I journaled while I was in Haiti and tried to record details. I am going to do a series of posts from my journal entries. The journal entries will be in italics as I may need to add some extra commentary along the way.
This morning I made coffee with water from the tap without fear of it making me sick....in a kitchen larger than most of the homes I saw this past week...This morning my children will choose what they want for breakfast. We are Blessed. Beyond. Measure.
Day 1 March 14, 2013
Yesterday I emailed a few friends to ask them to pray for specific things regarding the mission trip. I cried this morning when I read their responses.
I had spent about an hour and a half packing and making an inventory list of the medicines and medical supplies our team doctor had provided. Something that struck me right away was some of the medicines are so easily accessible to me. Pepto, Motrin, children's multi vitamins...How many times have I had these readily available in my cabinet and thrown them away because they had passed the expiration date? The people we are going to serve need these basic medications.
One of the things I asked for specific prayer for is to be able to handle what I am going to see. Today my heart dropped as we drove by a tent city. It was partially made from tarps that were a part of the relief effort after the January 2010 earthquake.
The team met at the church this morning at 0'dark thirty (4:30). PK and another team member's friend drove us to the airport. We checked nine bags consisting mostly of supplies. I managed to pack all of my personal items in a small carry on and a backpack. A lady on the team made us several long skirts to wear which we will be able to leave behind when we come home.
A couple of nights before I left, Hannah came into my room with these two bracelets she had made for me. The rabbit on the right has a pink bead in the back that is not visible in the picture. Hannah said this one is a missionary and the pink bead is her backpack. The cat is the doctor and the flowers are the medicine bags. Sh made them for me to wear on my trip. Precious.
Our flights went smoothly. I really don't like to fly, but this time I was more at peace than any other time I have flown. I know that was the Lord's peace surrounding me. Our connecting flight in Miami to Port-au-Prince had a minor problem. The power has to switch from one system to another before take-off. I can't explain it any further than that because I just don't know. After the power had switched, the plane wouldn't start. According to the pilot, a piece of machinery had to be brought in to "start it the old fashion way." That made me a bit nervous, but I assumed the pilot didn't want to crash into the ocean anymore than I did, so I trusted his judgement.
This is our nurse, Connie, on the plane.
We arrived in Port-au-Prince and gathered our carry on bags. We went to the immigration desk and after that chaos ensued.
Finding our checked bags, dealing with the over helpful porters and trying to clear customs was a bit scattered. The porters want to earn that tip and will take your bag from your hand. We were looking for a specific man the Methodist guest house works with. His name is Jackson and he can be identified easily because h is missing an arm. We had team t-shirts with the Methodist logo on them. One of the porters immediately recognized this and kept telling us, "I good friend of Jackson." We tried to tell him we did not want his assistance as we were trying to deal directly with Jackson. All of our bags were tied with a blue ribbon and numbered 1-9. Without directly telling the man how to identify our bags he managed to find them, so as far as we were concerned, his tip was well earned. He escorted us to customs and tried to escort us through customs. There was one official who asked our team leader if we had medicine. When he was told we had medical supplies, he wanted us to have all of our bags searched. There was some fear that our medicines would not pass through. I'm not sure if it was thought we were going to try to sell them or that there is some corruption amongst the ranks. To our right was the door out of the building and to our left was the door that led around to the customs area where they were searching bags. Our team leader quickly had us do some bag shuffling, half of team went out the door to the right and the other half went to the left. It was chaotic. I was with the half that went through customs. This room was very small and just separated by a wall from the outside exit. There were tables set up with about four officials checking bags. We had one bag that had medicines and VBS supplies. That bag was strategically placed on top and was the one we handed to the official searching bags. I prayed over that bag during our short wait. I asked the Lord to help us through so we would have our supplies to help those we were going to serve. The official opened the bag and checked labels on the meds. I thought she would ask to see the contents of the other bags, but she didn't. Thank the Lord. I can't explain the chaos of those few moments in writing. Partially because I was new to that system and wasn't sure what was happening.
Once we got outside, Jackson was waiting for us. He and a couple of his men ushered us to the truck the guest house had sent for us.
That is our truck with the back doors open.
Doctor Rodney, Connie and Bill inside the truck
The drive from the airport in Port-au-Prince to the guest house in Petionville takes about 30 minutes. Many of the roads are very bumpy and we did our fair share of bouncing around. The streets are packed with vehicles and they are all honking and claiming the right of way.
Many of the people do not like to have their pictures taken. After the earthquake, there were tons of people with cameras snapping pictures without permission of some tender and private moments. This is especially a problem in the more populated cities like Port-au-Prince. For respect of the people, I do not have any pictures in Port-au-Prince.
Tomorrow we head for the island of La Ganove at 4:45 a.m. The compound where we are staying tonight is nice.
There are four guest rooms with several sets of bunk beds in each.
There are bathrooms with showers and flushable toilets. In order to conserve water, the toilet etiquette is
Yellow let it mellow
Brown flush it down.
I have already broken that rule out of habit. Toilet paper is not flushed down the toilet. It is placed in the garbage can. The pipes just can't handle it.
I have been warned not to eat food that is not prepared properly and not to drink the water. The staff at the guest house has been trained to prepare our food and we can fill our water bottles from coolers with water that is safe to drink. It is also important to use bottled water when brushing teeth.
The refrigerator is stocked with bottles of Coca Cola. The bottles are a bit of a novelty. Growing up my grandparents always had Double Cola in bottles.
We were given a brief introduction or orientation. We were encouraged to remember this is the home of the Haitian people and words can be hurtful. The team coordinator, Sarah, told us she had gone over to La Gonave a couple of weeks ago. She has been in her position in Haiti for about two months and had not yet been there. She went over with another group and was sitting by the interpreter. A lady from the group said, "Look at all the garbage." The interpreter said to Sarah, "They forget this is my home."
There was garbage everywhere, but what Sarah was trying to say was to be kind and respectful.
Sarah also told us that we would see some very skinny dogs and that the animals may not be treated they way we think they should. This is a different culture and everything is not going to be done the way we think it should. Feeding a dog we think is hungry would be almost insulting if seen by someone who hasn't had a meal and is hungry. Sarah's advice was to look away when we saw something we did't like.
That first day seems like an eternity ago, now that I am home.
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