Blogs from Haiti, Central America Caribbean - page 18

Before the actual trip started, God was working. On Thursday, I received a check for $100 in my name from one of my supporters. I thought that it was strange that the check would come in my name since I had told all of my supporters to make it out to Mission Haiti. The check also came with a note "Use this for the Lord's work." I thought "Ok Lord, time for you to lead me, what do I do with this? Do I deposit it and then send a check to Mission Haiti? What do you want me to do with this?" I deposited the check, that was the first thing that I had to do anyway, whether I sent a check to Mission Haiti or used the $100 for something else. I kept saying ... read more

That's right, I leave in 5 days! I am so excited to get back to the Mission Haiti orphanage and all the people of Ti-Rivier. This trip will be different then the other trips I have been on. The two other times that I have gone, they have been medical trips. I don't have a medical professional so while it was a great experience, I didn't feel like I was being used to my highest potential. This trip, Mission Haiti will be partnering with Youth With A Mission Minneapolis. There is a youth group from Seattle, WA going through YWAM Mpls Mission Adventure summer program. Mission Adventures takes short term trips for about a week to two weeks. We are belssed to be partnering with them to serve the people in Haiti. We will be doing ... read more

Sitting here in my mother's lofty Petion-Ville apartment with an unbeatable view of Port-au-Prince sprawled out in the valley below, I am amazed at how the last month has flown by in a blur of Christmas holidays, beach days, impromptu dinners and work excursions to the countryside. After finishing my last undergrad class in early December I flew down to Haiti with a huge snowstorm on my heels. Since then some of the highlights were spending Christmas day at the beach with my mom and a bevy of lovely old friends, washing down grilled lobster with rum punches and catching up on eachothers lives traveling with a Save the Children team of delegates to the remote mountain village of Baie D''Orange where children were starving to death in the wake of last fall''s four succesional hurricanes. ... read more

We arrived in Port au Prince on the 4th around 12:30. Getting off the plane into the humid heat and walking across the tarmac, several team members were delighted by the temperature which was a really good sign for the rest of the trip. The Haitian band that sits in the entrance to the airport for the passengers played away as we lined up at the passport check point. We all got through without a hitch and into the baggage claim area. I think of this part as "Welcome to Haiti, get ready, it is an intense place" After you have gone through the airport a few times it is not a problem, but having led a few groups through it now I know it can be a bit overwhelming. There are many people there who ... read more

Wow. I had forgotten what a time warp I live in when volunteering for Hands On Disaster Response. I left Bangladesh when the project completed last April and continued traveling throughout India and South East Asia, before the "call to duty" came again in mid Sept to help out the people in Gonaives, Haiti. 4 hurricanes and tropical storms within a few weeks in late August to early September ravaged the city of 300,000, raising the nearby river to above its banks. It flooded the city and brought more mud than I have ever seen in my life to the streets, the shops, the inside of homes, buildings and schools. I can hardly believe I have been in Haiti nearly three weeks now, and at the project, nearly 2.5 weeks. Time has just flown by, though ... read more