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    

Family Team Day 2 / 7.16.19

Hey friends and family

Today we started off with some delicious breakfast. The first thing we did is we went to Dios

If you are wondering what Dios is it is a special needs orphanage where kids and teens stay! When we got to Dios we started playing with the kids and teens and also the toys that we brought.

~Rylee

After that, we went to Papillon where they sold neckless, earrings, bracelets, etc. We got a tour of the “factory” where everything they made was handmade. Then we finished off our visit with a refreshing smoothie. Then we got into the tap-tap and left.

~Sawyer

The final thing we did today was going to a hospital for sick and dying babies. Our initial thoughts were that we had no clue what to expect. When we first entered half of the babies stood up in their cribs and outreached their arms because of how attention starved they are. One of the first things we did there was help the care takers feed the babies. After that we just held them, played with them and brought them outside. Saying goodbye was the hardest part but what helped us cope with the sadness of leaving them was remembering the smiles we were able to put on their faces.

~Emma and Genna

Family Team Day 1 / Travel Day / 7.15.19

Travel day is always a long day....  For some on our team, their travel day started Sunday evening! Our team is made up of four families. The Lake’s from Portland, The Buller’s from Calgary, the Uetz’s from Wisconsin and the Loween’s from Minnesota.  We all met in Atlanta for our connecting flight to Haiti this morning.  We (and all of our luggage) made it safely to Port-au-Prince this afternoon, and we have gotten settled in at the guesthouse. 

 

We feel honored and blessed to serve with this fantastic team from North America.  It truly is amazing how God can put these teams together.  Strangers from different states and even countries, that by the end of the next 7 days, will be good friends for life.  The kids have already found a common bound.

Thank you to our friends and family for all of your prayers and support.  We look forward to what God has in store. 


Trent and Marcia

Day 2: Teach Haiti, Dios, Papillion

Today’s word of the day was “joy.” The people in Haiti radiate joy that becomes infectious. Our day today started out with a trip to a local school serving children grades K-10. We had the opportunity to interact in the classroom and were very impressed with their French and love for education. We were able to create friendship bracelets together and communicate through the human connection. Something that will be taken away from the experience there today was how view vacation. Most students in the USA look forward to vacation and leaving school, but the students at this school want to continue learning, getting nourished, and being with their friends.

One really inspiring piece of today was the commerce of Haiti. Having dinner out and trying new food was something that was surprising. Lunch was a smoothie from Papillion, and it tasted delightful. Our last stop today was Dios, an orphanage for special needs children. We sang songs with the children and danced with them. After our visit, the team was touched by the connection we made through our short time there.

Going back to the word of the day, joy. The Haitian people are filled with true joy and that is something we can take away when we leave. Are we living our life with joy regardless if we are having a good day or bad day? Joyous people don’t get bogged down with the challenges of daily life, but appreciate the good in every day.

Sunday Funday Mar 3

Sunday Funday!

First, please accept our deepest thanks for all of your prayers this week.  Your prayers were felt in the evidence of the work that we were able to complete this week, our safety, and our team cohesiveness.  We were able to interact with every elder in Healing Haiti's program, both in Titanyen as well as the elders new to the program in Cite Soleil.  That's 48 elders in total that received assessments from nursing, therapies and social work!

After the week of hard work (which included not only seeing the elders and completing the assessments, but also "care conferences" each evening until well after dark) we had a day of rest.  Our day started as normal with breakfast together, then we loaded up the tap-tap and left "on Haitian time" and arrived in Titanyen just in time to be 20 minutes late for church!  The worship service was in full swing when we arrived, and the band was the same musicians that blessed our elders on Wednesday at Fleri.  They had first-time attenders stand up to be welcomed, and of course they had to switch to English so that we were even able to know that they were speaking to us :) 

From church, we continued to travel north to Wahoo Bay Resort, where we enjoyed the beach, seafood, frozen fruit smoothies and RELAXATION!  It was a beautiful day and a good time was had by all.

We experienced the evidence of God's hand on our week---it was all His. For those that returned from last year it was so rewarding to see the prayers we prayed come to fruition. We had prayed for more efficiency in assessments and we found a way.  We were able to see with our own eyes some of the home modifications we recommended last year.  We prayed for more elders in the program and an expansion to Cite Soleil and both became a reality!

Thanks so much for joining us in supporting the elders in this program through prayers whether this week, last year, or time beyond that. Please  pray for needs to be met for these wonderful people.  If you would like to be a part of sponsoring any of the new elders, go to www.healinghaiti.org to learn more.

Until next year . . . Going Deeper Elder Care Team <3


                                            See your late night bloggers below LOL

Saturday- Cite Soleil in Hope Church! March 2nd

Saturday - Day 2 of Cite Soleil Elders

Today, we did what we set out to do!  This was the first time an event like this had been attempted in Cite Soleil and it exceeded our guarded expectations.  Our plan for the day was to establish a clinic-like setting in Hope Church.  We set up different stations for elders to be assessed by nurses, therapists, and social workers.  There was also a station that offered hand/foot washing and massage.  Each elder was greeted at  the door as they arrived, then were walked to one of the stations, where they were met by our team members as well as one of our interpreters. When no stations were available, they were welcome to sit and listen and participate in worship songs and each were offered water, juice, and crackers.  All in all, we completed assessments on 14 of the elders in Cite Soleil! 
After the assessments were completed, we all joined with the elders for a brief session of worship songs and prayer over the elders, the pastors, and Hope Church.

Then it was back to the guest house for us.  It was bitter-sweet to unload the tap-tap, knowing that our time serving in Haiti was completed.  BUT!  Our hearts were grateful that we had completed the tasks that we had come here to do.

So . . . it was off to Pappillion Marketplace for some SERIOUS shopping, smoothies and snacks!  We definitely found a way to stimulate the Haitian economy :) 

We will be headed back to Titanyen tomorrow morning to attend Grace Church, then will likely find a way to a beach for a little bit of R & R! 

Friday- Cite Soleil March 1

Day 4-Cite Soleil

We took our first trip to Cite Soleil today.  If you don't know anything about Cite Soleil, it is the poorest slum in the western hemisphere, and has been for decades.  In a typical Healing Haiti trip, the purpose of going to Cite Soleil is to deliver water to 3 different neighborhoods in a day.  During that time, you get a glimpse of the daily life of what it must be like to live there--to have to wait for your clean water to arrive, then hope that you're  fortunate enough to get water before the truck runs out.  Hopefully, you will have someone to help you transport your water or the ability to carry it yourself.  The children are always look forward to the visits, with people to play with, hold them, and generally just give them love.

We did participate in one water truck stop, but afterward, we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go deeper into Cite Soleil.  We visited the home 12 different elders homes, in 2 separate teams.  We accompanied the pastors of Hope Church as they delivered meals to the elders in their homes.  During these brief visits, we were able to do a quick assessment of the needs in their homes (doors, roofs, bedding, etc.), as well pray over the elders.  We saw doors that were tied on with rags instead of hinges, newspaper pages lining the walls to help insulate, and rooms that would flood with rain.  We were able to get our 2 teams in/out of these homes rather quickly.  Each elder will be assessed fully by the nurses, PT, OT, social workers Saturday in more of a "clinic" setting at Hope Church, but this allowed us to get a visual on their homes prior to these assessments.  Our two pre-med graduates were able to observe the visits in Hope Clinic.

Prior to leaving Cite Soleil, we were able to get a tour and explanation of the two pods that have been added to Hope School.  One of these pods is the most up-to-date technology available anywhere wouldwide including iPads and apps that are top-rated for education.  This will provide the most advanced technological education available, and will allow children from Cite Soleil to compete internationally.  The second pod is a sewing pod, where people are taught sewing skills to be able to secure jobs in Haiti.  These two opportunities will provide job training and education to advance these Haitians out of poverty and be able to compete in any job market.

Knowing the history of the ground that Hope Church is built upon makes this even more remarkable.  Hope Church was built on a garbage dump, where they had to dig down 80 feet to even lay the footers for the building.  The first step was the opening of the church 3 years ago.  Then began the school, now the clinic and now here we are with pods focusing on job creation. And even more remarkable is that Cite Soleil has a huge stigma attached. They are judged for even just being born there. This is the reason this church, school, clinic, and these life-changing pods are planted in Cite Soleil. It is to change the legacy of Cite Soleil, one Haitian at a time.

After a brief break and dinner, we spent the rest of our evening (until most were retiring to bed) in prep for Saturday's elder assessments.

As a happy aside, we were able to celebrate the birthday of one of our 2 Jakes.  Jake Colombo was surprised with a cake, which we ALL thoroughly enjoyed!  Happy Birthday, Jake!