I Love Haiti

Bonjou!

Today marks the one-year anniversary of my departure to one of the world's poorest countries: Haiti. Man that place will forever leave a mark in your heart. That place changes you; I mean it.

The first thing that comes to mind is the smell. Haiti has this distinct smell like exhaust mixed with meat and dirt. If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. When my team first arrived, there was a huge culture shock. People scattered everywhere; cars going here and there. Everything was so fast-paced. After we got our bags and headed out to our bus, we were approached by countless people asking for money. I had never experienced anything like this in my entire life. It got worse as we headed to the seminary that we would stay at. Whenever our bus stopped, children recognized us as Americans and banged on our windows asking for "just one dollar." It was all too much for me; I completely lost it and I wept. I wanted so badly to help each and every person that I saw, but I didn't have enough money to give to everybody. The brokenness and poverty in that country is so evident, but the country was all just so beautiful.

My team painted at a church for the week, and it was so exhausting yet so rewarding. The commute to the work site took nearly an hour each day. We rode in a cage truck, which had its ups and downs. It was quite uncomfortable, but it was all a part of the experience. We would see cities and mountains along the way. I got a lot of pictures in Haiti, but they can't quite capture its beauty like experiencing it did.

 At our work site, there were children and adults from the church that were so willing to help us. They loved seeing that their church was being brought to life, and they wanted to help in whatever way they could. One child that left a mark on my heart, though, was a little boy named Junior. He had so much joy at just being alive and was such a happy and sweet spirit. He was the crowd favorite of the week; he was so funny! We loved having him around and he definitely is greatly missed by our group.

I experienced a few firsts in Haiti: I got to shower in the rain! The porch area of the house that we stayed in had tile floors, so it was perfect! Plus the showers were all taken and we were pretty smelly so a few of us got our bathing suits on and showered outside. It really was a pretty awesome shower. I also drank coconut milk straight from a coconut! There were some coconut trees behind the church we worked at, so a few people from our group took some back to the house and we all took turns drinking from the coconut. It was a little sour, but needless to say, it was pretty cool.

And then there were the bathrooms. Or lack thereof, really. We had running water in the house that we stayed at, but the church we worked at was a different story. We had been told what would happen, but I wasn't quite prepared for what I saw...there were two wooden enclosures with a giant blue tarp covering the area. In each enclosure was a cement hole. We had to stand up above it and...yeah. We all had our own toilet paper and hand sanitizer, but it was so incredibly eye-opening. The joy of having an amenity as simple as a toilet can't even be shared by everybody.

We went to church at the site that we worked at on Sunday, and there were these four little girls that all had on pretty white dresses. They clearly were wearing the nicest things they had to go to church in. And they felt beautiful-you could just tell! And then I sit here and look at my closet and constantly think I need more. The people of Haiti have proved to me that quite honestly, I really don't. I have MORE than enough.We all do. There is something that can be learned about Haiti, but you have to experience it. It was such an incredible, eye-opening trip, and I can't wait to go back.

~Christy