America The Comfortable

It feels so good to be back home on American soil! My recent  nine day trip to Haiti proved itself to be difficult in a number of ways  for me. I have never been to a third world country besides my four  visits to Mexico since I was a high school student. I am not quite sure  how to process my thoughts as I write. So much happened and I don't want  to bore you will all the petty details.

Our first day consisted of flying to Miami and then to Port Au Prince. Getting my first glance at a third world country from the air threw my emotions into a whirlwind of uncertainties. I had a small picture of what Haiti would look like based upon my husbands last visit over a year ago. Although his last visit was 9 months before the earthquake so this was going to be a new experience for him as well. I was warned of Haitian men crowding around us once we landed and had our bags, not asking if we needed help, but basically grabbing our bags out of our hands so they could get a few bucks out of us. Luckily all I had was a back pack, but my poor husband had two duffel bags that weighed 50lbs each. They were all over him like flies on cow poop! He literally had to elbow a guy off of him and firmly said, "No Merci" a bunch of times. They apparently don't know what NO THANKS means in their own language.

We were happily greeted by a pastor friend of Tina's (missionary we were meeting to work for), who thankfully spoke a little bit of English. I was relieved to have him with us. I felt way out of my comfort zone and we had not even left the airport yet! I was most worried about our crazy and long drive through Port Au Prince and then through the mountains to get to Jacmel where Tina lives. It is really only about a 60 mile drive which typically takes about 2.5-3 hours to get too. This trip took us 4.5 hours and let me tell ya my butt was ready to get off that hard seated mini bus. Our trip through the city was quieter than expected, not the city itself, but the five of us traveling in the van. We sat in awe of the sights, rubble, crowds of people, millions of tarp tents(due to the earthquake), and the nasty, stinky blanket of garbage that covered the streets.

I was already wishing I had never left the ground at the Miami Airport. I was nervous, I felt vulnerable, unsure I would even make it home alive(a little extreme I know), or that this trip would even prove itself to be worthwhile seeing all the damage the country has had to deal with for the last year. It was so hard to feel even a little hope for Haiti. So little progress has been made and before the earthquake even happened they were already a country in a heap of poverty and spiritual warfare. Now people are fighting to survive even more!

During our visit I was able to experience some of the worst driving roads ever as well as a couple of crazy markets where people were selling all kinds of food, clothes, shoes etc. I was also flashed by an old man...YUCK! Tina also took us into one of the tent cities that were basically the size of a soccer field. It was full of tarp tents that had 8 families in each tent. These were not big tents by any means. I chose not to take pictures here because I felt like I was invading these people's lives. My friend and I were immediately greeted by a little 5 years old who held our hands throughout our tour through the tents and when I asked what her name was all she said was, "I want to go home with you!" It broke my heart to hear that since she was only wearing a shirt and was covered in dirt. She was a beautiful little girl!

The biggest and scariest event of our trip happened within the first 24 hours of being there. We borrowed Tina's truck to run an errand and on our way back had a wreck with a two guys on a moped. We had been making a left turn and they came up on our left side and basically T-boned us. The passenger feel off and got up right away, and the driver was down and quickly on his way to hopping up, but when they saw we were white he promptly laid back down and acted as though he was really hurt with the hopes of getting more money out of us. Within less than a minute the truck was surrounded by 50 Haitians, screaming back and forth at each other and at us. We later found out that they were yelling back and forth at each other because half of them recognized the truck to be Tina's truck and to leave us alone because we were friends of Tina's, while the other half were trying to keep the driver on the ground, pretending to be hurt and didn't care if we were friends of Tina's. It was a little terrifying since the four of us in the truck were all white, didn't speak Creole, and all I could think about was, "are these people going to start beating us up?" I seriously felt like we were in one of those movies you watch where the white men get beat up to death while visiting another country. My friend Aggie and I sat in the back seat of the truck, with the windows rolled up and the doors locked praying that Tina would show up soon and get us out of that mess! Within 30 min of Tina showing up and making a few calls to the police the situation was taken care of. It ended up being the moped driver's fault but there was still a court visit that took place as well as helping him cover part of the damage to his moped.

Now that I am home I look at the things I have with much more gratitude. Lots of times I wished we had a little bit bigger of a home with more storage space and play area for us to have more kids. After getting a glance at the concrete15x15 shacks that a family of 4-8 Haitians has to live in with no running water or electricity I think I am doing rather well in my double wide trailer with a new attached garage, clean running water and electricity. I am even more thankful for my old stained carpet and the poor insulation which causes a draft that keeps our heater running all day. Life is very easy for us in America, but you don't really understand that until you see how bad it could be with your own eyes. I knew it was bad in Haiti, just from what I was told from others that had visited before. I never knew the greatness of how bad until I got to experience it for myself.

I’m planning to go back to Haiti when our youngest child is a couple of years old. I wasn't able to do much by way of helping out on projects since I was over 30 weeks pregnant so it would be nice to get the chance to get my hands dirty and feel like I contributed to the cause. So much more needs to be done and the only thing that puts Tina's many life saving projects on hold is "MONEY." That is all! MONEY!

Nothing more profound comes to my mind about our trip at this point. I hope my thoughts aren't so jumbled you are able to get a small picture about my experience. It certainly was not a place I really want to go back too, but it is a beautiful culture of people who were very excepting of us and Tina will always need people to come help her in her ministry. It is my one connection to a place where I can be involved in doing what God commanded us, which is to look out for and care for the widows, orphans, and the poor.