August 2010- Haiti

This is the post I know most of you have been waiting for. I should warn you that this will more than likely be the longest post ever. Pictures and videos do not do justice in explaining the experience we had while in Haiti. So here it goes!

(For those of you may be wondering why we chose to go to Haiti let me explain. Back in 2001 when I was volunteering in orphanages in Ecuador I met a woman named Rebecca and her two daughters Leah and Ann. After we came home from Ecuador they had mentioned to me that they were looking into starting a foundation in Haiti to help orphans. They invited me to go with them and of course I was stoked with the idea. I was all in until I felt that I needed to serve a mission. I've always wondered what it may have been like if I would have gone but I definintley do not regret going on my mission. Just this last year I found the three of them on facebook and sure enough they did what they sought out to do. They started a foundation called Foundation for Children in Need. They have been working out of Haiti since 2002. Rebecca has adopted 8 young men from Haiti and has taken in four more. She has been an inspiration to me. Since I missed out on the opportunity to go back then I spoke to Chris about going and helping out. Chris was on board and we started preparing to go. Now back to our adventure.)

                                                                                      

We arrived in Port Au Prince around 9 in the morning. We were given strict instructions on how to navigate through the airport, customs, and getting our bags. We were allowed to bring two 50 pound bags each along with two carry-ons. We each packed in our carry-ons and in one other suitcase so in the three other suitcases we were allowed we took donations and orphanage kits.  We were warned that we would have to find our luggage in a sea of luggage in a big room so we bought florescent green duck tape and put big x's on our suitcases so they would be easy to spot. Sure enough, we were able to find them right away. We met up with a lady named Anita in Miami. She was not so lucky. Her luggage wasn't there. We waited until the last suitcase was gone and her's was no where to be found. We reported the missing luggage and ventured out of the airport to fight the masses. (Just a side note. We returned to the airport the next day to get Anita's luggage back. Here in the states the airport/airline take full responsibility for the lost luggage. In Haiti when your luggage doesn't arrive you have to pay them to get your lost luggage as if it was your fault your luggage didn't arrive.) As we stepped out of the airport there were several Haitian men all dressed the same waiting to help with our luggage in hopes of getting paid. We tried to fight them off and tell them we could handle things ourselves but they litterally just take your luggage from you and say "I help you". We were told if they did help us to pay them $5 which is 200 gourdes (their currency). Rebecca was there waiting for us along with Sarah, her assistant for the summer and the four boys she has taken in since the earthquake, Jimmy, Bony, Michelet, and Patrick. We were greeted with hugs from all of them and loaded all of our luggage in the bed of a truck which was our mode of transportation for the week.

Us in the airport, it was sooooo HOT.

I didn't get good pictures of the house we stayed in. I took a video but can't seem to get it to load. This picture is of where Chris and I slept. We were on the porch with a fan at our heads and at our feet to keep the bugs off during the night. We froze the first night because we were so worried about getting bit we had the fans on full blast. We learned our lesson and wore longer pants and long sleeve shirts and kept the fans on high. I'm not sure how well it worked, I came home looking like I had chicken pox from so many bug bites.

Since Chris and I both have spent time outside of America on more than one occassion we would like to think that we acknowledge how blessed we are to be in America but after the visit to Haiti, we were again reminded of the luxurious lifestyle we live. We take for granted the little things which would be a luxury to some.

Things we are grateful for...

Running warm water

Clean water

Law enforcement

Food to eat

Shelter

A bathroom

Electricity

And the list could goes on.

Driving through the city is like driving through a war zone. The majority of the population are homeless living in "tent cities" and unemployed. People have no clean water, little food, no bathroom facilities and are living on top of rubble. Although their country is in shambles we fell in love with the loving, affectionate, funny, happy, and spirited people of Haiti. The first slideshow are pictures of the city. 

Since we got around sitting in the bed of a truck we often were drenched in monsoon rain storms. The Haitians find it funny to see white people in the back of a truck getting wet. They would point at us and laugh. Our last day there we were coming down off  a mountain and it started pouring. The street literally turned into a river. I was worried we wouldn't make it. Lightning and thunder were literally striking not more than two seconds apart. Luckily we made it off the mountain but not without getting soaked to the bone. These next two pictures are taken right after a couple of the monsoon storms and then a couple pictures of the flooded roads.

The best part of being in Haiti, and the main reason we went, was to be with the kids. In our time there we visited 5 different orphanages and some more than once. Each orphanage was different in its own way. Chris and I fell in love with those kids. Geri, a kid at the first orphanage we visited just attached himself to Chris and everytime we went back Geri always seemed to find Chris before any other kid could latch on. I was more into holding the babies that were content just to be held and the sick kids that just needed some affection. Chris was more in his element playing with the older kids. All the kids adored Chris and would want to touch his hair, his face, wear his hat, his sunglasses, etc. I was too busy taking pictures of Chris and his pure delight in playing with these kids that I never allowed him to take many pictures of me with the kids. We definitely have left a part of our hearts in Haiti and can't wait to return. The second slideshow are pictures of all the kids. I'm sure you'll be able to pick out Geri.


Our second favorite part of being in Haiti was getting to spend time with the other volunteers, Rebecca, Sarah and the boys (Jimmy, Michelet, Bony and Patrick), along with Margaret our cook. The boys would go with us where ever we went and kept an eye out for us to make sure we were safe. These boys have grown up on the streets and therefore have never had any schooling. We had the opportunity a few mornings to teach them geography, math, and reading.

A man is doing a documentary about the street kids in Haiti and these guys are part of it. Here is the link

http://www.innocenceabandoned.com/trailer.html


One of the days the truck was needing new breaks so Rebecca rented a tap tap (a mode of transportation for locals). One day was enough to ride around in "Poetic Lover". Here's some pictures of our luxurious wheels.

Here's the last few random pictures.

We have some cute videos of the kids but Chris has them in Utah so when he gets back I will post them.
We miss you Haiti and can't wait to come back!!

For pictures of the kids and the city you can check them out on my facebook page.