids at a time (everyone on our team were holding Haitian kids at one point or another).   In amongst interacting with the kids we would be asked by neighborhood women to help them take their water (buckets, pails, tubs, water containers) back to their homes.    The kids would hang onto you as you walked and as soon as you dropped off the water wanted us to pick them up again.  Back to the water truck to do it all again.  

After 45 minutes we moved to a different location and kept interacting with the kids and delivering water.  

Once that stop was finished, we visited Fleri farm. Fleri means flourish in Creole.   The farm is another project to provide jobs for Haitians and help stimulate the economy.   The 28-acre farm grows 40 different varieties of crops.  These aren’t like farms at home! They would intersperse canopy type trees with ground level type plants. It was so impressive how everything is done by hand – even the irrigation system. Crops include: coconut, citronella grass, mangos, limes, avocado, eggplant, vetiver grass, okra, cherries, sugar cane, plantains, amongst many others.  We learned that a plantain tree only bears one batch of fruit in its life time but only takes about 8 months to grow from 2’ high to 20’. The visit ended with us all sampling fresh coconut water and flesh. It was a refreshing end to the hot afternoon farm visit. 

From there we went to our third and final water truck stop very close to the water. The delivering of water was similar to what we did earlier in the day. After we finished that we were able to walk to the pier to enjoy the coastal winds for pictures and the chance to cool off. We watched a Haitian fishing vessel come to the pier with its sails up and a quick gust of wind threw the boat into the pier with all the fisherman abandoning ship as it crashed into the pier! It was a moment of humor amongst a long tiring day. 

Despite the long tiring day, it was extremely rich in our experience. The kids were so excited to see us.  The kids on our trip remarked it was almost like being a Rock Star being greeted like that. The words “Hey You!” for many of the Haitian kids the only English that they know will ring in our ears for a long time to come!  It was a day we will never forget!

 ~Stephen and Mark